Welcome to the latest edition of the early Help newsletter. In this edition you will find information about the 11^th Autism West Midlands Conference, training dates for the new Early Help case management system, the Condom Distribution Scheme, and an introduction to the new Exploitation and Missing lead.

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
• New Exploitation and Missing Lead
• Access to free period products in schools and colleges in England
• Shropshire Condom Distribution Scheme
• Together – creating participatory opportunities for children and young people with SEND
• A Sense of Purpose and a Home of my Own – the journey towards work and housing
• 11th Autism West Midlands Shropshire Conference – Autism and Anxiety
• News and events from Autism West Midlands
• EARLY HELP: Liquidlogic Early Help Module Multi-agency Training
• Early Help: Reducing Parental Conflict Programme
• Strengthening Families Through Early Help Locality Meetings
• EARLY HELP: Introduction to Early Help & How to Manage an Early Help Episode

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.

New Exploitation and Missing Lead

A warm welcome to Clare Jervis, the newly appointment exploitation and missing lead.  Clare is filling the post previously occupied by Dot Johnson and now able to support any queries you may have around exploitation or missing children in Shropshire.  Clare has many years’ experience within children’s services, working in a variety of settings, which gives her valuable insight and experience which will greatly support the work we have begun in Shropshire. Clare is based in Compass and can be contacted through the First Point of Contact (FPOC) on 0345 678 9021.

Access to free period products in schools and colleges in England

No-one should be held back from accessing education due to their period. A period product scheme has been introduced to provide free period products for all learners who need them.

This means learners at all state-maintained schools and 16 to 19 education organisations in England will have access to free period products in their place of study.

This scheme will support young people to go about their daily lives without getting caught out if they have come on their period unexpectedly, forgotten to bring products with them or if they cannot afford the products they need.

Schools and colleges can choose from a range of period products, including environmentally friendly and reusable products, and have these delivered free of charge.

This scheme is about more than just providing products – it is about helping to address period poverty and breaking down stigmas. It is important that all learners – not just girls – are taught about periods and feel able to have an open dialogue within school or college in order to tackle the embarrassment that still remains around this topic.

For further information and to register your school or college please visit this website.

Shropshire Condom Distribution Scheme

The Shropshire Condom Distribution Scheme (CDS) is a confidential service which provides free condoms for young people aged 13 to 25 years.

Young people can discuss personal information in confidence with anyone who works within the CDS. They will not discuss information with anyone else without the young person’s permission and would only pass on any information to protect young people or someone else from serious harm. Wherever possible, they would discuss this with the young person first.

Once registered with the scheme, a young person will be given a C-card which they can then use to pick up free condoms from lots of places in Shropshire. These include over 40 community pharmacies.

The C-card will have an expiry date. When it expires, the young person will need to go back to a registration point to have a quick chat with a health professional and get it re-activated.

For further information please visit this website.

Young people can find out more about sexual health in general by talking to their school or college nurse, talking to the practice doctor or nurse or going to the Sexual Health Services - for clinic times click here 

Brook is a useful websites which provide information about sexual health and relationships

Together – creating participatory opportunities for children and young people with SEND

Free professional development seminar for organisations and practitioners commissioning or delivering activities for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Shropshire.

This seminar will include;

• Key note speeches from exemplar organisations and professionals delivering inclusive activity in arts and culture
• Key note speech from sport and leisure professionals regarding best practice for inclusion
• Key note speeches from Parent Carers and families already accessing activities
• Group exploration and discussion on barriers to engagement for families
• Opportunity to learn about the activity commissions Actio is launching
• Call to action for organisations and professionals to be part of the research and development programme

Friday 7 February 9:30am-2pm, Guildhall, University Centre, Shrewsbury

To find out more and to book your place visit this website. 

A Sense of Purpose and a Home of my Own – the journey towards work and housing

Guest speaks will explore local options available to enable our young people with SEND to succeed in living independently, as well as how the new Shropshire SEND Strategy offers opportunities for our families. Families will share their personal experience of their journey with their children and hope other parent carers will gain confidence in the examples they can offer of how we can achieve independent and exciting lives for children in Shropshire. The event is being supported by the Shropshire Preparing for Adulthood Team from Adult Social Care. Monday 10^th February 2020, 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM GMT

Central Baptist Church, Claremont Street, Shrewsbury, SY1 1QG

This is a free event, but booking is essential. Booking by Eventbrite link  or by emailing enquiries@paccshropshire.org.uk Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided

11th Autism West Midlands Shropshire Conference – Autism and Anxiety

The 11th Shropshire Autism conference will once again provide opportunities to hear expert speakers, share ideas and chat with others who have similar experiences.

The keynote speaker this year is Corey Wood who will talk about his personal journey with autism and anxiety; his difficult years in school, learning how to manage his anxiety and success in his chosen career.

There will be an opportunity to attend two workshops (one before and one after lunch), on subjects such as behaviour, anxiety, mindfulness, sensory, stress management for parents, support at university and moving into work.

Date: Thursday 26th March 2020

Time: 10:00am – 2:30pm (Registration from 9:30am)

Location: Barnabas Church Centre, Longden Coleham, Shrewsbury, SY3 7DN

Cost: £20 – Parents/family members/people with autism and £50 – Professionals

To book a place please visit the Autism West Midlands website  

News and events from Autism West Midlands

Half Term Activities

We are offering a number of events for families during half term, for more information and to book please 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. The course will be help in various areas around the county for more information and to book please visit this website

Board Games Saturday Club- Whitchurch, Saturday 1st Feb, 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  

Coffee Mornings

Would you like to seek advice from other parents and carers in a relaxed and informal setting? An opportunity to meet up with other parents, share ideas, celebrate achievements and offer support. A member of Autism West Midlands will be present to offer advice and guidance. To find your nearest coffee morning please visit this website.

Advice Appointments available to book in following areas;

Autism West Midlands are now offering advice appointments in Ludlow and Whitchurch areas as well as Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Oswestry, Market Drayton, Craven Arms, Shifnal

Telephone Advice appointments are also available.

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

*Phone Number is 01743 236193  * Helpline Number 0121 450 7575

* Email Shropshire@autismwestmidlands.org.uk

EARLY HELP: Liquidlogic Early Help Module Multi-agency Training

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, ECINS in the New Year, and then will work with partners to implement a planned migration of live cases.

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.

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.

Separate training sessions have been organised for Shropshire Council employees, Enhance/YSS practitioners and for our multi-agency Partners.

Training sessions available for our Multi-agency Partners:

How to book:

All bookings must be made via the SSP 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. 

All Enhance/YSS practitioners should book on the separate training sessions just for their agency on the SSP booking system through January where possible please.

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:

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 appropriate link on this 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

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:

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)

Bookings

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.

EARLY HELP: Introduction to Early Help & How to Manage an Early Help Episode

Target Audience:  Do you understand how early help forms an integral part of safeguarding children and how using a multi-agency case management system can help you do this more effectively?  This module has been developed for anyone working with children or their families in Shropshire.

Practitioners should attend this introductory training which will include how to use the Early Help Module from April 2020. 

Aims & Objectives:  To introduce practitioners to Early Help in Shropshire and to support them to use the new case management system, the Early Help Module, when appropriate

By the end of this module learners will be able to:

• appreciate that practitioners from a wide range of agencies are part of the early help offer in Shropshire
• understand their own roles and responsibilities in the early help process
• identify what other services may be of use to support the family
• recognise the importance of working together to identify, assess, and meet the needs of children where there are emerging concerns, using agreed documentation and forms
• familiarise themselves with what constitutes an early help episode
• be aware of how the case management system (Early Help Module from April 2020) is used to create and manage family cases allowing a multi-agency approach
• have contact details for further support.

Cost: All Early Help training is free of charge to all agencies. Please note that refreshments are not be provided on this training. 

Forthcoming Training Dates:

Applications:

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

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

Tel:  0345 678 9021