Early Help Newsletter - April 2016

Early Help Strategy for Shropshire 2016-2018

We are pleased to be able to publish a refresh of the Early Help Strategy for Shropshire for 2016-2018.

 The refresh of the Early Help Strategy:

• reflects the changes and further developments to systems for identifying, assessing and providing early help and a whole family approach.
• takes into consideration transformation of services and ways of working, both in the organisation of children’s services but also of other stakeholders and organisations including business and financial strategies of public services. 
• takes into account our learning from; understanding of effectiveness, quality assurance and lessons from wider research and learning including points raised in the Ofsted National Thematic Inspection of Early Help.

The strategy can be found on the early help website https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/early-help/strategies-and-reports/

 Many organisations have had the opportunity to comment on the strategy as it was being updated and we welcomed their contribution. If you would like to offer any feedback on the strategy or any other aspects of early help in Shropshire please email earlyhelp@shropshire.gov.uk

Early Help Forms and Tools – Introducing The Family Webstar

Based on what practitioners have told us, and the principles of the Strengthening Families approach, we have looked at transforming the way we work with families to understand the complexity and interrelated nature of the issues they face. As part of this transformation we have developed a Shropshire Family Webstar assessment tool and a Whole Family Action Plan.

The Family Webstar can be used as a starting point for a discussion with family members where there are early help needs emerging. The Family Webstar diagram is also supported by structured questions which enable contextual information to be gathered, taking the elements of the EHAF and combining these as part of a fuller assessment of the whole family.

The Family Webstar is also supported by a Whole Family Action Plan.  This is about working with the family to identify goals, solutions and tasks to aid the identification of the right service at the right time.

The individual Webstar can also be used by practitioners to further explore the needs of individual members of the family – either adults or children in particular to hear the voice of the child.

The introduction of the Family Webstar and Action Plan will replace the EHAF and are now available on the Early Help Website and through ECINS. Practitioners should use the Family Webstar and Family Action Plan when starting new cases. 

The new Whole Family Webstar assessment, Family Action Plan and Consent form are on the Early Help Website. https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/early-help/

From the 1st April 2016, ECINS is the Case Recording System for Strengthening Families through Early Help for new cases.  We appreciate that not all practitioners will be in a position to start using ECINS from this date so we will apply a phased approach, supported with training and guidance during the transition.  

For further information, support or to sign up to ECINS please contact Strengthening Families via ShropshireStrengtheningFamilies@Shropshire.gov.uk

Reading Well for Young People

Shropshire Libraries, in conjunction with The Reading Agency, have launched a Reading Well for Young Adults collection. A booklist of 35 titles are available providing 13-18 year olds with support and advice on common mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD and ASD, bullying, confidence and self-esteem, body image and eating, OCD, self-harm and stress. The books have been chosen by young people and health professionals. The books will be available on the open shelves in public libraries and free for anyone to borrow.

For more information, contact Nicola Dawson or Annabel Gittins (Library Commissioning Managers for Children and Young People) on 01743 255031 or email nicola.dawson@shropshire.gov.uk and

annabel.gittins@shropshire.gov.uk

New Fit Families Weight Management Service

The Shropshire school nursing team have been commissioned by Public Health to deliver a weight management supportive service called  ‘Fit Families’  for children and young people throughout Shropshire. This will be a supportive lifestyle programme with the focus on improving diet, increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour.  This will be delivered over a six month period with follow up at one year.  We will offer six one to one individual sessions and some group sessions. 

The criteria to participate in the programme is 5-15 year old children and young people with a BMI on or above the 98th percentile, commitment to participate in the programme with parental consent and not registered with any other weight management provider.  The child must be either living in Shropshire or registered with a Shropshire GP. 

Referrals for Fit Families can be made by health professionals, partner agencies, parents, young people and schools.  Once a referral form is completed it should be sent to the school nurse lead for Fit Families for allocation to the appropriate school nurse base to make contact with the family.

For further information and a copy of the referral form please contact Jane Cook - School Nurse and Healthy Weight Lead via email janecook2@nhs.net

or telephone 07896812233 or contact support worker Melanie Pearce on

melanie.pearce@shropcom.nhs.uk

Drugs and Alcohol Services for Young People

From April 1st this year, drug and alcohol services for young people in Shropshire will be delivered by YOUNG ADDACTION SHROPSHIRE, part of the wider umbrella of substance use provision in the county managed by the agencies ARCH and ADDACTION as the Shropshire Recovery Partnership.

YOUNG ADDACTION SHROPSHIRE will provide advice and support for young people aged 18 and under who are affected by drugs, alcohol or solvents. The aim will be to initially provide one to one advice, support and treatment for young people, but also as the service establishes, to introduce family support and intervention work. The service has the expertise to deal with all drugs and alcohol, including the new psychoactive substances known also as 'legal highs'.

Our main office will be based in Fletcher House, Shrewsbury, but will offer young people appointments county wide. Referrals are welcome from professional agencies, schools, families and young people themselves. The team can be contacted on 01743 294700 during the hours of 09.00 - 17.00, Monday - Friday. If you would like further information concerning the service, please contact Ged Lodge, acting team manager on the contact number mentioned.

New Project - Accessing Resources in the Community (ARC) Project

YSS have been successful in securing funding from the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner to deliver a new diversionary project called Accessing Resources in the Community (ARC)

The ARC project aims to support and motivate young adults aged between 17 – 24 years to achieve the following outcomes:

• Community integration
• Reduction in anti-social behaviour/offending/re-offending
• Engagement in education, training and employment programmes
• Addressing the harm caused by alcohol
• Increased confidence and self esteem
• Accessing Positive Activities
• Signpost and refer to relevant agencies and other specially identified ARC partners across the region

ARC paid staff and volunteers will work intensively with individuals referred on a face to face, 1:1 basis in the community, providing additional back up support by telephone/text. Engagement with the service is on a voluntary basis, up to 4 months, and it is seen that work with families will also form an important part of the role.

An important aspect of the role will be a focus on education, training and employment, looking at upskilling and supporting young adults into meaningful activity such as volunteering, work placements, training places and sustainable employment and addressing the harm caused by alcohol use. They will also support emotional wellbeing (all workers will receive accredited Mental Health First Aid training).

An out-of-hours telephone service will be provided to ensure everyone referred has access to additional Information Advice and Guidance support for the duration of their engagement with the project.

To request a referral form or for any other queries about the ARC Project please contact: Jessica Whitfield, ARC Senior Project Coordinator on Jessica.Whitfield@yss.org.uk or 07584706394.

Working Together in Partnership – Children’s Social Work Services

During February and March 2016, Children’s Social Work Services led Working Together in Partnership events across Shropshire in the North, South and Central areas.  The purpose of the event was to enable us to share key messages in practice and service development as well as to promote face to face contact and information sharing across the wide areas of business within the Children’s Social Work Service to our partners. 

We were pleased to receive 70 partners at these events representing 36 different partner agencies which included West Mercia and Warwickshire Police, Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service, schools, health visitors, school nurses, housing services, Autism West Midlands, Enhance, Shropshire Community Health Trust, Shropshire CCG and voluntary agencies.

At these events partners were able to hear a presentation by Tina Russell, Head of Service for Children’s Social Work & Safeguarding. 

The event was set up as a market place event where the services of Case Management Social Work teams, Fostering services, Adoption services, Children with Disability services, Family Information Service/Local Offer, Enhance, Compass, 16+ and Care Leavers, Targeted Youth Support, Family Group Conferencing and Troubled Families all set up market stalls where staff could meet members of their teams and services and take away valuable information and leaflets. 

Tina Russell’s presentation identified key messages from the service and developments for 2016/17.  These included:

• The refreshed strengthening families through Early Help strategy. This strategy is now online and can be found at www.shropshire.gov.uk/early-help/
• The redesign of the case management teams.  The new organisational chart is attached as an appendix to this briefing note.
• The development of Compass as a Multi Agency Hub for receiving and managing initial contacts and referrals and specifically the development of an information leaflet for parents.  This can be found in an electronic version at  www.shropshire.gov.uk/early-help/
• The importance of applying thresholds when we are working with children and families so that children get Early Help whenever it is appropriate in the first instance and where child protection plans are in place that there is a clear identification as to how these children meet the threshold. It is essential that parents and professionals are all clear on the expectations and the need for change with regards to the risks and outcomes of a child and that where these are not achieved the local authority is in a strong, confident and evidenced based position to initiate legal proceedings where it is in the child’s best interests.  The threshold document can be found at http://www.safeguardingshropshireschildren.org.uk/scb/

The feedback from the events was overwhelmingly positive in terms of the ability to make contacts and share information and key messages.  We would like to develop on this through 2016/17 and I am keen that at future events we have the opportunity to hear key messages of our partners. 

Many of you will be aware of local area children’s trust forums that take place and with the importance of us all managing our time most effectively, we will look at how best we might develop these two types of events to both maximise attendance and to promote opportunities for strategic communications and operational communications going forward.

Thank you again for all of those people who took the time out to attend our Working in Partnership events.  

If you would like a copy of the presentation for your information and to use it to promote discussions in your staff and team meetings so that information can be shared throughout your agency with staff and colleagues who might not have bene able to attend please email EarlyHelp@shropshire.gov.uk       

Autism West Midlands - Rainbow Walk

On Saturday 2nd July Autism West Midlands are holding a Rainbow Walk where families and supporters come together (wearing brightly coloured clothes/hair etc) to raise awareness of autism and raise funds. The Rainbow Walk will take place at Telford Town Park.

Support is welcome, either as a walker or a volunteer.

Volunteers – volunteers are needed for on the day and also to help plan the event. Autism West Midlands are particularly keen to hear from any individuals/companies who may be able to support with things like face painting, art and crafts, magic, bottled water or even stickers and medals! If you have any ideas or contacts please get in touch with Hilary McGlynn or Anna at Fundraising@autismwestmidlands.org.uk

Walkers - registration is now open at the following link and only costs £3 per adult with under 16s free. https://app.etapestry.com/onlineforms/AutismWestMidlands/rainbowwalk-1.html

 SEN & Disability Local Offer

The local offer has had its first big update adding some great new features and tools. Families can now find more relevant and detailed information on the information pages, which include six new specialist areas (reflecting the EHC Plan):

• Physical & Sensory Needs
• Emotional & Social Wellbeing
• Mental Health
• Cognition & Learning
• Communication Skills
• Autism

There is also a new events calendar where services and providers can add their trainings, activities, and special events in a searchable format making it easier for families to find things to do.

 This is an exciting development for the Local Offer, making it easier to find information and services that can help families. Please feel free to contact the Local Offer Coordinator, Zara Bowden, with any questions on 07990086372 or email Zara.Bowden@Shropshire.gov.uk

REMINDER - Getting communication right

Good communication is important to us and we'd welcome your comments and feedback on what works for you. Do you like the Early Help newsletters? What do you think of the Early Help Website? What else could we try to get messages out to you? If you want to share your thoughts then please email kate.bentham@shropshire.gov.uk

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