Falkirk Council’s Children’s Service has devised a five-year strategy that aims to deliver better outcomes for children and young people on the edges of care or care experienced.

Our vision

Strong families, safe children, bright futures.

Our priorities

• Early help that is locally delivered: providing the right help in the right place at the right time.
• The best start in life for all children: children of all ages will thrive through loving and consistent living arrangements supported by access to early learning and childcare.
• Family First: recognising the impact of adult behaviours and the importance of tackling inequality, we will promote the right to family life; valuing relationships with siblings, the wider family and community.
• Outstanding services for children: Our work will be of the highest quality and developed alongside children and families to meet their needs and wants.
• Effective transitions into adulthood: our children will become valuable members of our communities with fair and equal access to housing, employment and lifelong learning.

Our ambitions

• Safely reduce the number of children looked after away from home.
• All our children, including the most vulnerable, will achieve in learning, life and work.
• Families will be central to decision making and planning for their children.

Our approach

• Support families to care safely for their children at home or within the wider family network.
• Identify risk and provide support as early as possible to minimise any child's exposure to harm.
• Identify local care placements where children can’t remain safely within their own family.
• Support children, young people and families for as long as needed.
• Search for and build on the strengths of families and allow them to flourish.
• Children attend local schools.
• Provide our workforce with the time and tools to make and sustain trusted relationships with families.
• Nurture children's development with increased early learning and childcare provision.
• Work in a timely, innovative and solution focused manner to prevent relationship breakdown within families.
• Our vision, strategy and plans will be consistent with our partners and the wider council.
• Target services to reduce attainment gaps and enable our children and young people to realise their potential through and beyond school.
• Know what we have done and how it has made a difference.
• Our children will be included and engaged in all aspects of life and their wider community.

Phase 1 – Closer to Home projects

• Family Support Services
• Foster Carer Recruitment
• Supported Accommodation - Options for care leavers
• Procuring for the Future
• Family First Approach
• Permanence and Care Excellence (PACE)
• Best Practice in Child Protection Systems

Children’s Services – related projects

• Inclusion Review: working with families and partners to meet the changing needs of children and young people in Falkirk schools.
• Early Learning and Childcare Expansion: opportunities provided by early learning and childcare expansion will be fully maximised to engage with families of very young children.
• Social Work Information System (SWIS) Replacement: the replacement Social Work Information System will free staff to spend more of their time with families who need their help. It will allow us to use local and national data to evidence interventions, improve our services and engage with our communities as well as better understand the experiences of service users and actively consult with them to develop and improve.