This independent report has been prepared in light of the financial proposals presented to cabinet at the meeting in September 2018.
The two proposals looked at in this report are related to the alteration and/or reduction of early help services provided to children and their families through the getset service.
The first CAF-14a is to reduce staffing levels in the getset service in response to falling number of level 2 referrals and by increasing caseload targets across the service. It is deemed by Somerset County Council that this proposal will not affect the service delivery and therefore does not require public consultation.
The second proposal CAF-14b is to launch a consultation exercise to review provision of the early help services. The specific changes that will be proposed in the consultation will include the proposal for Somerset County Council to no longer provide level 2 services; further proposals will be developed through an appropriate analysis and initial assessments of needs and potential equalities impact.
The understanding is that the second proposal will be presented to cabinet for a decision after the proposed change has been developed through analysis of consultation feedback.
The report outlines the feedback from parents on proposed changes to the getset tier 2 service. The report will show how families feel about the service they are currently accessing.
You can read the report here getset report final.