‘Clear and credible concerns' have been raised by experts that some council children's services will struggle to meet a government deadline to overhaul family support.
Fears have been raised that a March 2027 deadline to bring in Family First Programme (FFP) reforms comes just two months before councils undergoing local government reorganisation (LGR) are due to hold elections to shadow authorities.
Emma Ockelford, chief executive of Outcomes Matter Consulting, which works with children's services, warned: ‘The timeline collision is stark.'
She is further concerned that children's services attention will also be focused on government reforms to special educational needs and disability support.
Inner Circle Consulting director Olly Swann warned there were ‘clear and credible concerns that at least some councils may struggle to meet' the FFP deadline to provide support such as multidisciplinary family help services, multi-agency child protection and family group decision making.
He continued: ‘Trying to run major children's services reform alongside whole-system LGR is a high-risk overlap. The concern isn't just coming from the perspective of a lot is happening, it's that both programmes depend on the same leadership capacity, workforce stability, partnerships, and data systems. When those are all in flux at once, the risk compounds rather than just adds up.'
Better Futures Consulting director John Pearce, who is a former Association of Directors of Children's Services president, said he was concerned there was ‘not the capacity in the system to cope' with the scale of change around FFP and LGR ‘at a time of severe financial and workforce challenges'.
Co-chair of the children and families' group at the British Association of Social Workers, Rick Hood, said its members were raising ‘important practice issues' around the ‘pace and sequencing' of FFP reform.
He said he was concerned that the March 2027 deadline ‘risks outstripping the evidence base' as this was proceeding ahead of a full evaluation of FFP pathfinder areas.
