In September 2021, Shropshire Council initiated work to review partnership working with Early Help and Children’s Social Care. It was recognised that the pandemic and pressures on public sector resources put considerable strain on the workforce across all sectors. Organisations had worked to change the way they deliver services and internal pandemic responses required focused attention. 

Post-pandemic, Shropshire Council is keen to improve its relationship with partners recognising that partnership working is essential to overcoming on-going challenges exacerbated as a result of the socio-economic impact of the pandemic. The ambition is to ensure partnership working aligns the ambitions of partners, makes best use of time and resources and achieves against shared aims and objectives. Mutual support, sharing of information, ideas and best practice can ensure the needs of children, young people and families continue to be met.

The partnership survey highlighted the high value placed on partnership working and how keen those who participated were to help and play their part in developing partnership approaches. The contributions provided were well considered and designed to be constructive in nature. A wide range of partners were represented within the research with 94 survey respondents and 67 focus group participants. More than 15 different agencies and organisations took part. 97% believe partnership working is important or very important.

The benefits of partnership working for children and families were really well described and included: early intervention, prevention of harm, identification of support, improving outcomes, coordinated approaches, information sharing and avoidance of duplication or gaps. Overall, local partnership working is seen to be effective but there are more concerns about effectiveness now compared to pre-pandemic.

More effective elements of partnership working are considered to be training and development, information sharing and Early Help family meetings. In addition to training, other things that work well include Locality Development Officer support, Partnership Support, Parenting offer, Young Carer support and Early Help communications bulletins.

Barriers mentioned include the EHM system, high thresholds, staff pressures and limited time, and the impact of the pandemic. Things that are seen as not working as well include understanding of thresholds, consistency of advice and support, step down process and information, delays between assessment/referral and the allocation of a worker, obtaining consent from families, demands placed on schools and increasing levels of need and complexity.

A wide range of ideas and suggestions were provided within both the survey and focus group sessions. These ranged from ideas for more information, training and resources, to suggestions for staffing and improving the availability of, and access to, specialist support. Some ideas may be easier to take forward than others, but some joint work can now take place to consider resources and priorities for action.

Work has already begun to consider the feedback provided in the survey and some actions already implemented, these include;

• Reviewed all early help training to support partners to understanding the threshold matrix
• Feeding back to partners at Early Help locality meetings
• Securing a slot on all head teachers’ briefing sessions in the autumn term
• Ongoing support for partners from Locality Development Officers and Partner Support Officers
• Facilitating a review of EHM to include partner consultation

In the coming months the Early Help team will be in contact with partners who took part in the survey to come together to continue the discussion and implement change to improve and build on already established relationships which ultimately will be of benefit to Shropshire’s children and families. It is clear from the research that the commitment to partnership working within Shropshire is strong. Despite the many challenges and pressures highlighted through the research the comments express an unwavering commitment to work together.

Many thanks to all those who took the time to participate in this research.