Better Understanding – Better Outcomes
Ged Fitzgerald - Chief Executive
Liverpool City Council
Objectives:
• Strengthen our collective response to families in need of help &
protection.
• Ensure there is a clear understanding of the Levels of Need
Framework so we provide the right response at the right time.
• Ensure there is a clear understanding of ‘Early Help’, and the
guidance and support available to practitioner from the 3 hubs.
• Improve the quality of partnership working in order to improve
outcomes for Children & Families.
Context:
• The findings of the partnership (JTAI) inspection (July 2016) application of the Levels of Need & partnership engagement in Early
Help.
• Families tell us we could do better, sooner.
• Prevention is better than cure
• Early Help is more effective in improving outcomes & building
resilience.
• Reactive involvement is costly.
• Financial landscape means we must make better use of our
collective resources.
What do we need to do:
• Strengthen our partnership working – build on each others
strengths, knowledge & skills.
• Listen to families and work with families – not ‘do’ to.
• Take a ‘strength based approach’ – building on the existing
strengths of families and communities.
• Be individually accountable as well as proactive - respond to
children & families in need of early help.
• Only refer families to statutory services whose needs cannot be
met through early help.
Vision & Ambition for the City :
The Children’s & Families Trust Board –
the best city in the UK to grow up in’
‘
•
•
•
•
•
Having the best start
Being ready to learn
Being ready for school
Being ready for work
Being healthy, happy and safe from harm
WORKING TOGETHER TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN :
Liverpool – Local Context
Liverpool – Local Context (Q and A)
• How many children age 0 – 18 are living in Liverpool
96,933
• The number of children living in poverty in Liverpool?
1 in 3
• The number of Primary school aged children entitled to free school
27%
• The number of young people who are NEET (not in Education,
Employment or Training)
6.3% (Please note: 19.2% of activity for young people in Liverpool is not
known and as this is more than 50% above the national average of 8.4%,
it is possible that the number and proportion of NEET will be higher)
• How many children were subject to an Early Help Assessment being
opened during the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2016/17
1126 - This compares to 1043 children for the same period in the previous
year –an 8% increase
Liverpool – Local Context (Q and A)
• Which of the following agencies undertook this highest number of Early
Help Assessments between April – September 2016:
School 103
Children’s Centres 160
3rd Sector Orgs 11
Hubs 135 (include step down from social care)
Health Visitors 16
Midwifery Services 0
• The number of currently assessed as being a ‘Child In Need’ (Section 17)
at the end of 2015/16 is:
2807
• The number of children subject to a Child Protection Plan at the end of
2015/16 is
377
Liverpool – Local Context (Q and A)
• How many Children currently ‘Looked After’ by the Local Authority as at
31 September 2016
1099
• What is the average cost to the City Council for a Looked After Child?
£151,733
• What is the attendance rate for primary schools in Liverpool
95.4%
• What is the attendance rate for secondary schools in Liverpool
93.59%
Liverpool Safeguarding Children
Board
Working Together to Safeguard Children and
Young People in Liverpool
Liverpool Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB)
The role of the LSCB is to coordinate local work to
safeguard and promote the welfare of children and:
to ensure the effectiveness of what the member
organisations do individually and together.
“Safeguarding children – the action
we take to promote the welfare of
children and protect them from
harm – is everyone’s responsibility.
Everyone who comes into contact
with children and families has role
to play.”
Safeguarding
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
• Protecting children from maltreatment;
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development;
• Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with
the provision of safe and effective care; and
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Safeguarding takes place across a continuum of needs
Challenge of local context
Deprivation can interact with other stress factors resulting in
children’s needs not being met adequately.
The majority of people living in deprived circumstances parent
their children effectively, but it is a lot harder.
Many face social and personal challenges and these factors
affect their capacity to provide what their children need to the
extent that the children suffer, or are likely to suffer, significant
harm.
DfE: Identifying when parenting capacity results in neglect
Core Business – Coordinate & Evaluate the
Effectiveness of Safeguarding Services
Key Areas of Focus 2016-17
Reducing the harm to children and Young people and impact arising
from:
• Neglect
• Domestic Abuse
• Criminality
• Exploitation including sexual
• Improving the Emotional Health and Well Being of children
And
• Responding to safeguard children In the First One Thousand
Days (Conception to Age 2)
Joint Targeted Area Inspection – Key
Findings
“Multi-agency senior leaders across the partnership in
Liverpool share a vision, ambition and commitment to protect
and improve the lives of their vulnerable children and young
people.
Despite the many challenges they face – they operate in a
context of increasing demand for services and substantial
reduction in resources – we found evidence of strong
collaboration between agencies.”
However…..
”Thresholds are not embedded or consistently applied and the
sporadic use of the multi-agency referral form exemplifies this
finding, leading to too many inappropriate referrals to children’s
social care.”
“Confusion regarding thresholds, coupled with issues of capacity,
create drift and delay in assessing risk by key partner agencies.”
Recurring Themes; Audit, Review,
Inspection
• Poor Multi Agency Working Together
• Poor Information sharing
• Poor Multi Agency Understanding and Assessment of
the Impact of Neglect
• Poor Understanding of levels of need
• Early Help not embedded
• Culture of ‘handing over’ - Anxiety about managing risk
Are we sharing the responsibility?
Ok…..we all know the challenges…BUT
We have to respond to need more effectively and we have to
embed early help.
How do we make it work?
How do you make it work?
Table Discussion
Task:
• What can your organisation do to improve the
collective response to need as it arises?
• What can you do as an individual to better
respond to need?
Please capture your thoughts on flip chart paper
provided
Small
change,
Big difference!
If we all change one small aspect of
our practice, the change in
outcomes will be big.
What next?
As a professional working with young people, you may
have opportunities to identify issues early so it is
important to familiarise yourself with the signs and
indicators that a child or young person needs are not
being met.
Your role is to offer support, to build on family strengths
to develop resilience and to work together with
colleagues or professionals in other agencies.
Better Understanding…Better
Outcomes
Consider….
• What are the risk factors for this family?
• What are the strengths for this family?
• What does it feel like being Carly?
• What are the likely outcomes for baby Holly?
Consider….
• What made a difference?
• Identify the areas of good practice that led to
better outcomes for this family.
What do We Have to Support Us?
Locality Early Help Coordinators
Chad Thompson / Peter Owens / Pauline Ashton
/
Chris Lyle Permanence / Pam Cattell Children's Assessment
Three Locality Early Help Hubs
North: Altvalley Communiversity,
Tel: 0151 233 3637
Email: [email protected]
Central: Wavertree One Stop shop
Tel: 0151 233 6152
Email: [email protected]
South: Belle Vale Children’s Centre
Tel: 0151 233 4447
Email: [email protected]
Early Help Team Structure
Locality Early Help
Coordinator
Consultant Social
worker
Family
Outreach
Support
Worker
EHAT
Officers
Addaction
Families
Worker
DWP
Families
Advisor
Family
Intervention
Team
** Police –
Blue Light
Hubs
** Development and strategic discussions stage
Early Help
Assessment Tool
(EHAT)
Workforce Development
EHAT Training
Early Help Seminars
LCVS Capacity Building For The Future
LSCB Open Space Events/Multi Agency Training
Partnerships Work (GP’s, Hospitals, Housing)
Measuring Impact Tool
What Tools Do we Have to Help Us
 Early Help Directory
 Early Help Strategy
 Responding to Need
Guidance and Levels of
Need Framework
 Levels of Need Pocket
Guide
 Early Help Practitioners
Guide
Careline and the MARF
Careline
• Is the front door and decision maker to referrals accessing Level 4
(Children's Social Care Statutory Intervention)
• Provides direction to the referrer on the outcome of their
assessment
• Partner Services within the Careline process to MASH (Share
intelligence and information) in order to make better informed
decisions on what to do next
Multi Agency Referral Form (MARF)
• Tool to assess if referral requires level 4 (statutory intervention)
• All agencies must complete a MARF when contacting Careline
• Enables professionals to better understand the levels of need
• Increase professional accountability
• EHAT can replace the MARF if already in place –
no need to duplicate.
Careline and the MARF
Careline
• Is the front door and decision maker to referrals accessing Level 4
(Children's Social Care Statutory Intervention)
• Provides direction to the referrer on the outcome of their
assessment
• Partner Services within the Careline process to MASH (Share
intelligence and information) in order to make better informed
decisions on what to do next
Multi Agency Referral Form (MARF)
• Tool to assess if referral requires level 4 (statutory intervention)
• All agencies must complete a MARF when contacting Careline
• Enables professionals to better understand the levels of need
• Increase professional accountability
• EHAT can replace the MARF if already in place –
no need to duplicate.
What can Early Help do that a Social Worker cant ?
 Team around the Family (TAF) and Lead professional
 Voluntary Engagement and Less Intrusive
 Spend more time with families
 Link to other services and build on partner expertise
 Coach and Support professionals – EHAT Officers
 Educate, Enable and Empower
Think Early … Think Family .. Take Action
Thank you
Local Case Study
When Early Help Works
Well
SO WHAT’S NEXT ?
1. Do you know of
a child/family in
need of support?
2. What can get in the
way of families
accepting support?
3. What can families do
for themselves?
How do you identify
what to do next and if
it should be you or
someone else??
What can you use to
ensure that you are
engaging families
effectively and securing
consent?
What’s stopping
children and families
from dealing with their
needs/issues and why
they need someone
else to help them?
A DECISION
MAKING
FRAMEWORK
STRENGTH BASED
CONVERSATIONS
ATTACHMENT
THEORY
LEVELS OF NEED
4. Are you having the
right conversations
with children and
families?
How can you get the
most from your
engagement with
children and families
and how can you
capture this and ensure
partners work together
to provide support?
EHAT & SUPPORT
JOURNEY / HUBS /
EARLY HELP
DIRECTORY
EHAT
 Simplified and shorter – greater detail in guidance notes
 On Line submission being developed – ability to save/print a
copy will by a key requirement – increased security
 Quality Assurance Framework – quality begins with the
initiator/line manager and then sampling right to the top –
family feedback on interventions are fundamental
 Local version of Impact Measure being developed
How will we know if there is improvement?
 Behaviour Insights Programme
 Feedback from these sessions
 Evaluations
 On going dialogue with partners
 Data – Review of current position
How will we know things are improving ?
Date for your diary
MONDAY 8 MAY 2017
9 AM
OR
1 PM
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE, EDGE LANE
BEFORE YOU LEAVE TODAY
 Thank you for attending – we recognise your time is pressurised
 Please complete the Evaluation Form in your Pack – and sign
the declaration for on the reverse
 Please continue to tell us anything that will help us change
practices so that we can collectively make the difference to
enable Early Help better support families in our City.