Mash and Early Help Workshop

Content of today’s workshops Introducing you to the core principles for Prevention and Early Help (Vision and Ambition for Southampton) The Continuum of Need The Early Help Assessment and Plan The Children’s Advice and Duty Service (MASH) Discussion and feedback

Our Vision Is that children and young people get a good start in life, are able to fulfill their potential and become successful adults who are engaged in their communities

Our Priorities Safe and Secure Happy and Healthy Children in Southampton are safe at home and in their community Children in Southampton live happy and healthy lives, with good levels of physical and mental wellbeing

Our Priorities Resilient and engaged Achieving and aspiring Children in Southampton’s communities are resilient, engaged, prepared for the future and able to help themselves and each other to succeed Children in Southampton have good levels of educational attainment, fulfill their potential and go on to successful opportunities in adulthood

We will achieve this by: Working together…. Delivering….. taking a whole family approach, targeting reducing resources and focusing on prevention and early help joined up services that offer support proportionate to need

We will achieve this by: Improving…. Taking….. educational attainment and aspiration action in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life Addressing….. Reducing…. the number of children who are in the care of the council the impact of inequalities and child poverty through the city’s strategies and policies to improve outcomes for children and their families

The Continuum of Need

Universal – Level 1 Children’s whose needs are fully met and thrive: Universal – Level 1 Children’s whose needs are fully met and thrive: * aspire and achieve * safe and secure * happy and healthy * resilient and ready for adulthood Families are meeting their children’s needs with support from universal services No formal assessments required

Universal Plus – Level 2 Children with additional needs Family who can meet their children’s needs with some additional support, usually in the short term An Early Help Plan will often be used

Universal Partnership Plus – Level 3 Children with multiple and complex needs Family with multiple complex needs who can meet their children’s needs with targeted and coordinated support An Early Help Plan will be used

Safeguarding – Level 4 Children with acute needs including those in need of protection Family need multi-agency response including specialist intervention from children’s social care Single Assessment section 17/47 enquiries will be undertaken

The Early Help Assessment The Early Help Assessment (EHA) is designed to assist practitioners in a range of settings to assess the needs of families, children and young people. It replaces the Universal Help Assessment (UHA), formerly the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). The EHA can be used by schools, health, housing or prevention and early help services across Southampton. It can also be used to coordinate more complex early help provision including intensive family support such as Families Matter.

The Early Help Assessment Continued The underlying principles of the Early Help Assessment are: To allow the practitioner to assess the needs of the whole family and to support the development of an Early Help Plan. To facilitate the assessment of all family members and allow family members to identify their level of need and measure progress themselves. This approach models the outcome star and strengthening family’s approach, which is also used by services in Southampton. To enable an holistic assessment of the whole family’s needs, which should not focus on the policy or statutory obligations of a single service. It is a transferable document and can be shared between agencies, where family consent has been given.

Distance Travelled

Table top exercise On your table you will find a case study of a family who may benefit from prevention and early help support. Read the case study and as a group try to identify two outcomes you would like to support the family to work towards. Write up that outcome as best you can using the plan provided

Table top exercise - continued Now that you have written up your outcomes, pass them onto the table next to you. Your job is to now critique the outcomes that have been passed to you and try to write them in as simple and straight forward a way as you can. Remembering Millers Law………

Millers Law 6+/-2 This means: Only ever write 6 to 8 objectives in a plan Try to write each objective with only 6 to 8 words

The Early Help Plan

The Children’s Advice and Duty Service The ethos How it works To ensure that the appropriate services are accessed to empower children and their families to make positive changes to promote future life chances To provide a timely and proportionate multi-agency response to safeguarding issues Professionals hold direct communication with an experienced social worker to plan together the appropriate response to situations and provide guidance and advice

The MASH The Ethos How it works Proportionate multi-agency information sharing to inform decision making Consent led Safeguarding issues Outcomes: Universal services, Single Assessments, S47 enquiries HRDA Conversation with Children’s Advice and Duty Services Management oversight Conversation with families if safe to do so Multi-agency information gathering Social work recommendation Management decision around level of intervention and timeliness of response

Table top exercise On your table you will find a situation that has arisen in an Early Years Child Care setting. As a group, consider what steps you would take if you were the professional involved. Explore the presenting information, think about who you would need to hold a conversation with, timeliness of response and possible outcomes for the child involved. Remember there could be multiple ways in which the scenario could unfold.

Table top exercise - continued You will now be handed the outcome of the conversation held with the Children’s Advice and Duty Service social worker and the progression of the situation through MASH. As a group, reflect on practice examples you may have had or that could arise in your work settings and discuss what you feel are the key pieces of information and actions that you need to consider when faced with potential safeguarding issues. Please agree on three points to share with the large group.

Southampton Information Directory (SID) You can use the Southampton Information Directory to link directly to universal services at: sid.southampton.gov.uk.   For information about how to add your service to the directory please contact fis@southampton.gov.uk

Family Information Service The Southampton Family Information Service gives advice and support to parents, and help for childcare providers. This includes advice on: - nurseries and pre schools & local childminders - parenting and family support - parent and toddler groups - children’s health - breakfast clubs & after school activities - out of school/holiday activities - working with children For more information please email fis@southampton.gov.uk Or call FREE on 0800 169 8833 Or local rate 0238083 3014  

1. Existing Agency Meetings 3. Children’s Advice and Duty Service There are 3 routes into prevention & early help services supported by the SCC Families Matter Team 1. Existing Agency Meetings 1 *Early Help representative or Manager attends to support joint agency discussion and identify potential support Early Years, Sure Start and Health Early Help Allocations meetings Social Workers Weekly step-down meetings* Schools staff IYFA/ PHIG* Police, Community Safety & Housing providers Monthly Partnership Action Group (PAG)* Education Welfare Officers Monthly Professionals’ meetings* YOS Joint Decision Making Panel Early Help Hub A virtual hub dealing with enquiries & referrals for prevention and early help services. The Hub comprises Families Matter Management, Universal Help Advisors (MASH) and operational staff who can advise on services available with SCC, Health and Voluntary, Community & Faith Sectors. All referrals or requests for service should usually be supported with some form of assessment. If not available, you may be asked to complete a referral form for a particular service that has been identified as most appropriate. Advice given to referrers by staff in the hub does not bind a service to accepting a referral 3. Children’s Advice and Duty Service (MASH) 2 3 2. Direct Any agency can get in touch direct at 023 8083 3311 or securely at fm@Southampton.gcsx.gov.uk

All of today’s information will be available at: www.southamptonlscb.co.uk