P a g e 1 | 5 ADAPTING CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR FAMILIES FIRST NVEST BRIEFING, MAY 2025 Introduction & Context This document presents perspectives from 89 Local Authorities (LAs) whose employees attended the NVEST General Meeting held on 14/05/2025 to discuss the national roll out of Families First: Family Help. The meeting was attended by Tom Griffiths from the Department for Education who gave an update on the programme, followed by presentations from Dorset and Wolverhampton with a particular focus on the challenges of adapting Case Management Systems to meet the requirements for this new way of delivering services in Children’s Social Care. A total of 212 people attended the meeting, representing 89 Local Authorities. This shows the significance of the interest and challenges these changes are posing in relation to the timescales of the roll out of the programme and the changes required to the existing case management systems. The purpose of the document is to share the concerns raised between all Local Authorities with the Department for Education and the current CMS suppliers in order to open cross-sector dialogue about how best to approach these challenges. We hope to achieve a richer understanding of the challenges facing the sector at this time from the perspectives of all parties concerned, with the aim of ensuring a well-co-ordinated implementation strategy. Key Messages The clear message coming from Local Authorities is that the scale of change required to make their case management systems compliant is significant. One early implementation authority said they had to postpone all other development work on their case management system to deliver the first pillar of the Families First framework. They welcome the practice changes, but they want the CMS adapt