Cornwall Strategic Partnership

A County-wide Family Service to reduce child poverty

 

The broader Cornwall Child Poverty Partnership includes:

 

  • Cornwall Works
  • Family Services
  • Cornwall County Council
  • North Cornwall District Council
  • Caradon District Council
  • Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum

 

Our vision

Family Services will raise aspirations and increase opportunities for all children and families throughout the country and contribute to the eradication of poverty in Cornwall.

 

This will be achieved by creating a multi-agency framework of universal and targeted support, information and activities for children up to 13 years and their families, in partnership with them, their communities and other agencies.

 

A new service to address child poverty

Cornwall County Council made the decision to establish the Family Service following extensive consultation on the implementation of the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda.  This consultation raised five core issues for Cornwall that now form the underlying themes for the current Children and Young Peoples Plan.

 

The plan places an emphasis on:

 

  • children in ‘need,’
  • more support to parents / carers,
  • ‘places to go and things to do’ for children and young people,
  • raising aspirations, achievement and attainment, and
  • access issues for all families.

 

The new Family Service was created as a specific response to the first two of these issues by providing a universal framework for all families and additional support for the most vulnerable families at the earliest opportunity.  Inevitably by addressing these there will be a major impact on the remaining three and in the formation of the service it has been difficult to separate out the different issues.

 

The Family Service works with a range of partners to provide a network of support and activities for all children and families within the County.  The service has developed a multi-agency framework in partnership with parents to ensure that all children have positive opportunities to stay safe, be healthy, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being.

 

The Family Service recognises that on occasions these opportunities can not be achieved without additional support.  Where appropriate this is provided in partnership with the family, at the earliest opportunity, protecting the child from further risk and enhancing their skills, to ensure that they can fulfil their potential.  The Family Service has recognised very early on in its inception that it can only achieve a limited amount with the above resources and considerably more can be achieved by forging wider partnerships with District Councils (Housing and Leisure Departments), Health Services and with the Private and Voluntary sectors. 

 

The Family Service is delivered through six district teams, combining the County Council resources with Area Based Initiatives and linking these to District Councils and the broad range of voluntary and private sector support for families.  Each of these teams:

 

  • works toward providing a universal level of locally based services for all families and children in the County
  • works in partnership with other agencies, Councils and the voluntary and private sectors
  • works in partnership with parents to provide maximum opportunities for children
  • actively seeks opportunities to link and co-ordinate with other strategies
  • develops strategies and systems that promote prevention and early intervention to support children and families

 

Cornwall’s pending Local Area Agreement will facilitate this process and provide freedom and flexibilities to ensure that a universal framework can be maintained throughout the county.