Politics: Providing the best service that our funding will allow

Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member for children, education and families

We have now held three public meetings to explain and gather views on our proposals for the future of children’s services.

We have heard the strength of feeling about the difficulties we face in providing services with less money.

Many concerns have been raised about the proposed withdrawal of funding from services such as open access stay and play sessions at children’s centres and youth sessions at early intervention hubs, and how these might be provided in future.

We’ve heard worries about the location and number of children and family centres at the heart of our proposed 0-19 service, and the ability of outreach workers to cover the whole county.

Above all, much has been said about the role of children’s centres in identifying and helping families with young children overcome problems before they become more serious – potentially preventing the need for greater intervention down the line.

We are looking carefully at how we can strengthen our proposals, but I want to reassure people that whatever the future holds, the council remains committed to preventative work.

Each of the options would focus resources on children at risk of abuse and neglect.

While we believe that is the right approach given our funding constraints, each option also proposes continued support for children and families to identify problems at an early stage.

A new service would work with professionals in schools, health services and early years providers to identify emerging concerns over children’s safety.

Experienced staff would advise and support these professionals to keep children safe and ensure families get the right help.

Where specialist support is required the appropriate referrals would be made in the normal way.

Direct preventative work would continue – both individually and in groups – with some families requiring support to stop problems increasing to a point where children need the formal support of a social worker.

Our proposed family support service would work not only with children on child protection plans but those families needing help at an earlier stage.

Sessions run from the family centres would include domestic abuse support and parenting programmes.

We would also hope to continue working alongside health professionals, who would offer appointments and group support from those centres.

Each option would provide for preventative and targeted work, though outreach would be strongest under option one, which maximises the number of family centres (eight) and the resources at their disposal.

The second option would also provide eight centres but would fund some open access sessions by reducing outreach work.

The third option would provide six centres, with the released funding made available to local and community groups to run open access sessions.

It is clear from the passionate views we have heard that there is huge appetite to see open access services continue. We share that wish and are already working with communities to look at how this might be achieved without council funding, and I would urge people to engage with the process.

The consultation remains open and anyone who has yet to contribute – even if opposed in principle to the proposals – should look at the different options and consider the impacts.

We need your help to provide the best possible service our funding will allow.