Families First annual performance figures: summary report 2018 to 2023

1. Background

1.1   Families First is a Welsh Government programme designed to improve outcomes for babies, children, young people, and their families. It places an emphasis on early help and prevention and works with the whole family to stop problems escalating towards crisis. The programme promotes the development of multi-agency systems of support to ensure families can access tailored support when they need it. 

1.2    The key elements of Families First are: 

• Joint Assessment Family Framework (JAFF) which provides a comprehensive strengths-based evaluation of families’ needs.
• The Team Around the Family (TAF) which brings together a range of professionals to work with a family to help them address the challenges they face.
• Strategically commissioned projects developed in response to identified local and communities’ needs and can include parenting interventions, family mental health support and support for young people.
• Disability Focus where an allocation of funding is expected to be spent on innovative support for families affected by disability.  Local authorities determine how this element is spent in their areas.

1.3    Local authorities differ in the types of support they commission, and the amount of funding invested in the various elements of the Families First programme. They make investment decisions based on a needs analysis of their local population.

1.4    The programme has a suite of National Performance Measures (NPMs) identified to help provide further evidence of the impact of the programme across Wales, particularly in respect of the strategic projects. Local authorities are only required to report on the NPMs that are relevant to the delivery of the programme in their area.

1.5    The Welsh Government has provided definitions of the NPMs alongside some examples of how local authorities could mark an individual or family successful against them. The examples are not exhaustive and therefore measures of success against the NPMs are subjective to each local authority and not all local authorities report against all NPMs. Individuals or families may be reported against more than one NPM.

1.6    Data is collected by the Local Authorities using a Welsh Government template and reported to Welsh Government on an annual basis. This data highlight covers a 5-year period and therefore includes the COVID-19 pandemic as well as post pandemic years. It should be noted some of the figures reduced in 2020-21.  During this period many services operated on a reduced level and more flexibly to enable them to cope with the changing demands brought about by COVID-19.

1.7    Data collection for the programme was paused during 2019-20 and 2020-21 to help free up services for local authorities to focus on supporting their communities’ needs during unprecedented and difficult times. Data for this period has been collected retrospectively.

1.8    To prevent disclosure of individuals, data is rounded to the nearest five. Totals are calculated with the raw numbers and may appear not to match.

2. Key points

2.1    The number of referrals for a Joint Assessment Family Framework (JAFF) has increased by 50% between 2018-19 (13,455) and 2022-23 (20,190).

2.2    Around half of JAFF referrals led to families completing a JAFF assessment each year.

2.3    The number of Team Around the Family (TAF) action plans signed has risen every year since 2018-19, from 5,640 in 2018-19 to 10,300 in 2022-23.

2.4    The number of TAF action plans closed between 2018-19 and 2022-23 has risen overall, from 5,490 in 2018-19 to 9,380 in 2022-23.

2.5    The percentage of TAF action plans closed successfully of those closed in total is fairly consistent between 2018-19 (60%) and 2022-23 (63%).
2.6    The percentage of successful individuals or families reported against each of the NPMs has remained above 50% of those that have been worked with.

3. Joint Assessment Framework for Families & Team Around the Family

3.1    The number of referrals for a Joint Assessment Family Framework (JAFF) has increased overall, with this rising each year apart from 2020-21. There were 13,455 referrals across Wales in 2018-19 to the highest number of referrals on record (20,190) in 2022-23, an increase of 50%. A subset of these referrals made were for families with needs relating to disability. The numbers of referrals for these families remained fairly consistent overall between 2018-19 (2,855) and 2022-23 (2,825), with a decrease in 2020-21 (2,090).

3.2    Around half of JAFF referrals led to families completing a JAFF assessment each year. The number of JAFF assessments completed has also risen overall, from 7,365 in 2018-19 to 12,045 in 2022-23. This is the highest number of JAFF assessments on record and is an increase of 64% since 2018-19. The number of JAFF assessments completed for families with needs relating to disability has also risen overall, from 2,015 in 2018-19 to 2,380 in 2022-23.

3.3    The number of Team Around the Family (TAF) action plans signed has risen every year since 2018-19, from 5,640 in 2018-19 to 10,300 in 2022-23, the highest number on record and an increase of 83% over that period. The number of TAF action plans signed for families with needs relating to disability has fluctuated over the same period but has risen overall, from 1,875 in 2018-19 to 2,255 in 2022-23.

3.4    The number of TAF action plans closed between 2018-19 and 2022-23 has risen each year apart from a small fall in 2020-21. There were 5,490 TAF action plans closed in 2018-19, compared with 9,380 in 2022-23, which is the highest number of closures on record. The number of TAF action plans closed over the same period for families with needs relating to disability followed a similar trend. There were 1,710 TAF action plans closed for families with needs relating to disability in 2018-19, compared with 2,270 in 2022-23.

3.5    The percentage of TAF action plans closed successfully is fairly consistent between 2018-19 (60%) and 2022-23 (63%). This has remained relatively consistent since 2014-15, with between 57% and 63% of TAF action plans being closed with a successful outcome each year.  The percentage of TAF action plans closed successfully has also remained fairly consistent between 2018-19 (68%) and 2022-23 (66%) for families with needs relating to disability.

4. National Performance Measures

4.1    Between April 2018 and March 2023, the percentage of successful participants reported against each of the National Performance Measures (NPM) has remained above 50% of those that have been worked with. 

4.2    In 2022-23 the NPM with the highest number of successful participants reported was improved emotional/mental wellbeing at 23,575. This represented 86% of the total number of individuals or families worked with against this NPM. The NPM with the highest reported proportion of success was parents benefitting from a parenting intervention (87%), although this proportion was only slightly higher than some other NPMs.

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Description of figure 1: Horizontal bar chart showing the percentage of successful individuals/ families of the total worked with for each of the 14 National Performance Measures. The chart has been ordered from the NPM with the highest reported percentage of successful participants to the lowest reported percentage of successful participants.

5. Data Quality Issues

5.1    Families First interventions vary between local authorities, and so numbers may not be directly comparable.

5.2    It is apparent from the data that there remain inconsistencies for some metrics which are likely explained by interpretations of how data should be reported and local practice.

5.3    The Families First monitoring data collection was paused in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and data for 2019-20 and 2020-21 were collected retrospectively. As a result, not all data items were able to be collected by all local authorities. Missing values in the accompanying tables are denoted by x. Figures from these years should be interpreted with caution. 

5.4    The 2019-20 NPM data does not include Newport as they were unable to submit.

5.5    Due to changes and issues with data collection systems, not all local authorities were able to collect information on the disability profile element of the Families First programme.

5.6    Additional data is collected on individuals accessing projects commissioned by the Families First programme. This data has not been included in this publication due to data quality concerns.