SMBC Early Help Model
26/9/13
Children’s Services Prevention Model
Lead professional coordinating necessary
support
Key Worker delivering
intensive
interventions
Universal services
meeting needs
Social Worker
managing the case
Social Care/ Statutory
intervention
Early Help
Build resilience in families and de-escalate needs
Intervene early to prevent escalation of needs
Early Help (CAF)
Assessment
Section 17 (CIN)
Assessment
‘Early Help’ refers to needs and services before statutory intervention
2
The entire model is designed to de-escalate
and prevent escalation of need
Context and challenges (1)
The Early Help Strategy sets out the importance of creating a new, improved family
support offer within Sandwell. This is due to:
 Children and family feedback suggesting that that the most important
improvements for them were communication and clarity, co-ordination of
services and hands on support
 The findings of the statistical needs analysis which demonstrate that family
dysfunction and neglect are key drivers of escalation of need in Sandwell.
 The emerging evidence of the effectiveness of family support in achieving Early
help objectives, including a reduction in numbers of Looked After Children and
high costs across the public sector of delivering specialist and intensive services
 The national drivers, in particular the Troubled Families agenda, requiring local
authorities to identify a number of multiple need families and deliver interventions
that effect change and positive outcomes
 The identified lack of a coherent family support offer for children, and in
particular those who sit at the lower end of social care (Child in Need Cases) and
those stepped down from social care services. (OFSTED judgement and service
mapping)
3
Context and challenges (2)
The Early Help Strategy also sets out the need to review the child’s journey through
early help and build local networks of services, as:
 Many cases are being referred to the current to the family support team,
suggesting that Sandwell’s universal services and practitioners are not being
supported to hold/ prevent escalation of need
 The need profile of different towns varies widely
 The current system has not been bought into by partners and does not make
effective use of resources across the partnership
 The referral and access process for family support are not currently working
effectively
4
Early help model overview
The current picture
Tier
Current Demand
Current Family Support Provision
LAC/CPP
Approx. 900 (children)
Children’s Social Care, Family Solutions
CIN
500 - 700 (families est.)
Many CIN cases unallocated / not being worked with
Targeted
600 families
Universa
l Plus
600 families
Universal
40,000 families




IFSS (also working with some social care cases)
CAF Co-ordinators holding high case-load (100+)
TYS working alongside CAF in some cases
Commissioned family support services working
mainly at Tier 3
Children’s Centres Leading some cases
Universal Services
Proportionately high levels of demand at tiers 3 and 4, compared to tier 2.
Provision for many CIN cases lacking
Offer ‘below’ social care unclear; despite IFSS being set up
Duplication in roles between family support services – CAF, TYS, IFSS,
Commissioned Family Support Services
 Lack of ‘real’ work being done with families
 Lack of multi-agency ownership for cases
within the system- at any tier
6
Tackling the issues
Tier
LAC/CPP
Demand
Response
Approx. 900 (children)
Children’s Social Care
CIN
200 est.
1000 est. families
Consultant Social Workers Risk Assessing
Enhanced ‘Core Early Help’ Service
EH (CAF) Co-ordinators
Universal
Plus
600f families
Commissioned Family Support Service
Children’s Centres Family Support
Multi-Agency Lead Professionals
Universal
40,000 families
Targeted
Universal Services
Tier 4
cases can
access
Early Help
Service
Supporting
Integrated
Working
Targeted
work in
universal
settings
 Children’s social care focussing on cases where safeguarding concerns exist
 Enhanced Tier 3 Team able to deliver effective, intensive interventions with current
CIN and complex cases, as well as cases stepped down from social care
 Focussed offer at tier 2: lighter touch family support from Children’s Centres and
other commissioned services
 All agencies taking responsibility for cases
 Consultant workers manage risk and support
agencies to deliver integrated working
7
The future state
Tier
Target Demand
Impact
LAC/CPP
XX
Reduced LAC and CPP numbers
CIN
Targeted
Fewer families with complex needs and
less ‘bounce’ between Targeted services
and Social Care
XX
Universal
Plus
XX
Proportionately more families receiving coordinated provision, led by practitioners in
services
Universal
XX
Universal Services meeting needs and
identifying vulnerable families early
 Children and families have needs met early
 Reduced cost across public services
 Sustainable model of Children’s Services
8
Universal services – Tier 1
Universal services to play vital role in meeting the needs of
children and families at the earliest point, through:
 Working together to deliver the core offer – in development – includes
education, childcare, parenting provision, advice services, play services,
health visiting, school nursing, policing, voluntary and community sector
organisations
 Delivering extra services where possible to meet needs at the earliest
stage, e.g. school nurses delivering low level emotional health and
wellbeing services where necessary, schools employing social workers
 Where low level emergent needs can be met by universal services,
signposting effectively to other services, e.g. a parenting programme
 Providing settings for targeted interventions; e.g.
parenting programmes delivered through schools;
youth services working with Looked After Children
 Using pre-Assessment checklist to ensure that
universal provision is meeting children’s needs
 Identifying vulnerable families through effective
information sharing.
9
Universal services – Tier 1
Additional support to be put in place to identify vulnerable families
and the right services for them:
 Focus on effective data ‘flow’ between agencies, e.g. health visitors and
the council
 Development of the Family Profiling Tool – using indicators to predict
vulnerable families, best on the ‘Risk of NEET Indicator (RONI)’
developed in Sandwell
 Development of the online Family Services Directory to provide a
searchable database of services- for families and practitioners – with the
Voluntary and Community Sector
 Development of ‘Families in Sandwell’ webpages to offer advice and
information for families.
 Working on a way of creating networks of universal
practitioners – in line with the COG model
10
Universal Plus – Tier 2
Co-ordinated multi-agency working with a new, supported lead
professional role:
 Early Help Co-ordinators caseloads at this level of need will be ‘phased
out’, as they support other agencies to act as lead professionals.
 Practitioner who is based placed to meet the core needs of the family
appointed as lead professional (with some scope for family choice)
 Lead professional to act as advocate for family and to take ownership for
all agencies meeting their needs through leading Team Around the
Family Meetings and co-ordinating work from agencies.
 Children’s Centres and Commissioned Family Support Services to offer
Tier 2, lighter touch family support – and will act as lead professional in
many cases.
11
Universal Plus – Case holding model
Universal Plus Case
Family support required?
Yes,
age 0-5
Dedicated
children’s
centre family
support
Yes, age 5+
Commissioned
family support
services
Service best placed to hold the case will do so
12
No
Multi agency
lead
professional
Lead Professional Enablers
Early Help journey workshops have identified five ‘must-have’ key enablers that need
to be put in place in order for the new tier two model to be implemented effectively:
Enabler
Detail
Limit number of Lead Professional (LP)
allocations per agency
Due to resource/ capacity issues partners
asked for a cap on the number of allocations
per agency, e.g. 5 per school. Potential impact
on agencies should be modelled
1
2 CAF co-ordinators to play development,
supervision and transition role for LPs
Includes non- line management supervision,
chairing of initial TAF meetings & support line
3 CAF business support to continue to set
up meetings / process minutes (NB LPs
responsible for minute taking)
Involves continued use of existing capacity
4 COGs to offer escalation route – to
EHPPB- and better local network of
professionals to aid LPs in practice.
See COGs slide
5 Improved integrated working
documentation, tools and training to
comprehensively cover lead professional
working
Being developed by DW and WH
These will be rolled out with the Lead Professional model
13
Targeted – Tier 3
Enhanced Early Help Core Service delivering intensive, whole
family interventions for complex cases, including cases currently
classified as Children in Need (CIN).
 Crisis intervention team (Family Focus) offering short term crisis
interventions, especially at the edge of care
 Intensive Family Support Service offering intensive interventions – can
be 12 months (+) with highest and complex need families, including
multi-agency staff
 Focused Family Support offering interventions for multiple need families
 Early Help Co-ordinators helping transition cases to lower level support
 Early Help Social Workers risk assessing cases and working with family
support workers
 Psychologists working with all staff to improve ability to affect change
with difficult families
14
Targeted – Tier 3 Core Team Makeup
Service
FTE
Intensive Family Support
11
Workers
Intensive Family Support
7
Workers (using CIN resource)
Focussed Family Support
5
Workers
TYS Prevention (as FFS
9
Workers)
Case
Average worker
complexity
caseload
Case capacity
(snapshot)
(families)
Case capacity
(year) (families)
High
10
110
147
High
10
60
80
Medium
17.5
88
175
Medium
17.5
158
315
17.5
35
70
Multi-agency FFS workers
2
Medium
Family Solutions – Crisis
intervention
2
High
Therapeutic Intervention
Not case holding
Commissioned intervention
Early Help Co-ordinators
7
Step Downs
40
280
560
Total
40
-
-
730
1347
Consultant Social Workers
Adult psychologists
15
Journey Maps – Early Help
Where child is suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm or impairment, a social care
response will be triggered; otherwise the case will be allocated to the appropriate level of
response
16
The new CAF Journey
The Early Help Child’s Journey Process is designed to prevent needs escalating and support
de-escalation of needs where they do (right support, right time)
17
Role and scope of the COGs
A COG is a locality based, problem solving forum consisting of a range of partner
agencies, who meet together to share information and devise joint action plans
around families with the aim of providing early help. A COG is designed to streamline
the multi-agency approach required for Early Help, provide better outcomes for
families in Sandwell, and make effective use of partner resources.
Primary responsibilities of the COG
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identify the Lead Professional
Ensure that all cases have a TAF plan with an appropriate level of response.
Review impact of TAF plans within three months to monitor progression.
Resolve any inter-agency cooperation issues that arise and ensure that all
agencies are providing services agreed.
Ensure that closed cases have a clear exit strategy that supports a transition to a
lower level of need, recommending communications with key agencies.
Highlight the need for resources where there is unmet needs to commissioners
Spot purchase of resource for local unmet needs
Provide reports to Early Help Partnership Performance Board when required, with
respect of wider strategic issues i.e. unmet need, workforce development, local
commissioning etc.
Inform and assist the Families and Communities
Together (FACTs) agenda
18
CAF Journey Improvements
Recommendation
Detail
T’scale
Owner
Clarity on responsibilities at Tier 1 /
Universal Level, especially where
signposting to additional services
• To be included in the new integrated working
procedures
Oct
TBC
Family Information Service to align
with Children’s centres
• Embed FIS workers in children’s centres (+
ACCESS/ MASH) to increase signposting role
and reduce duplication
2013
TBC
Promote use of eCAF and clarify
relationship with Safety Net
• To be included in new integrated working
procedures and
Oct
TBC
New process for identifying
vulnerable C&YP who are new to
the borough
• To resolve a specific identified issue- including
responsibility for assessment
Oct/
Nov
TBC
Rebrand and relaunch the CAF as
the Early Help Assessment
• Includes promotion amongst agencies not using
it: VCSO, YPs Services etc.
Oct
TBC
Implement measures to ensure
that child voice is included in CAFs
and family action plans
• New TAF toolkit to include child voice guidance
• C&YP engagement to be recorded on eCAF by
agency and reported to EHPPB
Now
TBC
Clear guidelines and support for
families that don’t engage
• Need to decide on an escalation route for these
families- COGS/ MASH and include in integrated
working procedures
Oct
TBC
Develop outcomes measurement
system for TAF action plans
• To be based on Child Outcomes Star
Oct/
Nov
TBC
Develop multi-agency quality
assurance framework
• Agree with EHPPB
Oct
Nov
TBC
19
Additional service requirements – parenting
A parenting co-ordinator will work to embed effective parenting provision across the
borough and the tiers of need:
Current provision
Proposed amendments
Family support
interventions
deliver 1:1
programmes (IFST,
TYS)
Children’s Centre
offer various
programmes- low
take-up
Ensure enough practitioners at tier 3
trained to deliver 1:1 parenting
interventions to deliver to complex
families
- Level 3 Triple P (TBC)?
Elsewhere key workers will ensure
attendance and engagement with
suitable programme, through liaison
with parenting support manager
2
Children’s Centre
offer various
programmes- low
take-up
Co-ordinated suite of programmes
delivered in settings most likely to
engage parents at this level- schools/
children’s centres
- Level 2 Triple P (TBC)?
- Lead professionals ensure
engagement and progress
1
CCs offer various
programmes- low
take-up
Schools trained in
Changes
programme
Co-ordinated suite of programmes
delivered in settings most likely to
engage parents at this level- schools/
children’s centres
- Level 1: Changes (TBC)?
3
Cost implication
Workforce
development costs
Additional costs in
terms of time for
practitioners to be
modelled
Co-ordination cost (1
FTE?)
Children’s centres
already commissioned
to deliver these
Co-ordination cost (1
FTE (included above)
Financial incentives for
completed
programmes in
schools?
Benefit
Hardest to
engage / most
complex
families have
intensive 1:1
support
Addresses
current issue of
nonengagement
Optimises
current capacity
(150+
practitioners
trained in
Changes)
20
All parenting provision to be measured
and evaluated for effectiveness