From prevention to reconnection: working towards a multi-agency system that keeps more families together

This report examines how England’s children’s services system can better prevent more children from entering care, and support more to return to their families after a period of time in care. Although only a small proportion of children are cared for by local authorities, numbers of children in care have risen significantly in recent years, placing pressure on local authority finances and limiting investment in early intervention.

Analysis of data and over 100 case reviews highlights opportunities for local authorities and their partners to provide earlier, more coordinated support. Practitioners found that many families could have received better help before entry to care, and some children might have avoided entering care altogether. There is also potential to improve outcomes after entry to care, including supporting more children to safely exit care earlier.

The report identifies five system shifts that can help to improve outcomes in this way: better addressing parental needs; improving engagement and trust with families; more fully integrating schools into support systems; using joined-up data for earlier intervention; and strengthening family reconnection after a child has entered care. Overall, it calls for coordinated, system-wide reform focused on prevention, earlier intervention, and stronger multi-agency working.

Key financial and service improvement findings:

• Implementation of the changes proposed could enable more than 6,000 additional parents each year to receive specialist support. 
• These changes could prevent approximately 2,250 children from entering care annually, a reduction of 14.5%. 
• The changes proposed could deliver cumulative financial benefits of £4.7bn by 2035 through avoided care placement costs.
• Projections for the report predict the number of children in care in county areas will grow  to 29,400 by 2035.
• Without implementation of the changes proposed, annual spending on care placements is projected to rise to £4.8bn by 2035.

Key recommendations:

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• More fully integrate schools into support systems: move schools from referral agents to active partners in multi-agency family support.
• Strengthen multi-agency working: better align services across local authorities, health, schools, and voluntary sector partners to deliver integrated family support.
• ‍Invest in preventative services: protect and extend funding for early intervention, including continuation of the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant (now part of the Children, Families, and Youth Grant) to at least 2032/33. ‍
• Improve data sharing and infrastructure: develop more joined-up data systems and national frameworks for ethical use of data and AI to identify families earlier. ‍
• Focus more on parental support: ensure better access to adult services (mental health, domestic abuse, substance misuse) through aligned commissioning and thresholds.
• Build trust and engagement with families: improve practitioner skills in gaining consent and expand approaches such as Family Group Decision Making.

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