Wiltshire Safeguarding Children Board and Wiltshire ...

1 FINAL Approved 20 Nov 14 Wiltshire Safeguarding Children Board and Wiltshire Children and Young People s Trust Revised Multi-Agency Thresholds for Safeguarding Children December 2014 Accessing the right level of support to safeguard Children and young people This document replaces Revised Multi-agency Thresholds for Safeguarding Children published February 2013 (amended May 14) FINAL Approved 20 Nov 14 Foreword We have great pleasure, on behalf of the Wiltshire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) and the Wiltshire Children & Young People s Trust in introducing the revised guidance on the application of multi-agency thresholds for use across Wiltshire . This guidance has been strengthened through consultation across the partnership and reflects the aspirations of our joint Early Help Strategy to ensure all Children and young people receive the right support at the right time.

2 Our guidance is for everyone who is working directly or indirectly with Children , young people and their families in Wiltshire whether from a statutory, voluntary, private or independent agency/setting. We are confident that the document achieves the right level of guidance and expectations. The purpose of the guidance is to help identify the degree of need of Children and their families and to ensure that workers respond appropriately, using the guidance to complement and enhance professional judgement. It is fundamentally about working better together and intervening earlier with Children and young people to provide services at the earliest opportunity. The guidance supports the shared endeavour of identifying Children who need help and protection whilst acknowledging that families can be dynamic and unpredictable.

3 Meeting the needs of Children who require additional support can be complex. This guide, with shared and agreed thresholds for targeted and specialist services, will help Children get the help they need when they need it whilst also ensuring compliance with statutory responsibilities. The WSCB and Children s Trust endorses and actively promotes the principles of early intervention; understanding a child s situation, helping families early and providing clear pathways all help to address issues before they escalate into larger problems. Whether an Early Help CAF or a My Support Plan is the assessment tool used for this is, to some extent, less significant; what is important is the act of assessing needs and developing effective and smart plans to achieve good outcomes all done collaboratively with the child and their family and empowering them to own and contribute to their plan.

4 We would like to thank all those colleagues who have been involved in producing this document and we look forward to hearing about its usefulness and impact. (signatures to be added once guidance approved) Cliff Turner Laura Mayes Carolyn Godfrey Independent Chair Wiltshire Safeguarding Children Board Lead Member for Children s Services and Chair, Wiltshire Children s & Young People s Trust Director of Children s Services Wiltshire Council K:\C&F\Pathways\Thresholds for Safeguarding Children 2014\ 3 of 50 CONTENTS FOREWORD .. 2 1. INTRODUCTION .. 4 2. PRINCIPLES OF EARLY HELP AND PROVIDING SUPPORT .. 5 3. THRESHOLDS AND LEVELS OF NEED .. 6 4. WHAT TO DO .. 8 FLOWCHART 1 WHAT TO DO .. 10 FLOWCHART 2 COMPLETING AN EARLY HELP CAF OR MY SUPPORT PLAN .. 11 WHEN WOULD I CONSIDER REFERRING TO Children S SOCIAL CARE?

5 12 REPORTING A Safeguarding CONCERN WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?.. 12 PROFESSIONAL DISAGREEMENTS .. 12 5. WORKING WELL ACROSS AGENCIES, SETTINGS AND THRESHOLDS .. 13 MULTI-AGENCY FORUMS (MAFS) .. 13 ADULT SERVICES .. 13 STEPPING ACROSS - TRANSITION .. 13 STEPPING UP AND STEPPING DOWN .. 14 WHAT IF THERE ISN T A LEAD PROFESSIONAL IDENTIFIED? .. 15 THE GATEWAY PANEL .. 16 6. EARLY HELP CAF - CLOSURE AND MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS .. 17 7. TRAINING, TOOLS AND FURTHER SUPPORT .. 18 FOCUS .. 19 FOCUS Children .. 21 FOCUS SEXUAL EXPLOITATION .. 23 FOCUS SEXUAL ABUSE .. 25 FOCUS MENTAL HEALTH .. 27 8. CONTACTS .. 29 9. APPENDIX .. 30 Wiltshire S EARLY HELP OFFER .. 30 OBSTACLES TO HEALTH, DEVELOPMENT AND WELLBEING AND CORRESPONDING LEVELS OF NEED .. 38 GUIDE TO KEY ASSESSMENT TOOLS AND FORMS.

6 43 SPOTLIGHT ON Wiltshire S Children S SOCIAL CARE .. 45 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES .. 47 INFORMATION SHARING AND CONSENT .. 49 COMMON ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .. 50 K:\C&F\Pathways\Thresholds for Safeguarding Children 2014\ 4 of 50 1. Introduction The Wiltshire Children and Young People s Trust and Wiltshire Safeguarding Children Board s Early Help Strategy sets out the improved outcomes we want to see for Children and young people. We want our Children and young people to receive the right help at the right time and providing help early can assist with managing risk and prevent Children and young people from harm and potentially requiring statutory and specialist support. Preventative services can do more to reduce abuse and neglect than reactive services. Many services and professions help Children and families so co-ordinating their work is important to reduce inefficiencies and omissions.

7 The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report, A child-centred system, Professor Eileen Munro, May 2011 This document is intended to assist professionals to identify the right course of action at the right time to help the Children and young people they are working with achieve good outcomes. Our model for early help takes into account levels of need and provides clarity on when and how Children and young people can be supported and safeguarded through universal, targeted and specialist services. In addition Wiltshire s Early Help Offer outlines the universal and targeted resources and support available in Wiltshire to support Children , young people and their families (see appendix ). In the context of this document a child is defined as a child or young person under the age of 18 plus those eligible for services up to aged 25 with special education needs and/or disability.

8 Working with Children and families in identifying their needs is not an exact science. The level of need tables sometimes referred to as descriptor tables (see appendix ) - provide a steer on where particular obstacles to a child s health and development sit across our thresholds. The obstacles listed are by no means exhaustive and note that in many situations a combination of lower level obstacles may collectively mean the child meets a higher threshold. There is no substitute for professional judgement or discussion with others and this guidance aims to assist practitioners and managers in determining levels of need in order to consider the appropriate responses to address them. Responsibility for the review and evaluation of this document is held jointly by the Wiltshire Safeguarding Children Board and the Wiltshire Children & Young People s Trust.

9 Acronyms and abbreviations are somewhat inevitable. A guide to most frequently used ones is provided on the last page of this document. K:\C&F\Pathways\Thresholds for Safeguarding Children 2014\ 5 of 50 2. Principles of early help and providing support Working in partnership with the family Professionals and volunteers should encourage parental involvement at the earliest opportunity unless to do so would prejudice the safety of the child. It s good to talk The needs of Children and young people are the concern and responsibility of all agencies, practitioners and volunteers in Wiltshire who work with Children and their families. Early identification of difficulties and improved outcomes are aided by close collaboration between individual workers, agencies and families.

10 The more we talk the more opportunities there are to meet the child or young person s needs. Proportionate assessment, proportionate intervention Children 's needs should be determined by a good quality assessment which is proportionate to the level of need identified as causing concern. Some circumstances, however, are often less clear. For this reason we are currently developing a new quick assessment tool which will eventually replace the Pre-CAF Checklist and the Specific Agency Referral Form (SARF). This new tool will help you to decide a) whether the child s needs fall within statutory Safeguarding , early help Safeguarding or special educational needs/disability and b) your next course of action (such as make a service referral or compete an Early Help CAF o My Support Plan).