Families First annual performance figures: April 2023 to March 2024

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Data is collected by the Local Authorities using a Welsh Government template and reported to Welsh Government on an annual basis.

To prevent disclosure of individuals, data is rounded to the nearest five. Totals and percentages are calculated with the raw numbers and may appear not to match or sum to 100%.

The number of referrals for a Joint Assessment Family Framework (JAFF) increased by 7% between 2022-23 (20,190) and 2023-24 (21,675).

Around half of JAFF referrals led to families completing a JAFF assessment in 2023-24, following a similar trend to previous years.

The number of Team Around the Family (TAF) action plans signed declined between 2022-23 and 2023-24, from 10,300 to 9,260.

The number of TAF action plans closed between 2022-23 and 2023-24 has also seen a small decrease, from 9,380 to 9,305.

The percentage of TAF action plans closed successfully, of those closed in total, has remained consistent over the last 10 years, and is at a similar level in 2023-24 (62%).

The percentage of successful individuals or families reported against each of the NPMs has remained above 50% of those that have been worked with in 2023-24, except for one measure: families affected by disability that report an improvement in family resilience, which decreased from 66% in 2022-23 to 34%.

The number of referrals for a Joint Assessment Family Framework (JAFF) continued to increase in 2023-24, having risen each year for the previous decade apart from 2020-21. There were 21,675 referrals across Wales in 2023-24, the highest number of referrals on record. This was an increase of 7% from 2022-23, when the number of referrals was 20,190. A subset of these referrals made were for families with needs relating to disability. The numbers of referrals for these families remained consistent with previous years in 2023-24, increasing slightly to 2,835 from 2,825 in 2022-23.

Around half of JAFF referrals led to families completing a JAFF assessment in 2023-24, following a similar trend to previous years. The number of JAFF assessments completed slightly decreased in 2023-24, from 12,045 in 2022-23 to 10,920 in 2023-24. This is still the second highest number of JAFF assessments completed on record, after 2022-23. The number of JAFF assessments completed for families with needs relating to disability also decreased slightly, from 2,380 in 2022-23 to 2,330 in 2023-24.

The number of Team Around the Family (TAF) action plans signed decreased in 2023-24 to 9,260, from 10,300 in 2022-23, despite having risen overall since 2013-14. This is still the second highest number of TAF action plans signed on record. However, the number of TAF action plans signed for families with needs relating to disability slightly increased, from 2,255 in 2022-23 to 2,260 in 2023-24.

The number of TAF action plans closed in 2023-24 decreased from 9,380 in 2022-23 to 9,305. Again, this is still the second highest number of closures on record, having increased overall in the last 10 years. The number of TAF action plans closed over the same period for families with needs relating to disability followed a similar trend, decreasing from 2,270 in 2022-23 to 2,210 in 2023-24. The total number of TAF action plans closed exceeded the number of plans signed in 2023-24. This is because plans from previous years may be closed in a later period.

The percentage of TAF action plans closed successfully has been consistent over the previous decade, and remained similar in 2023-24 (62%), a small decrease from 63% in 2022-23. The percentage of TAF action plans closed successfully for families with needs relating to disability has also remained consistent over the same period, and was 65% in 2023-24.

In 2023-24, 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, except for one measure: families affected by disability that report an improvement in family resilience, which decreased from 66% in 2022-23 to 34%.

In addition, for other NPMs, the number of families and individuals receiving support increased greatly during 2023-24, compared to 2022-23. However, the number of successful outcomes remained at a similar level to 2022-23. The increase in the number of families and individuals receiving support during 2023-24 has resulted in large decreases in the percentages of individuals with successful outcomes in comparison to 2022-23. In 2023-24 the NPM with the highest number of successful participants reported was improved emotional/mental wellbeing at 22,525. This represented 71% of the total number of individuals or families worked with against this NPM. The NPM with the highest reported percentage of success was parents benefitting from a parenting intervention (85%).

Figure 1: Percentage of successful individuals or families of total worked with against each National Performance Measure, 2023-24

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Description of figure 1: Horizontal bar chart showing that, of the 14 National Performance Measures, parents benefitting from a parenting intervention had the highest percentage of successful individuals or families of the total number worked with in 2023-24, at 85%. The lowest percentage was 34%, for families affected by disability that reported an improvement in family resilience. The chart has been ordered from the NPM with the highest reported percentage of successful participants to the lowest reported percentage of successful participants.

Source: Families First interventions data, collected from local authorities by Welsh Government, 2023-24

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

The data clearly show some inconsistencies persist across certain metrics, likely due to variations in reporting interpretations and local practices. 

Not all local authorities report on every NPM, and individuals or families may be recorded against more than one NPM. They may also be counted more than once if they access services on more than one occasion or across different quarters.

For interventions relating to disability needs in Gwynedd, JAFF assessments and TAF action plans are not completed but assessments completed capture similar important ‘what matters’ conversations and appropriate intervention action plans are formulated in accordance.

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.