Case Study: Families First Partnership Programme: Delivering National Reform

Client: Department for Education (DfE)

Date: March 2025 – Current

Challenges faced by the client:

The Department for Education (DfE) launched the Families First Partnership (FFP) programme in 2025 to support the national rollout of children's social care reforms across England. Building on learning from the Families First for Children Pathfinder (FFCP) programme, the reforms aim to create a more joined-up, family-centred system that helps children and families access the right support at the earliest opportunity. Central to this ambition is stronger multi-agency collaboration, earlier intervention, reduced fragmentation between services, and a greater focus on helping families stay safely together wherever possible.

To support this transformation, the DfE required a delivery partner to provide implementation support, practical guidance and opportunities for shared learning as local areas began planning and delivering the reforms. This included helping local authorities and safeguarding partners navigate complex system-wide change, share emerging practice, and strengthen collaboration across children's services, health, education, policing and the voluntary sector. The DfE also wanted to capture and disseminate learning from Pathfinders and early implementation areas, alongside developing practical tools, guidance and resources to support local delivery. As local areas moved from planning into implementation, there was a need for consistent support, challenge and knowledge-sharing to help maintain momentum and spread learning across the sector.

Our support:

Mutual Ventures was commissioned as the DfE's delivery partner for the Families First Partnership programme, building on our role supporting the Families First for Children Pathfinder programme. Working alongside the DfE, local authorities and safeguarding partners, we provided a combination of implementation support, coaching and national learning to help areas plan for and deliver the reforms.

Direct coaching and implementation support

• Delivering tailored coaching and critical friend support to local authorities and safeguarding partners implementing the reforms.

• Facilitating mobilisation workshops, design workshops, implementation planning sessions and stakeholder engagement activities.

• Supporting local leaders to develop governance arrangements, delivery plans and operating models aligned to the reforms.

National learning and knowledge sharing

• Design and delivery of a national learning programme, including Communities of Practice, peer learning groups, webinars and events that enabled local areas to share experiences, challenges and emerging practice.

• Developed practical implementation resources, tools and guidance to support local delivery of the reforms.

• Captured and disseminated learning from across the programme, helping local areas learn from one another and apply the reforms in ways that reflected local needs and circumstances.

Outcome achieved:

Mutual Ventures has supported the national rollout of the Families First Partnership programme, helping local authorities and safeguarding partners progress from early-stage reform planning to detailed design and implementation.

Through regular coaching conversations, design workshops and critical friend support, we have worked alongside local areas to develop reform models that reflect local need while remaining aligned to the national programme. As a result, many areas have moved from exploring what the reforms could mean for their system to developing detailed operating models, testing new approaches and beginning implementation.

In doing so, Mutual Ventures has helped build the confidence, capability and local ownership needed to deliver more joined-up, child-centred services that provide the right help at the right time for children and families.

For more information about Mutual Ventures' work supporting the Families First Partnership programme, contact alisha.rao@mutualventures.co.uk.