The Children, Families and Skills Scrutiny Committee of Lancashire County Council met on Wednesday, 3 December 2025, to discuss significant updates on the Principal Social Worker's Annual Report and the Families First Programme. Key decisions included noting the progress made in social worker recruitment and retention, and the phased implementation plan for the Families First initiative, which aims to transform children's social care.

Principal Social Worker's Annual Report

The committee received a comprehensive annual report from Tonya Harrison, the Principal Social Worker for Children's Services, detailing significant achievements in workforce strategy over the past year. The report highlighted a substantial reduction in social worker vacancies, with the vacancy rate falling from 29% to 4.3%, significantly below national averages. This success has been attributed to sophisticated recruitment strategies, including targeted campaigns and international recruitment, as well as a leading social work apprenticeship programme.

A key success highlighted was the reduction in the reliance on agency social workers, leading to savings of over £3 million. The report detailed how Lancashire County Council had proactively reduced agency fees ahead of Department for Education (DfE) regulations, resulting in significant weekly savings. Furthermore, staff retention has seen marked improvement, with 86% of newly qualified social workers remaining with the council beyond two years. The report also detailed investments in training and development for managers and practitioners, with workforce surveys indicating high levels of job satisfaction and a feeling of being supported.

Councillor Simon Evans, Cabinet Member for Children and Families, commended the report, describing the achievements as nothing short of miraculous and a vital foundation for future work with children and families. Councillor Prof. Michael Lavalette echoed these sentiments, noting that the headline figures were astonishingly good and out of sync with national trends.

Discussions also touched upon the use of agency workers, with assurances that they are primarily used for specialist areas or to cover essential posts, rather than for less complex work. The student recruitment pathways were also discussed, with the council working collaboratively with universities to train more students than vacancies, benefiting other local authorities. The report also addressed the integrated family safeguarding model, which aims to provide a whole-family approach by including adult workers within multidisciplinary teams.

Families First Programme

Louise Anderson, Director of Children's Social Care, presented the Families First Programme, a national initiative funded by the DfE to transform children's social care. The programme aims to promote early, relationship-based help through integrated services, focusing on three core components: Family Help, Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs), and Family Group Decision-Making (FGDM). Lancashire has received over £5 million to implement this programme, which aligns with the government's Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive policy and the Independent Review of Children's Social Care.

The phased implementation plan was outlined, with Phase 1 focusing on Foundations and Early Delivery (2025-2026), Phase 2 on Expansion and Embedding (2026-2027), and Phase 3 on Sustainability and System Reform (2027 onwards). Immediate actions include establishing a project team, launching early adopter sites for FGDM, and recruiting resources to enable social work supervision within intensive family support teams. The programme aims to reduce fragmentation in services, improve outcomes for children, and ensure families receive the right support at the right time.

Key benefits anticipated include strengthened family stability and engagement through enhanced FGDM, more effective multi-agency coordination, and improved workforce skills and knowledge. The programme will also focus on extending access to multidisciplinary teams, integrating targeted early help, and implementing a single case management system.

Discussions highlighted the importance of co-designing the approach with children, parents, health, the voluntary sector, and the police. The potential impact of Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) was also considered, with a recommendation to bring back a report on how the project will be affected by LGR. Concerns were raised about the capacity constraints and financial sustainability of partner organisations, particularly the Integrated Care Board, which could impact inter-agency coordination.

Children, Families and Skills Work Programme 2025/26

The committee received the work programme for 2025/26, which outlines the topics to be discussed in future meetings. Key items for the next meeting on 14 January 2026 include reports on the Child and Youth Justice Service and the Education Strategy Annual Report and Attainment Data. The committee discussed the importance of including updates on the Families First Programme and a specific focus on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) within the work programme.

The committee agreed to note the work programme and consider the key lines of inquiry for upcoming items. A recommendation was made to ensure that the impact of LGR on the Families First Programme is specifically addressed in future discussions.