Birmingham’s Family Outcomes Framework and Tool

Birmingham understood that the criteria for the identification of families were broader in Phase 2 of the troubled families programme. There was an emphasis on prioritising families with complex problems who are most likely to benefit from an integrated, whole family approach and who are high cost to the public purse. Birmingham had been set the challenge of achieving significant and sustained progress with 14,170 families across the 5 year period, equating to 2,834 per year.

An expectation of the Phase 2 Expanded Troubled Families programme included local agreement for a Family Outcomes Plan. This would help demonstrate how families who have multiple and complex needs will be identified and which of their needs will be addressed. There was a requirement for the Plan to include a set of outcomes agreed across the partnership that can demonstrate significant and sustained progress against six family problems in scope for Phase 2.

The Plan also set out how it would supports wider service transformation, reducing the need for costly and reactive services and provide a framework against which internal auditors and the Troubled Families Unit can be satisfied that a PbR can be claimed. 

Interface provided embedded consultancy support to help Birmingham create a framework and an easy reference table that outcomes could be drawn from at the point of engagement when the family has been assessed.

We helped develop a standardised set of outcomes, enabling a system to consistently measure progress for families, performance manage services and over time monitor the vulnerability profile of the programme.

We then provided the technical expertise and led the development of a technical solution that was excel based to allow reporting of the outcomes over a series of family visits. This included an outcomes based programme that could be both printed and used in the field, but would also provide centralised data and evidence to support the;

• Delivery of quarterly reports to the TFU regarding the number of families identified for inclusion within the programme and the numbers currently worked with.
• Completion of Family Progress Data, with a greater emphasis on the change achieved by family members.
• Completion of the Cost Savings Calculator.
• Identification of success levels of the services commissioned for Early Help

• Measurement of success across vulnerable groups associated with all partnership

Birmingham have now integrated the framework into their preferred IT solution with a view to roll it out across their entire workforce.