A SERVICE that helps children at risk of entering the care system stay with their families has proved so successful it is to be more than tripled in size.

The number of workers on North Yorkshire’s family intervention programme is being increased from six to 22.

Funding for the expansion has come from savings made in “back office” and management posts, an exercise designed to free up money and reinvest it in frontline support.

The news follows the county council winning national acclaim for the support it offers to families with children at risk of entering the care system.

The council’s Children’s and Young People’s Service was described by Ofsted as a “beacon of good practice” for the way it changes for the better the lives of young people who might otherwise be placed in care.

Ofsted’s report Edging Away from Care highlights good practice in 11 local authorities, including North Yorkshire.

Families and young people who contributed to the report all say the support they received led to improvements in their lives through better relationships, behaviour, emotional health, increased confidence and self-esteem, school attendance and attainment and raised aspirations.

The council’s executive member for the service, Councillor Carl Les, welcomed Ofsted’s findings.

“We are immensely proud of our achievements in this frontline service and believe we are at the forefront of innovation and change nationally,”

he said.

“Our family intervention programme is proving highly effective in supporting the most vulnerable families in our county and in giving them a second chance to make a successful future for themselves.”

The authority’s assistant director of children’s social care, Judith Hay, said: “Our children’s social care transformation is organised around the assumption that, wherever it is safe to do so, children and young people should live with their family or families.

“When families are in need, they get the correct support in a timely way to prevent and reduce the need to become looked after, or to be subject to child protection proceedings.”

Since January last year, the programme has worked with 94 carers and 445 children, with six workers intensively supporting 79 families.

Only five – little more than one per cent – became looked after.