21st January 2025
Martyn Stenton, Head of Early Help, Inclusion and Vulnerable Children at Durham County Council, has kindly agreed to be our first NE ADCS blog contributor.
Martyn writes…
Last summer seems a bit of a distant memory now. I recall having discussions then with our great ADCS regional team when they came to visit us in Durham as part of their tour round the region’s local authorities and showing a particular interest in regional communications, the development of our new website and workforce development. I think at that point I also agreed, perhaps foolishly, to do the first regional blog when the new website was ready to be launched!
Fast forward to the start of a new year and much has happened in recent months. We have had a flurry of important Government policy and budget announcements in the last couple of months and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is now making its way through the parliamentary process.
We have started looking at what all this means for us in children and young people’s services in County Durham and how we can build on the strong foundations we have built up in recent years across our early help and social care services. This includes our Start for Life trailblazer programme, focusing on our network of Family Hubs, our broader partnership support for a mature early help system and a range of strengths and innovative practice in our children’s safeguarding services. We are keen to capture the learning from the initial Families First pathfinder areas and the guidance now coming from the Department for Education and tailor this to what we think may best work to meet the needs of the families who live in our communities.
There is a lot for us to work through in coming months and significant engagement of colleagues, families and partners along the way. As part of this work, I think we will really benefit from our strong regional networks and closer working which has developed in the North East. This includes a dedicated new regional early help forum we established a few months ago which is supported by all local authorities in the region and sits alongside the more established social care and education networks we have in place.
I believe that our regional networks, various events planned and our new website will help us to provide better support and challenge to each other across the North East ADCS family and ultimately mean we are better equipped to support families in each of our localities.
Whilst there are some key challenges ahead including service demands, the impact of poverty in our region and the difficult financial situation, as we move into 2025 I feel a renewed sense of optimism about what we can achieve together and look forward to working more with my regional ADCS family in coming months.