Gloucestershire County Council has secured £1.5 million government funding to transform support for vulnerable young people and their families.
The county council has been working with NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, medicine 2gether NHS Foundation Trust, search Prospects and Families First to explore new ways of working together – combining social care, cialis youth justice and mental health services for the benefit of vulnerable young people and their parents.
The additional Department for Education Innovation funding will help the county council and its partners develop this thinking and trial a new way of working in Gloucestershire, with a particular focus on changing the way we work with vulnerable young people aged 11 and over who are in need of protection or are in or on the edge of going into care.
The aim is to create teams of professionals including social workers, youth support, youth offending workers and mental health workers, so that families get the specialist support they need.
It is estimated that around 2300 young people and their families could benefit from the service.
Cllr Paul McLain, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “We are pleased that we have been awarded this funding from the Department for Education. It will help pave the way for closer joined up working, ensuring that vulnerable families get the right support at the right time.
“Every family and every child is different and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. We need to keep being radical in our thinking and develop our wide variety of expertise. This will help us change the lives of some of the most vulnerable young people and their families in the county.”
The government’s Innovation Programme aims to kick start the most promising proposals for new ways of providing children’s social care, such as supporting young people in care and taking their first steps into adulthood.