A message from Sandwell Children’s Trust

Children’s Social Care Reforms and the Oldbury Families First Team Pilot – the government are making big changes to how children’s social care works – these are the most significant changes in a generation. These reforms are based on the 2022 independent review by Josh MacAlister and key policies like Stable Homes, Built on Love (2023), Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive, and the Families First Programme (2025).

The main goal is to give families the right help earlier, so fewer children need to come into care. When children do need care, there will be more focus on supporting family members (kinship care) and improving outcomes for young people who have been in care.

A key part of the changes is a new approach called Family Help. This means families will get more joined-up support from local services working together – like schools, health, and social care so they get the help they need before problems get worse.

Sandwell will be learning from other areas and will be running a pilot project in Oldbury to test these new ways of working. This pilot will start in August and will involve working closely with our partners to provide more local, community-based support.

This is an exciting opportunity to shape how we support families in the future—focusing on their strengths, working together, and helping prevent problems from escalating to child protection.

Keep an eye out for further updates as the pilot progresses.