Early Help toolkit

  1. Introduction to early help

Early Help Practice Guidance

The following guidelines were developed by a multi-agency working group encompassing a range of services that support families as part of the Early Help offer.

The areas to be covered will provide an overview of what Early Help is along with hints and tips for what ‘good practice’ looks and feels like. It supports the Early Help Practice Standardsby giving links to tools and resources we can use when working with our children, young people and families. In turn this will enable practitioners to meet the standards to make positive and sustained changes in the lives of our children, young people and families.

It is not intended as a definitive guide but an aid to develop a common understanding across agencies and individuals, so effective partnerships can flourish and develop through shared goals.

Please note that it is not possible to cover every scenario or concern, the guidance included needs to be used in conjunction with your professional judgement, however if in doubt seek advice from your Safeguarding Lead or Line Manager.

This guidance reflects the commitment from workers and agencies at all levels to develop and implement a co-ordinated Early Help offer when working with children, young people and families. It reflects the passion of Buckinghamshire’s workers to improve outcomes and reduce the need for statutory intervention from Social Care. It is underpinned byBuckinghamshire’s Early Help Strategy,the Troubled Families Programme, Government strategies, policies, and research.

We would like to acknowledge the input from the following services in the development of this document:

Action for Children, Barnardos, Bucks County Council ,Thames Valley Police, PACEY, NHS……….

2. Referrals

Signposting and Referrals

Good signposting and referral is the cornerstone to receiving effective advice and support to meet the needs of the child/ren and family.

Using the thresholds document will help you to identify if you need to provide signposting or if a referral may be required.

What is signposting?

Signposting usually takes place before in depth work has taken place or when a new problem is shared.

It describes the process of giving a client the details about another agency or organisation that will be able to help them. It is normally left to the clients themselves to make arrangements for support, however depending on their level of ability and your role and organisation it may require you to support the client to make contact or attend an appointment.

Often when signposting you may have very little information about the case or are not be in a positon to explore all aspects of the problems and issues. You may then consider exploring with the client an alternate practitioner who may be in a better position to make a detailed referral (school, health visitor etc.) as these organisations may have more information and a well-established relationship in order to complete a full referral.

When considering what service may be appropriate for a family and their situation.BFISwebsite provides a wide range of extensive services.

What is a referral?

There a two key differences with a referral:

Firstly, with a referral an agency is more likely to have started work with the child/family. Secondly, the agency will make the contact with the referral agency directly on behalf of the client.

A referral is a more detailed process than signposting. Making a good referral takes skill and patience. A good referral ensures there is enough information for robust decisions to be made and therefore ensures children and families are getting the right support at the right time.

It is far better to spend time doing one good referral than 10 poor ones

What Makes a Good Referral?

A good referral gives enough information to inform the decision making process and ensure that any assessment is as comprehensive and accurate as possible. We value your professional expertise and analysis.

Consult with the child/young person and family to ensure you have a clear understanding of the situation and what the needs are.

Consider the following questions:

  1. Have I included all of the child/young person (YP) family details available to me? Including:
  2. Name address and especially contact numbers for all the family members including postcode.
  3. Date of birth for all family members (if you don’t have all DOB then put ages in)
  4. Any other household members or regular overnight visitors (if known)
  5. Have I provided my contact details? Including:
  6. Name, address, phone number , mobile and email
  7. Availability (especially if part time, shift or term time only) consider including alternate arrangements if you won’t be available for any follow up.
  8. Have I made it clear why I am making this referral now? Including
  9. Telling us about your involvement with the child/YP/family
  10. Explaining why you believe Early Help is required
  11. Telling us what strategies or interventions you have put in place to address your concerns
  12. Helping us to understand this child/YP/family by giving us your overall opinion and analysis from your perspective, what potential outcomes are expected, taking into account your role and professional expertise.
  13. Have I included all the information available to me about the relevant professionals working with the family? Including:
  14. Addresses, phone numbers, e-mails and roles
  15. Schools each of the children attend
  16. Have I included information on how I obtained information or reached my concerns? It might be helpful to ask yourself these additional questions and include:
  17. How do I know this information?
  18. Did I witness/hear something directly, or is this hearsay information?
  19. Was I told something by someone who witnessed or heard an event?
  20. Has the child/YP/family told me this information
  21. Have I included the views and information from the child/YP/Family? Including:
  22. CONSENT-discussing fully with the family the referral andFraser Guidance checklist

There are noticeable common themes that result in referrals being declined so don’t fall into these traps:

  • Not meeting the BCSB Threshold- please make sure you have used the Threshold document to assess if this is an appropriate referral – it may require a single agency referral i.e. CAMHs, Children Centre.
  • Not enough information- many referrals have very brief information so decisions can’t be made.
  • No consent– Early Help support and interventions are consent based it is vital that consent has been sought, not just for the referral to be made but with full understanding that they are consenting to work with agencies and make positive changes.
  • Request for a service- frequently referrals simply state the request for a service without the description of what the needs are or support requested. For example ‘referral for ‘Family Resilience Service’ however what is it and what the support will look like i.e. the family need support with routines and boundaries and behaviour management.’ It will be the Early Help Panel decision on which service will take the lead, based on the information regarding the family’s needs.
  • No consideration for other support-in the first instance, parenting support is a common request however a parenting group may not have not been consider, if it has why was this not been seen as appropriate. Parenting support cannot always be offered on a 1:1 home visiting basis and a parenting group needs to considered in the first instance

Early Help Panel referrals are for those issues at level 3 on the Threshold document and require a multi-agency response to the unmet needs.

When considering making a referral, there are a number of steps and considerations to take before completing a form:

  • Use the Thresholds document to help assess and identify the level of need you are considering making a referral for.
  • Speak to the family to gain a better understanding the situation and to gain CONSENT.

There may be a number of reasons you are considering a referral to Early Help or another agency for specific support.

Hints & Tips

It is important that when making a referral for Early Help that you do not promise a specific intervention. The panel will decide the most appropriate service and if this differs from what a family think they have been promised it can hinder and even prevent engagement and lead to a withdrawing of consent.

You may have been supporting a family in Early Help at level 1 or 2 in line withBucks Thresholds document.

3. Assessment

What is early help assessment?

The Early help assessment is used by practitioners to help gather and understand information about the strengths and needs, completed with the family and includes their thoughts and feelings regarding their situation. The holistic Outcomes Star assessment identifies the most appropriate way to meet those needs and support the family to make positive changes.

When it is completed, practitioners are able to see the family’s strengths so they can be built on, identify the needs holistically and not fragmented.

What makes a good quality early help assessment?

A good quality early help assessment should be:

Empowering-making sure that the child/young person and/or their parent/carer is supported to participate and it is a collaborative assessment.

Developmental- supporting the child or young person and parent/carer to adopt a solution focused approach to the discussion and plan.

Accessible- for all concerned, including the efficient use of time and resources (e.g. resources, equipment and interpreter.

Transparent- the purpose of the assessment is clear and honest and there are no hidden agendas. Everyone must understand the possible outcomes of the assessment.

The principles underpinning it should include:

Validity-the assessment has achieved what it intended to assess (i.e. the strengths and needs of the child/young person)

Accuracy-the assessment provides an accurate representation of the strengths and needs of the child/young person.

Clarity-the assessment is clear, concise and understandable by all those involved and any practitioners who may get involved at a later stage.

Inclusive-the assessment represents the views and opinions of the child or young person and/or family: this is reflected through their language and expressions.

Authenticity-the assessment is accurate, evidence based record of the discussions.

Professionalism-the assessment is non-judgemental and follows organisational codes of practice for recording.

Outcome based-the assessment promotes an approach that focuses on what the child or young person and their parents/carers want to achieve.

Practical-the assessment identifies the strengths and needs clearly and specifically to allow for an accurate and appropriate action plan.

As practitioners we use a range of assessment tools. Some holistic and some more specialised and focused on a particular area.

Bucks Early Help Partnership identifies the Outcomes Star Tool as the generic holistic assessment; however we may at times use additional assessment tools:

4. Partnership and collaborative working

Partnership and Collaborative Working

Partnership and collaborative working is the cornerstone for good practice. Without this, the impact on families can lead to confusion, feeling overwhelmed and pulled in different directions, and eventually disengaging with support and services.

Having good, regular communication is fundamental to the process.

COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION AND MORE COMMUNICATION!

Partnership Ladder

If we consider the Partnership ladder below (adapted from Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation) to evaluate where we might be on this ladder and then consider how we might improve individually and organisationally.

  • Conflict- nobody wants to work with each other
  • Competition- don’t tell anyone else but I think we’ve solved it
  • Co-existence- you do your thing, we’ll do ours
  • Compliance- agree partnership is a good idea but do little ornothing to actually support it.
  • Co-operation- agree partnership is a good idea and provide helpand support when you have spare capacity
  • Co-ordination- adjust what you do to avoid the major issues
  • Collaboration- agree to work together on the major issues
  • Co-ownership- you believe that working together, will benefitall and bring a ‘Partnership Dividend’
  • Full partnership- Partners acknowledge individual purpose to thePartnership

Through full partnership working, partners work together to deliver joined up solutions and support for children and families. This includes sharing geographical data, statistics and local intelligence in order to plan services and share resources.

Improving the way we work:

Traditional approaches to service delivery often involve tackling recurring issues, with multiple agencies working in isolation. By working in partnership we can identify and respond to problems more effectively and efficiently in a seamless approach for families.

How can we do this?

During this project there were a number of good practice ideas shared across agencies along with frustrations regarding sharing information and clear communication across agencies.

Hints & Tips

When a number of practitioners are supporting a family: create an email group in contacts under the case number or initials to share information and update one another, also to arrange meetings.Remembering to only use initials/case number in the body of the message as well as the subject line.

Multi Agency/Network Meetings:

Purpose of Meetings

Network Meetings provide an opportunity for professionals involved with a family to come together not only to share information, but also to help determine the direction of a case and the plan for a child; they may be held to resolve uncertainty, controversy or inter-agency disagreement. They may be helpful where there are particularly complex family concerns, with extensive professionals/networks.

It is important to recognise that these meetings should supplement and not replace existing good practices of engaging family members in assessment and planning activity.

Who can convene Meetings?

Any professional involved or part of the multi-agency group or their Manager can request a network meeting.

It would be helpful, but not essential, for a Manager or other senior staff who is not directly involved with the case from any agency to Chair the meeting and facilitate discussion; otherwise, the meeting should be chaired by the Lead Professional.

Considerations

Initially practitioners may bring partial or biased information to the multi-agency meeting and there may be competing interpretations of a situation. Any decisions reached need to be based on the best information available and be as objective and fair as possible. It is important to understand the relevance of any information presented and to analyse it is terms of relevance for the child. Professionals should seek to see the situation through the eyes of the child. Intuition should not be ignored but requires exploration and consideration against the full range of information available.

Group decisions can be dominated by a desire to avoid conflict rather than a determination to establish the facts. The tendency to hold on to first impressions can result in fixed views and a reluctance to reconsider even in the light of new information. The introduction of challenge from someone who does not have direct involvement with the case and use of standardised tools to measure progress will help to mitigate against unhelpful processes.

Benefits:

Effective multi agency working and the Lead Professional (LP) are key elements of improving outcomes for children and young people through the provision of integrated support.

  • The child, young person, parents/ or carers are fully involved in all decisions regarding the help and support they receive;
  • Parents/carers, and where appropriate, children and young people are equal members of the multi-agency team.
  • Joined-up, seamless support is provided to the family, no matter how many professionals, services, teams and agencies are involved;
  • Professionals from the same and different services work closely together within a clear structure, which places the needs of the child, young person and their family at the heart of all planning and delivery of services;
  • Practice is outcome driven, focused on solutions and helps the family to become more resilient, and self-reliant.
  • The support provided accounts for the child and family’s priorities, their cultural background and their values.

When Professionals Disagree

There may be times when professionals disagree about the decision being made, regarding the level of need of a particular child.

It is important that professionals should feel that their concerns have been considered. If a professional is unhappy with a decision that has been made regarding a referral, they should be confident in challenging the referral decision

5. Action plans

Child and Family Action Plans

A child and family action plan identifies objectives and goals of intervention, details the interventions to be undertaken, and the roles and responsibilities of the child, young person and family and each of the organisations providing services to the family. The assessment and goals of intervention will be discussed and agreed with the child, young person and their family.

The child and family action plan also contains timelines for the length of intervention and for monitoring and review.

The agreed tool for assessment and action plans within Bucks Early Help services is the Outcomes Star, and these tool includes a Family Action Plan.

“One family, one plan”

Through family intervention, families and their problems are ‘gripped’ and a plan of action for resolving them developed and agreed. Cases are not allowed to ‘drift’, and the family worker will ensure the efforts of different agencies and professionals are pulled together and aligned. This reduces the opportunity for families to ‘play agencies off against each other’, provides an opportunity to reduce some of the overlapping agency activity that surrounds these families and the waste that entails, plus the knock-on impact that may have on the families. It requires family workers and managers to cut through overlapping plans, assessments and activity, to prevent resources being wasted as different agencies pull in conflicting directions.