Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Early Help Assessment Insert name Insert job role

National and local context Working Together (2013) advocates the use of a shared early help assessment for children, young people and families The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) has been used in Stoke-on-Trent since 2006 There have been a number of issues leading to a low number of CAF assessments being completed across the city Therefore, it was necessary to improve / streamline the CAF process The Early Help Assessment is the City’s new, improved shared assessment process It allows lower level concerns (levels two and three on the Guide to Levels of Need) to be identified and managed effectively before needs escalate It will also be the vehicle for escalating into Vulnerable Children and Corporate Parenting (VCCP)

Local Arrangements The Early Help Assessment paperwork has been developed using learning from a variety of local and national sources and is based on best practice The paperwork has been piloted for 12 months by a broad range of agencies During the 12 month period 714 families have been supported through the Early Help Assessment process In two of the recent Ofsted inspections of Children’s Centre’s in Stoke-on-Trent the Early Help Assessment was cited as a positive and effective means to identify and support families in a holistic way.

Local arrangements On 28 February 2014, The Children and Young People Strategic Partnership Board agreed for the Early Help Assessment to replace the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) across all agencies from 1 April 2014 Existing CAF’s will remain ‘in situ’ until the case is closed Named champions have been nominated by all partner agencies I am the Champion for our agency My role is to cascade the use of the Early Help Assessment within our organisation and support its successful roll out An Early Help Assessment toolkit will be written to support the roll out / training The new Early Help Assessment and Early Help Action Plan can be downloaded from www.safeguardingchildren.stoke.gov.uk.

Feedback from the pilot Early help terminology is more service user friendly / easier to understand for families and practitioners The tool is a shared assessment for all internal and external agencies working with children, young people and families. It can also be used for adult only households The tool promotes family focused assessment. Practitioners no longer have to complete multiple assessments for each household member, avoiding duplication, and families will not have to keep repeating their story to different professionals.

What is your role in ensuring engagement in the Early Help Assessment? All staff across agencies has a role to play in helping children, young people and families to access help early to avoid difficulties becoming severe and entrenched Whether you work in an agency that provides services to support families, or you work in a service area where you come into contact with families, but provide other services, e.g. Housing, Police, you could be in a vital position to recognise that there are needs that are not being met.

Things to consider If you believe that a child or young person is experiencing or is at risk of harm, then make a referral to Vulnerable Children and Corporate Parenting (VCCP) Encouraging and enabling children, young people and families to take up activities, and to access support and services when they are at an early point of experiencing, difficulties is vital Investment to engage those families who most need support into the right activities and services is key to enabling them to take up the support being offered and to build skills and resilience It is also important for both individual staff, and services to understand what the barriers are for children, young people and families to take up the offer of early help, and to actively work to remove those barriers.

Contact details If you would like more information on the Early Help Assessment please contact: Claire Maxwell (Early Help Co-ordinator) 231964 (early.help@stoke.gov.uk) or n Jennie Hammond (Locality Co-ordinator) 235273 (early.help@stoke.gov.uk) They will direct you to the identified champion in your organisation.