Welcome to the latest edition of the early Help newsletter. In this edition you will find out information about a suicide prevention conference in February, training dates for the new early help case management systems Liquid Logic, a new allergen warning card for young people to carry and how to support children who may be suffering from ‘holiday hunger’ during the school holidays. There's also information on Operation Encompass - which is notifying schools when a child or young person has been involved in, or exposed to, domestic abuse. 

If you have information on your service area you would like to share in the next early help newsletter, please email Kate.Bentham@shropshire.gov.uk

• The only number you need
• Reflections on 2019 and looking forward to 2020
• The Link Programme – Schools & Mental Health Services
• Suicide Prevention Conference
• New Allergen warning card launched for young people
• Holiday hunger
• Early Help Module Liquid Logic – training for practitioners
• Compass Christmas Opening Hours
• KOOTH at Christmas
• BEAM Christmas Opening Hours
• News from Autism West Midlands
• Early Help Stakeholder Audits schedule 2020
• Operation Encompass
• Strengthening Families Through Early Help Locality Meetings
• SSP Child Exploitation Pathway & Initial Assessment Tool Briefing (2.5 hours)
• Early Help: Reducing Parental Conflict Programme

The only number you need

Whether you think a child, young person or family needs some support, or you are worried a child might be at risk of abuse or neglect, there is only one number you need – 0345 678 9021. From this number you will receive the support you need to get the right help at the right time to strengthen families and safeguard children.

Reflections on 2019 and looking forward to 2020

What a whirl wind year it’s been so far, and as we head towards Christmas I wanted to spend a bit of time reflecting on our achievements over the last 12 months in delivering quality Early Help services right across the partnership.   Our Early Help Partnership Board is very well attended on a monthly basis ensuring we have right the ownership and senior buy to focus the strategic system wide approach to the delivery of quality provision.

The Strengthening Families approach to working with the whole family is being further embedded, particularly across the school sector, where we have jointly commissioned family support workers to help to support some of the more complex family issues, that impact on children and hinder their ability to learn and attain a good education.   

I have been engaged in some fantastic work led by a group of schools from the Shrewsbury area – who were keen to ensure parents and carers understand the facts about child exploitation, what to do about it, and how to get help and support.  I think it’s fair to say that we weren’t sure how well attended these events would be but with over 500 parents and carers attending we now know that we have model that could be replicated in other schools across Shropshire.

You have worked hard to share the responsibility of delivering against the Strengthening Families outcomes across housing and health and this continues to broaden out the Early Help support available for families.   Believe it or not, the Early Help Partnership has managed to increase the number of families who have sustained progress across a six month period by a whopping 150%.  The National Unit have committed to extending the programme by a further year, benefitting Shropshire’s most vulnerable families.

The Early Help Partnership Board can now evidence how this is impacting on children and young people in a positive way, as parenting capacity increases, emotional health and well-being is improved and school attendance is sustained and improved.  All of these areas have significantly improved in the last twelve months. 

So just to say a huge thank you for all agencies and all staff who contribute to putting families first.  It is tantamount to the effort and commitment shown on a daily basis in turning around the lives of some of Shropshire’s most vulnerable families.

Next year we will consolidate our partnership working even more, as we strengthen our ability to share information, with the family’s consent and move onto Liquidlogic – a new case management system going live from April 2020.   

Next year there will an absolute focus on supporting families where neglect may an issue and impacting on children.  The launch of the Neglect Strategy on the 27^th January 2020 – with over 100 partners booked onto the conference, will kick start a range of training, further discussion and focused events on supporting Shropshire’s workforce to pick up on the early signs of neglect and support families. 

The next 12 months will provide exciting opportunities to work more closely with our experienced community and voluntary sector who deliver some of the most impactful work with families including those children with special education needs and disabilities, and who understand the communities they work with.

Thanks again for the passion and commitment you show to families – here’s to the next 12 months.

All the very best for Christmas and the New Year and a well-earned break.

Regards Fran

Head of Early Help, Partnerships and Commissioning

The Link Programme – Schools & Mental Health Services

The Link Programme has a simple aim: to bring together education and mental health professionals so that more children and young people get the help and support they need, when they need it. It centres around two full-day workshops which bring together education and mental health professionals from across the Clinical Commissioning Group. If you’d like a brief introduction to the programme, please watch our animation.

Schools can reserve a place on The Link Programme workshops through CPD at the University of Central Shrewsbury.   

Simply select from the category ‘emotional & mental health’ search and the events will be highlighted.

If you are a professional working with Children and Young People and not in education please contact naomi.ohanlon@shropshire.gov.uk or renee.lee@shrophire.gov.uk to book a place.

This year there will be 2 cohorts on the programme, funded nationally by the Department of Education.

Cohort 1:         29^th January and 23^rd March 2020

Cohort 2:         30^th January and 24^th March 2020

Suicide Prevention Conference

It is our mission to make suicide prevention everybody’s business.

Please join us to find out more about what is happening across Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire to raise awareness of the risks for suicide and self-harm and how we can work together to help early identification and support for those considering or who have been bereaved by a suicide.

Date: Wednesday 5^th February 2020

Time: 09:00 – 15:30

Location: Willow Room, Park Lane Centre, Park Lane, Woodside, Telford, TF7 5QZ

This year’s event will focus on children/young people, self-harm, and suicide, so this is an essential event for those who work with this group.

There will be an opportunity for discussion and to share experiences and ideas to help shape the delivery of our local Suicide Prevention Strategy and actions plans.

The event will also feature a market place for information sharing and networking.

Further details and agendas will be shared closer to the date, but as there will be limited spaces available, please book your attendance as soon in advance as possible to avoid disappointment. Book here.

For your interest, you may find the following suicide prevention and support online resources helpful; please also see below a link for the online version of the new Z card.

Suicide Prevention Strategy for Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire

Zero Suicide Alliance Free Online Training

A 20-minute interactive training session tackling how to talk to someone about suicide risk and concern

Help Is At hand: Support after someone may have died by suicide

Pick Up The Phone, You Are Not Alone

Brief advice, guidance, and contact information for a confidential listening ear or to seek immediate support for anyone concerned about suicidal thoughts in themselves or others

New Allergen warning card launched for young people

A new allergen warning card for young people suffering from food allergens has just been launched.

The wallet size Allergen Warning Card produced by Shropshire Council’s Public Protection team can be filled in and printed off by the person, who can present the card to restaurant staff to inform them of their allergens

In the UK about 10 people die each year from food induced anaphylaxis.  Recently there have been several serious allergen incidents in Shropshire. 

Young people seem to be at particular risk, where there appears to be an increasing issue with allergens.

You can download the Allergen Warning Card here.

Shropshire Council’s Public Protection team, have pulled together some simple guidelines to help

When you plan to eat out

• Check the menu online and call ahead to ask what the business’s policy is on food allergy and intolerance. Does it offer food that is suitable for you? And if not, are the staff able to make a special meal for you? (Food businesses must offer you allergen information, but are not required to offer you a different meal to suit your need.)
• Be very clear about your allergy/intolerance and give examples of the foods that make you ill.
• If you don’t feel the person you’re speaking to understands your needs, ask for the manager or someone who could better understand.
• Ask how the food is handled and cooked, and whether there is a chance of cross- contamination from cooking equipment or ingredients.
• Check allergen information is accurate. Has there been a last-minute recipe change or ingredient substitution?
• Be extra careful if the restaurant serves complex dishes, as allergens could be less obvious or hidden.
• If you have any doubt about the staff understanding the importance of your dietary needs, do not book the restaurant.

On arrival

• Speak to your server or the manager. Be clear about your food allergy/intolerance and confirm your previous conversation with the staff. Hand in your Shropshire Council Allergen Warning Card.
• Check the meal choices are suitable for you or that they can make changes to suit your dietary needs.
• Remind them to be careful of cross-contamination or added allergens from glazes, sauces, cooking oils, and to handle your meal with care.
• Place your allergen warning card where you are sitting.
• If you have any doubt about the staff understanding the importance of your dietary needs, do not eat there.

For further information around food safety for consumers visit this website

Holiday hunger

Three million children in the UK are at risk of going hungry during the school holidays.

With the loss of free school meals given out during term time, families already struggling with low budgets may find it difficult to feed their children.

Many schools are already aware of those families who may face a food crisis during the school holidays and can offer support and advice on how to address holiday hunger.

Food banks across Shropshire provide invaluable support to people in food crisis and provide emergency food parcels, tailored to meet a family’s immediate need.

The Shropshire Larder brings together information on:

• How to access emergency food
• Where to access low cost or free food in Shropshire
• Advice on eating well on a budget
• Where to get local help with money issues

​ https://www.shropshirelarder.org.uk/

Early Help Module Liquid Logic – training for practitioners

Shropshire Council has been working hard over the last year to design a simpler, more effective case management system.  This Early Help Module (EHM) of Liquidlogic will link to both adults and children’s social care, who are already using Liquidlogic, with the aim of promoting a more sensible and joined up way of working. 

We plan to begin the migration of our closed cases from our current system, E-CINS in the New Year and then will work with partners to implement a planned migration of live cases.

In the meantime, don’t stop using ECINS – we all still need to know that our work is co-ordinated and that we continue to share information, for the benefit of supporting whole families.

We will go live with the Early Help Module - Liquidlogic at the beginning of April 2020, and would like to invite our partners to understand how the system works and therefore to attend training. This training will include the basics of how to;

• Log onto the system
• Create a person and add their basic demographics
• Find a person
• Create a relationship
• Create an involvement
• Use the Flags
• Create a case note
• View a genogram
• Use a form
• Launch a standalone form
• Navigate the pathway
• Create an early help episode
• Create an assessment
• Create a plan
• Attach a document
• View the radar chart (webstar)
• How to print
• Use the link to log onto the e learning module which will be able to be completed on your own PC.

There will also be a bespoke on-line Me-Learning package of support for all those times that you may want to remind yourself of the above once the system has gone live and throughout the next 12 months and beyond.

How to book:

All bookings must be made via the Shropshire Safeguarding Partnership multi-agency booking system   

Once Registered, please log in to your Learner record via this webpage and then apply for this training course.  You can then select your preferred date/venue from the drop-down list of training dates available.  Any sessions which is fully booked will not show in this drop-down menu.

Please note that separate training sessions for Shropshire Council Staff have been arranged and should be booked via Leap into Learning where possible please. 

Training sessions available for our Multi-agency Partners:

Compass Christmas Opening Hours

Compass will continue to operate during usual working hours over Christmas and New Year, apart from the Bank Holidays and weekends. On these days The Emergency Duty Team will operate as usual. 

In between Christmas and New Year there will be reduced staff cover to take URGENT safeguarding concerns only. The phone number remains the same 0345 678 9021.

KOOTH at Christmas

BEAM Christmas Opening Hours

News from Autism West Midlands

Board Games Saturday Club- Whitchurch, 4^th January, 10.30-12.30pm

A quiet board games club for young people aged 9 to 18 years. A diagnosis of autism is not needed to attend this group, siblings are welcome too. We have a large stock of games including Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess, Connect 4, Battleships, Risk, Ticket to Ride. For more information visit this website.

Understanding Your Child With Autism

A free one day course for family carers of autistic children or being assessed for autism.

This practical session will give you the opportunity to share experiences and take away ideas, strategies and resources. Topics covered include autism as a spectrum condition, communication in autism and making sense of behaviour. Places are only available to family carers in the Shropshire Council area. Thursday 16th January 2020 9am – 2pm Oswestry, to book a place visit this website.

Coffee Mornings

Shifnal  - Trinity Methodist Church. Victoria Road, Shifnal, TF11 8AF

Monday 13^th January,  11.00 to 12.30pm

Oswestry  – The Whole Life Centre, Cabin Lane, Oswestry SY11 2LG

Thursday 19^th December ,16^th January  10.00am to 12.00pm

Shrewsbury Evening Group – The Featherbed, Battlefield Road, Shrewsbury, SY1 4AB  

Monday 27^th January, 7-9pm 

Advice Appointments available to book in following areas;

We are now offering advice appointments in Ludlow and Whitchurch areas as well as

Shrewsbury , Bridgnorth, Oswestry, Market Drayton, Craven Arms, Shifnal

And Telephone Advice appointments available

To book an appointment please call our Helpline on 0121 450 7575

Reminder of our contact details

• Our office number is 01743 236193
• Our helpline number (to book advice appointments) is 0121 450 7575
• Email us at Shropshire@autismwestmidlands.org.uk

Early Help Stakeholder Audits schedule 2020

Stakeholder audits help to quality assure our practice and to ensure that positive and effective outcomes for children, young people and their families in Shropshire are achieved. Through identifying areas of good practice and areas of development, sharing knowledge and tools with other professionals we can help facilitate positive change for children and families.

Within these meetings cases are being audited in pairs of professionals. This is a good opportunity to network with other professionals and share knowledge around good practice.  Most mentioned that they felt working together with another professional was so useful with regards to being able to discuss cases and the grading they were giving for section. But more so, it was felt that professionals learnt a lot about other services as well as the use of ECINS and how to effectively navigate around the system.

Learning from these audits will recommend and facilitate improvement. One focus area is how services can work together more effectively to support families. The sessions also include an opportunity for feedback and reflection on the cases and the audit process.

Anyone working with children and families is welcome to attend, so please come and join us. For further information or to book on any of the above meetings please email:

stakeholderaudits@shropshire.gov.uk

Operation Encompass

Following three successful Headteacher Briefing Events where a presentation was given by Chief Inspector Sarah Corteen of West Mercia Police, we are pleased to announce that Operation Encompass is now live in Shropshire.

What is Operation Encompass?

• Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, before the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has been involved in or exposed to domestic abuse.
• Operation Encompass is a national multi-agency initiative for the safeguarding of children experiencing or exposed to domestic abuse and a preventative measure to try and influence how the effects of the experience may impact on these children as future adults.
• The purpose of the information sharing is to ensure schools have more information to support the safeguarding of children. By knowing that the child has had this experience, the school is in a better position to understand and be supportive of the child’s needs and possible behaviours.
• Operation Encompass will work alongside existing safeguarding procedures.

How does it work?

• Police will share information with the Educational Coordinator (Karen Flynn flynn@shropshire.gov.uk) who is based in Compass. Karen will share this with the school’s DSL via encrypted email. The information will contain the child’s details, the incident date and the police incident reference number only.

What is the school meant to do with this knowledge?

• By knowing that the child has had a domestic abuse experience, the school is in a better position to be supportive and understanding of the child’s needs and possible behaviours. This knowledge will inform the school’s response to any presenting behaviour.  The DSL will share this information on a need to know basis e.g. the class/form teacher.
• Each case is also heard at the daily Domestic Abuse Triage meeting which then gives a level based on the severity of abuse. A social worker would contact school should it be necessary.

Will parents be aware of this new process?

• Schools will need to let all parents know and have been provided with a template letter which they can use to inform the parents. By sharing this information, the parents affected by domestic abuse will also know that they can approach the school.

If you would like to find out more about the background to Operation Encompass please visit this website.

Strengthening Families Through Early Help Locality Meetings

Early Help Locality Meetings are held every term in each locality area.  These meetings are free of charge to attend and are an opportunity for professionals from all agencies working with children, young people or their families to share information about services available or issues affecting families within the locality area.

The spring term sessions have been arranged with meetings held from 3 – 5pm as follows and will include an update on the new Shropshire Council Early Help recording system, Liquid Logic which will be replacing ECINS this year:

SHREWSBURY:

Thursday 23^rd January 2020 at Sunflower House, Harlescott, Shrewsbury

Tuesday 24^th March 2020 at Sunflower House, Harlescott, Shrewsbury

(parking arrangement is with Wickes nearby, please park on the left)

NORTH:

Thursday 30^th January 2020 at The Centre, Oak Street, Oswestry

Thursday 27^th February 2020 at Raven House, Cheshire Street, Market Drayton

Wednesday 18^th March 2020 at The Centre, Oak Street, Oswestry

Wednesday 29^th April 2020 at Raven House, Cheshire Street, Market Drayton

(parking for all the above is in nearby pay & display car parks)

SOUTH:

Thursday 6^th February 2020 at Early Help Hub, Learning & Skills, Old Street, Ludlow

Thursday 12^th March 2019 at Early Help Hub, Bridgnorth Youth Club, Innage Road, Bridgnorth

(free parking on site or in street on both the above)

Please book with us in advance if possible, so that we can advise if there is any change to the meeting.  Please contact Tracey Bowen, Multi-agency Training Administrator, on ssptraining@shropshire.gov.uk or 01743 254370 with your name, job title, agency, workbase, contact email & contact number.  A confirmation email with full venue details will be emailed out to you.

SSP Child Exploitation Pathway & Initial Assessment Tool Briefing (2.5 hours)

Aim of Briefings - Familiarise and increase working knowledge of Child Exploitation Initial Assessment Tool, and Revised Child Exploitation Pathway.

It is vitally important that all practitioners who work with children are fully aware and briefed on the changes to Shropshire’s Initial Assessment Tool and Pathway for Child Exploitation. This briefing will be interactive and prepare practitioners for working with children and their families to complete the initial assessment tool.

Briefing Dates, Times & Venues

Cost - These Briefings are FREE of charge to all agencies.

Application Process

Anyone interested will need to ensure that they are registered with the SSP Online Training Booking System first by following this link to register on our webpage

Once registered learners can either log in to their account and Apply for the training from their dashboard or can ring or email the SSP Multi-agency Training Team on 01743 254370 or ssptraining@shropshire.gov.uk 

All places will be confirmed by email and delegates will need to log into their training account to complete an online evaluation following the training before they can print out their certificate of attendance.

Early Help: Reducing Parental Conflict Programme

This one-day training programme will introduce practical tools to support frontline practitioners, identify and explore parental conflict and support couples/co-parents in parental conflict stations no matter what their role. The training will focus on skills practice with an emphasis on applying the appropriate tools and actions with respect to the evidence base. The training is designed as a skills-based workshop giving opportunities to practise techniques to engage with couples/co-parents in practical situations to reach positive outcomes from destructive conflict situations.

By the end of this skills-based session, participants will be able to:

• Recognise relationship distress at an early stage and when it is potentially damaging
• Support couples experiencing parental conflict and be empowered to act, report or refer should domestic abuse be disclosed/identified
• Respond appropriately when parental conflict is identified
• Practice how to approach conversations that may arise around distressed relationships and build confidence and skills by using effective listening and questioning techniques to identify and discuss parental conflict triggers
• Revisit the stressors that may lead to parental conflict
• Recognise the role of fathers / male carers in a child’s life and understand the importance of including co-parents in all forms of co-parenting couples
• Understand your role and responsibilities in discussing parental conflict with parents, to help frontline practitioners assist parents to understand the impact of parental conflict on their children
• Know about the available local and national resources available to support parents whose relationship is in conflict
• Help parents to engage with these services, by being able to describe what they do and what the evidence shows us about long term outcomes for children
• Identify when to talk with your manager about possible domestic abuse and/or child safeguarding situations

Forthcoming Training Session:

Thursday 16^th January 2020 - Shropshire Wildlife Trust on Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury SY2 6AH

Friday 17^th January 2020 – Shropshire Wildlife Trust on Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury SY2 6AH

Wednesday 29^th January 2020 - The Marches Training Centre, The Marches School, Morda Road, Oswestry, SY11 2AR

Wednesday 5^th February 2020 – Wem Learning Centre, St Peter’s Primary School, Wem, Shrubbery Gardens, SY4 5BX

(all training sessions run from 9.30am to 4.30pm)

If you wish to book to attend this training please ensure you are registered with the SSP booking management system via the link on the webpage

Once registered you can then apply for the training by logging in to your Learner Record and select any available session from the drop down menu.

Please note there is also training sessions for Shropshire Council Early Help staff only on Thursday 6^th February which can be booked via Leap into Learning

Shropshire Council, Mount McKinley, Anchorage Avenue
Shrewsbury Business Park, Shrewsbury, SY2 6FG

Tel:  0345 678 9021