1. CYP Forum
October 5th 2016

2. Objectives Workshop Objectives 1
Understanding the national and local context 2
Demonstrating the need for change 3
How we can develop a stronger Partnership approach to achieving positive outcomes with families
Objectives

3. The Need for Change Drivers for Change
Historically too many methods and points of referral
Need to separate out referral and assessment functions
Create a central place to monitor requests, collate information and therefore analyse impact and need
Develop a continuum of need tool that all professionals can use to assess the right service to meet the needs of children and families
Better co-ordination across the partnership for families
Provision of support to partner agencies with assessments, planning and review of their work with families
Recognising that good quality assessments take time
Families receive the right help at the right time in the right place
The Need for Change

4. Ofsted Inspection of Lewisham’s Children’s Services
The process to access social work services is overly complicated and the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) adds complexity while not functioning well to filter unnecessary work.
Although children and young people at risk of immediate harm receive an effective and timely service, there is variability in how other contacts are dealt with.
Few progress to referral stage and most are directed as contacts to early help services.
Cases that do not meet the threshold for children’s social care where an early help intervention is recommended are not routinely tracked
As a result, in too many cases a further contact was made to children’s social care within a relatively short space of time as early help work had not been progressed
The Need for Change

5. Ofsted Inspection of Lewisham’s Children’s Services
Although there are good examples of early help services that are valued by families, their effectiveness is not being tracked by the local authority.
This means that the local authority does not know how many families are receiving these services, what impact they are having or if individual children and families are receiving the right help at the right time
The quality of CAFs considered by inspectors was variable.
Partners are unclear about the referral pathways.
The Need for Change

6. Ofsted Recommendations
Review processes to ensure that systems to manage contacts and referrals, are secure and enable social workers and other professionals to keep children and young people safe and protected, in a timely manner.
Ensure that a revised early help strategy is implemented so that early help is effectively targeted, coordinated and evaluated so that families receive appropriate support when need is first identified.
Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of step-up and step-down arrangements between early help and children’s social care to ensure that appropriate actions are taken to improve services.
Ensure that all plans for any child or young person focus on reducing risk; identify the needs of all children in the family; and are understood by parents and young people. Plans should be specific, measurable and time-bound.

7. Developing and Implementing the strategy
Governance for change
Early Help Strategy
Early Help Board
Early Help Module, CAF, and TAC/TAF
Childrens Workforce Development
MASH and R&A
Early Help Commissioning and Delivery
Step up and step down – How this works effectively across the whole Early Help and CSC system
Developing and Implementing the strategy

8. What is MASH?
MASH co-locates safeguarding agencies and their data, into a secure environment where all new safeguarding requests analysed to identify need, harm and risk.
By providing a fire walled location (confidential hub), each MASH partner can disclose information with confidence.
Agencies at the MASH Triage or MASH information sharing stage agencies analyse their own information and then share information as is necessary, proportionate and relevant to the case.
MASH partnership information informs decision making and drives early help coordination and prevention ensuring that children and families are protected and supported.
MASH

9. What is a MASH?
A MASH does not replace established safeguarding procedures for investigation and remedy. All interventions are required to be necessary and proportionate.
The MASH Manager is a qualified social worker who retains responsibility for overall decision making which will be better informed by the information sharing process
MASH has been strongly endorsed within the Ofsted report; ‘Good Practice by Local Children Safeguarding Boards’ and the Munro Review of Child Protection. The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee recommended in its report on 5th June 2013, ‘that each LSCB be required to set up a MASH’
MASH

10. Single Front Door for Targeted and Specialist support for families
Single Front Door into CSC and Targeted Early Help
A single point of contact has been developed into Children’s Social Care and Early Help located in the MASH
A single request form is used alongside the Continuum of Need to help determine if the request is for a)targeted help and support or b)for protection
This supports rather than replaces the basic principle of Assessment - Plan - Intervention - Review which is everyone’s responsibility
There is a greater focus on monitoring and evidencing progress and outcomes
Families receive the right help at the right time in the right place
Single Front Door for Targeted and Specialist support for families

11. Single Front Door / Triage / MASH
Request for Help and Support or Protection form inc EHA as appropriate
Single Front Door for Specialist and Targeted Services
Children’s
Social
Care
MASH information sharing
Police
Probation
Education
EH Panel
For commissioned services
Early
Help
Services
Universal
Health
Housing
Others
TRIAGE
Single Front Door / Triage / MASH
Page 2

12. Underlying Principles
What is Early Help?
Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges at any point in a child’s life. Where a child would benefit from co-ordinated early help, an early help inter-agency assessment should be arranged (DfE Keeping Children Safe 2016)
Children and Families receive the right help, at the right time, by the right people, following a good quality assessment of the whole family’s needs
Services work together to help families be resourceful and resilient
Families are not “passed around” the system, there will be one main point of contact who draws in other services as part of the Team around the Family as quickly as possible.
Underlying Principles

13. Lewisham’s triangle of need
Government Troubled Families Outcomes
Specialist/Acute
Early Help
Targeted
Additional support embedded in universal provision
Universal +
Level 2 – Currently ‘additional’ could be called Universal Plus if partners would prefer
Universal

14. Underlying Principles
Assessing need and outcome-focused planning
Assessments provide good analysis and are carried out with the family
Plans are developed with families who understand progress towards achieving their outcomes
In order for professionals to solve problems at the lowest level of need, they need to be confident in assessing needs and understanding when and when not to refer to another service
All staff and professionals look at the needs of the whole family, facilitate problem solving for families, put in place a family plan that measures progress and outcomes and encourages greater family resilience and independence
We know if we are making a difference with families and we understand the needs, patterns and trends through good quality data analysis
Underlying Principles

15. Ofsted Thematic Inspection in Early Help
12 Local Authorities Visited – Main Findings
1) Assessments
Half were of poor quality
Limited or no consideration given to family history
Absence of information in relation to fathers or male partners
Failure to speak to the children in the family
Parent focused assessments
2) Planning
Plans lacked clear objectives to be achieved (more action-focused)
Did not look at each individual child’s needs
Plans were not regularly reviewed
Where reviewed, plans relied too heavily on whether actions had been achieved rather than what the impact had been for the child and family, eg mum attended parenting group (what was the impact of this?)
Ofsted Thematic Inspection in Early Help

16. Ofsted Thematic Inspection on Early Help
12 Local Authorities Visited – Main Findings cont’d
3) Impact
Local Authorities and their partner agencies are not evaluating the impact of their early help work
4) Referrals
The inspection also looked at referrals to CSC. Decision-making was good in determining if a statutory intervention was required
However, some families were not then directed to early help services, resulting in re-referrals
Too often referrers did not seek or receive feedback
Partner agencies were not always clear where and how to refer for LA Targeted Early Help Services
Ofsted Thematic Inspection on Early Help

17. Ofsted Thematic Inspection of Early Help
Ofsted Thematic Recommendations
Ensure assessments reflect the views of each child and family member
Assessments provide evidence-based analysis
Plans are clear, purposeful and outcome focused
Multi-agency training and intervention is crucial
Effective work with families is founded on strong relationships both with and within the family and across the professional network
Processes for evaluating the overall effectiveness of Early Help across the partnership are essential: we need to use data as well as qualitative feedback more effectively
Ref: Early help: whose responsibility? (Ofsted March 2015)
Ofsted Thematic Inspection of Early Help

18. What is your role in effective assessment, planning and support with families? How will you know if you are making a difference?
Table Discussions

19.
Next Steps