Hounslow Council is doubling down on early prevention strategies within its child services, aiming to provide better support to families and prevent problems from escalating into situations requiring serious intervention. This approach aligns with the government's focus on early intervention.

The Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel met on Tuesday, 23 September 2025, to discuss this renewed focus, which is driven by the government's emphasis on early prevention, according to the Executive Director of Children's and Adults Services (EDC). The Agenda frontsheet outlines the topics discussed at the meeting.

The EDC highlighted the Families First Partnership (FFP) as a key initiative emerging from this governmental focus, aiming to support families through multi-agency collaboration and support for people of all ages. While the specific measurable outcomes of the FFP were not detailed, the core objective is to prevent issues from escalating into serious interventions.

From a Department for Education perspective, the desire is to focus to early prevention and supporting families to avoid escalation into serious interventions,

he said.

The EDC also acknowledged a potential challenge: managing expectations regarding childcare costs. He noted that Hounslow Council already engages in early interventions, which creates a risk that families may expect childcare costs to decrease as a result. The meeting information does not specify how the council will address this challenge.

One of the key elements discussed was the introduction of new multi-agency child protection teams, which will include representatives from the police and NHS, in addition to local authority child protection teams. However, concerns were raised regarding communication between government departments. Specifically, the Department for Education, the Home Office, and the Department of Health and Social Care have not communicated the necessity of their staff's involvement in these teams to other organisations. The meeting information does not specify what steps are being taken to address this lack of communication.

Councillor asked for links to the papers and reports which have been mentioned. Supporting officer to upload these to the Panel Teams channel.