Croydon has launched a Families First Partnership pilot in South Croydon, bringing council and partner services together around families in the CR2 area. The initial design is limited and defined: two teams based at Woodlands Family Hub are intended to work with up to 90 families, with a lead practitioner supporting each family.
The council says the pilot is being tested locally before a planned borough-wide introduction by the end of March 2027. The launch marks the start of that local approach, rather than evidence of what it will achieve. No results or assessment of its effectiveness were reported with the announcement.
How the South Croydon pilot is structured
The two teams are expected to work across schools and professionals in social care, health, education, police, youth justice, and voluntary and community organisations. The proposed arrangement is intended to bring different services into closer coordination around children and families, rather than requiring families to navigate each service separately.
Each family in the pilot is to have a lead practitioner. The practitioner’s role is to provide a consistent point of contact and coordinate input from the relevant services. The council has not described the pilot as open to every household in CR2, nor does the announcement set out referral rules, eligibility thresholds, or how families will be selected. The stated figure of up to 90 is a maximum intended caseload, not a confirmed number already receiving support.
The approach also places an emphasis on involving families in decisions about the support they receive and drawing, where appropriate, on wider family and community networks. These are features of the model as described at launch; the announcement does not report that they have produced particular outcomes.
Planned expansion
The council’s stated timetable is to introduce the approach across Croydon by the end of March 2027. That remains a future plan. The initial focus on CR2 gives the council a bounded area in which to begin operating the model, but no interim milestones or published evaluation measures were specified in the launch material.
Families First Partnership forms part of the national children’s social care reform programme. Government guidance describes the programme as supporting local safeguarding partners to implement Family Help, multi-agency child-protection reforms and greater support for family networks. Croydon’s pilot is its local implementation; the general aims of the national programme should not be mistaken for measured results from this particular service.
The pilot also sits within Croydon Council’s wider Helping Families Thrive programme. The council has framed the initiative around earlier and more joined-up support, with the stated intention of helping families access appropriate services before difficulties escalate. Those aims describe what the model is designed to do, not a finding that it has already prevented problems or changed children’s outcomes.
The launch event took place at Braithwaite Hall and brought council staff and partner organisations together to discuss how they would work under the approach. For now, the concrete commitments are the CR2 starting area, the Woodlands base, two teams, provision for up to 90 families, an individual lead practitioner for each family, and the intended expansion across the borough by March 2027. Whether the model changes the way support is experienced will require evidence from its operation over time.
