Children’s Social Care Receives a Transformational Boost - But True Reform Demands a Whole-System View by Shrien Dewani

By: Shrien Dewani 

True progress in social care is never created by funding alone. It emerges when leadership has the courage to look beyond individual programmes and ask a deeper question: what kind of system are we choosing to build for children, families and the adults who support them? The latest government investment is an important step, but its real potential depends on whether we are willing to think bigger, connect the dots, and redesign care as one cohesive, human-centred system. 

Two weeks ago announcement of an additional £547m in government investment into children’s social care reform marks a significant moment for the sector. When combined with existing commitments, this brings the total investment in the Families First Partnership (FFP) programme to £2.4bn between 2026 and 2029. 

In a public statement, the minister described this as “a chance to fix a broken system”. And on many levels, he is right. The funding promises stability in a space that has long been shaped by crisis-driven intervention. 

But as with any reform initiative, the true value lies not only in the scale of investment, but in what it enables the system and the people within it to become. 

What the Funding Aims to Achieve 

The FFP programme is designed to reshape how children and families are supported, shifting from reactive, high-end intervention to earlier, relational, multidisciplinary support. 

The funding covers: 

• Multidisciplinary Family Help services Providing a consistent lead practitioner and a wrap-around team to support families across early help, child in need and child protection. 

• Multi-agency child protection teams Bringing together social workers, health practitioners, police and education within a single safeguarding unit a model that will now be enshrined in legislation. 

• Family Group Decision Making Giving extended families structured opportunities to create their own plans before formal proceedings take place, in line with international best practice. 

This is thoughtful, carefully targeted investment, and it responds directly to the challenges practitioners have been raising for years. 

It is right to acknowledge the significance of this moment. 

But it is also right to examine the numbers. 

Interpreting the £2.4bn Commitment 

The new funding includes: 

• £1.57bn continuing previous early help and family support grants 

• £319m from the government’s transformation fund 

• £547m newly added across the three years 

These are meaningful figures, but they also raise a deeper question about how we invest across the entire social care system. 

If children’s services require £2.4bn to shift away from crisis, what is the scale of investment required for adult social care, where levels of need, acuity and workforce shortages are arguably even more severe? 

The risk of piecemeal reform is that one part of the system is transformed while another remains in perpetual strain. 

Families do not divide neatly into children’s issues and adults’ issues. Vulnerability is interconnected. 

System resilience must be connected too. 

Why Adult Social Care Cannot Be Left Behind 

Adult social care continues to face: 

• Unprecedented workforce shortages 

• Rising complexity and long-term conditions 

• Significant regional inequity 

• Chronic underfunding from local authorities 

• Increasing cost pressures for providers 

• Unstable commissioning arrangements 

• And a workforce that is stretched well beyond sustainable limits 

Reforming children’s services in isolation risks creating a fork in the road: one pathway renewed, the other eroding with each passing year. 

As someone working daily within adult social care, I cannot help but reflect on the imbalance. 

 We talk about “protecting our future” and rightly so, but we cannot protect children without strengthening the environments and families they grow up in. Adult and children’s social care must be seen as two strands of the same fabric. 

A Positive Step and an Invitation to Think Bigger 

This investment should be celebrated. 

It represents a renewed national understanding that supporting families earlier prevents trauma later. 

It recognises that good social care is proactive, not reactive. 

It shows that meaningful change is possible with long-term commitment. 

But it must also serve as an invitation: 

To rethink how we fund care across the lifespan, 

To design systems that are integrated rather than fragmented, 

And to build a future where no part of social care must fight for its place at the table. 

Because protecting our future begins with protecting our children and ensuring the adults around them have the support, dignity and infrastructure they need to thrive.