Stockport secures additional funding for family social services digital project

Stockport Council has received £336,400 from the Local Digital Fund to continue development of its Family Context tool for social services.

Funds provided by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) will support the toll for social workers that provides them with contextual information to support child referrals more efficiently.

The award is the third one received from DLUHC for this digital social services project and builds on previous work in Stockport and Leeds to explore and test potential solutions with social workers. Stockport Council is collaborating with Ealing Council in London on this phase of the project, with a view for the software to be shared more widely with other local authorities in the future.

Cllr Colin Foster, Cabinet Member for Children, Family Services & Education, Stockport Council says:

“This project tackles the problem of how best to provide social workers with key information relating to the family and the services engaged with them when they first make contact. We have run a successful pilot with our social workers and have found that having easier access to information from different sources leads to significant improvements in the service. The Family Context tool is already saving thousands of hours of social worker time – hours that can be better spent helping families and getting children access to the right support more quickly.”

Cllr David Sedgwick, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focus and Engagement, Stockport Council added:

“We’re incredibly excited about the next stage of our journey with councils from across the country and other government departments interested in collaborating with us on its future development. We are proud to be leading the way on this cutting-edge project, which has the potential to be rolled out across the UK, reducing risks to vulnerable children everywhere and making the most of local government resources.”