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Principles met

  • Innovation

    We will embrace innovation in how we work with local communities to drive positive change.

  • Learning

    We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network.

Lewisham was selected in 2024 to join wave 2 of the national Families First for Children programme as a Pathfinder local authority. This has put Lewisham at the forefront of innovation and reform implementation in children’s social care to improve outcomes for children. One key area of the reforms is the establishment of Multi-Agency Child Protection teams, and this case study illustrates how these teams are having a positive impact on child protection practice with children and families in Lewisham.

Background

Two girls aged 3 and 10 live with their mother, Ms B. They have different fathers, both of whom have reportedly been violent to Ms B. The father of the 3-year-old is in prison, and the father of the 10-year-old sees her regularly.

These two children were referred to the Families First Contact Point due to concerns about the home conditions in which the children lived with Ms B. Pictures and videos were sent by the father of the 10-year-old, showing extreme levels of hoarding, and all the rooms in the home were uninhabitable. The kitchen and bathroom were very unsanitary and unhygienic.  There was no safe or clean space for the children to sleep, eat or bathe. The conditions were so poor that it was clear that the children could not stay a further night in the home. It was recognised that if Ms B. was not open to working with support to address the concerns, then the police may be required to take action to protect the children.

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