Wakefield Families Together

Joe Seddon shares how Wakefield Council have moved to develop integrated support for children across the area through a geographical network of clusters and a The Team Around the School/Early Years Model. 

Joe is a qualified careers adviser and youth justice practitioner with nearly 20 years' experience of working with vulnerable children and young people, including 10 years delivering partnership-led youth justice services. More recently, providing strategic leadership to the transformation of early help services and development of Family and Youth Hubs. 

Talking points 

This video looks at:

• How support is delivered through the Wakefield Families Together Clusters. 
• The importance of developing relationships to build understanding. 
• The Team Around the School Model and the challenge in developing a consistent approach. 
• The Team Around the Early Years Model and how it provides a platform for delivering the Best Start to Life Offer. 

Resources that are mentioned in this video

• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council’s Team Around the School approach 
• Wakefield’s ‘Team Around’ approach 
• The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days 

Related resources 

• Wakefield Families Together – Evaluating the integration of children and young people’s services
• Wakefield Families Together – Vision and opportunity 
• Wakefield Families Together – Collaboration and integration 
• Wakefield Families Together “What is Early Help?”  
• Team Around the School
• Team Around the Early Years

Reflective questions 

Here are reflective questions to stimulate conversation and support practice.   

1. How might you start to develop relationships across organisational siloes? 
2. What would be the implications for people accessing services should your organisation move to a geography-based cluster approach?