Family Support Programme to End

Published on: 18 Nov, 2024
Updated on: 20 Nov, 2024

By Emily Dalton

local democracy reporter

Residents and councillors fears that vulnerable families could fall between the gap as a scheme supporting vulnerable families faces closure next year.

The Family Support Programme (FSP) is a scheme which helps vulnerable households with health, social, economic issues which impact their daily lives. FSP caseworkers can help with budgeting, preparing CVs or job interviews, applying for benefits, food or fuel vouchers, making appointments or parenting support.

But Surrey County Council told council leaders in October that the FSP would have to close by March 2025 as government funding could no longer be guaranteed. The Department for Education (DfE) has given £1.4 million annually to SCC for the Supporting Families Programme 2022 – 2025. However, any additional funding remains uncertain.

“It is infuriating to me as these are the most vulnerable people of society that need support,” said one woman, who wished to remain anonymous. “Nothing has been identified to take its place.”

The woman said the FSP was “invaluable” for a family she knew, and that they would be “an absolute mess” without it. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, she explained that one of the parents of the family was neurodivergent and had learning difficulties so finding work was often difficult.

She said the family had an “amazing caseworker” which meant someone could “fight their corner” when life gets hard and take the pressure off the friends and family as a whole. The woman said she was worried whether support would “suddenly stop”, if families would have to reapply for support or they would get transferred over to another team.

Councillors have accused Surrey County Council of going “under the radar” in silently ending the scheme which only really affects the vulnerable service users. “It’s a false economy to close the service,” said Cllr Richard Wilson of Windlesham. He argued that ending FSP would just put more strain on the county council and public services in the long run, for instance putting pressure on the benefit system if people cannot get jobs.

“I felt a compelling need to intervene,” said Sara Riddick, who started a Change.org petition appealing to SCC to stop closure of Surrey’s FSP. Personally connected to vulnerable Surrey families who rely on the scheme, Mrs Riddick said FSP is an “essential lifeline” and invaluable to those “shielding from dire circumstances”.

She said: “This proposition is being raised without consultation and no alternative solutions being offered, leaving a gaping void in the lives of countless struggling families.”

SCC have said the FSP is just one of a number of services that provides targeted early help to families in Surrey and they will still be able to access a wide range of other services from April 2025. Some of these include Family Centres that provide targeted early help to whole families including children of any age, and the Adolescent Service that provides targeted early help for young people and their wider families.

But concerns have been raised that alternative support has not been communicated with families using the FSP. Anxiety over whether the support would immediately stop, no transferring of support case notes, or even be forced to go to the back of the line and reapply for help – does not seem to have been communicated with families. At the time of writing, families can still apply for the scheme, and SCC has not publicised if the support will end by March 31, 2025.

Cllr Shaun MacDonald, Leader of Surrey Heath Borough Council, wrote an open letter expressing his “dismay” at the decision to halt the service at the end of October.

Writing to Tim Oliver, Leader of SCC, he claimed the approach has “lacked transparency”, with “limited consultation or change management, and without proper regard for the dramatic implications on residents”. He argued local authorities would have to cut FSP workers when the service is axed, rather than transferring across to the county council. Lamenting the loss of “valuable expertise” needed to support residents, the Surrey Heath leader wrote the “exodus” of staff could “place families in jeopardy”.

Cllr MacDonald specifically criticised the SCC leader for the “substantial redundancy costs” on local authorities who are meant to be working together. He said there has been a “total disregard to the public purse, which has enough holes in it already, without self-inflicting them”.

Speaking at a Surrey Heath council meeting on November 5, Cllr MacDonald said SCC are “well within their rights” to change their services how they wish, but “it should be done in a way that is respectful to the families and case workers.”

SCC Leader, Cllr Tim Oliver OBE, said: “Discussions with District and Borough Councils (D&Bs) about the FSP contract began in February 2024. Ample time has been given to all FSP teams to support families between now and the end of the contract, and the SCC Early Help and Commissioning teams are working with, and supporting, the FSP leads.

“The Supporting Families Grant funding until March 2025 has already been provided to the D&Bs and the FSP will continue to support families in that time period, concluding their interventions between now and the end of March 2025.

“If any future Supporting Families Grant funding is confirmed by the DfE, then the Early Help Partnership in Surrey will work together to plan for its use, based on the identified needs of families and how to achieve the best outcomes. The early help partnership in Surrey is strong and continues to explore how we work more closely together to build capacity and invest in services that improve outcomes for families.”