Welcome to the latest edition of the Early Help newsletter.

In this edition you will find information on an exploitation seminar to mark national exploitation awareness day, and how you can get involved in supporting this national awareness day. There’s also a report into children and young people’s mental health in Shropshire, the services and support available and what we can do to continue to support children and young people. There’s also information on training, and updates from service areas.

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  or if you know of a colleague who would also like to receive this newsletter they can also email to be added to the distribution list.  

It has been widely reported over the recent months that the on-going Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of children and young people and this has led to a greater severity of need among many and an increased demand on services at a time when services have had to adapt to working under Government pandemic restrictions and increased staff shortages.

However, the lack of ‘Tier 4’ beds (specialist inpatient beds for the most seriously unwell) in the county means that children and young people will be admitted to either Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or Princess Royal Hospital, or The Redwoods Centre (an adult mental health hospital) while waiting to be moved to a suitable hospital outside Shropshire.

Healthwatch Shropshire and Healthwatch Telford & Wrekin were asked to give these children and young people the opportunity to share their experiences and say what could have been done to improve the help they have received.

Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer of Healthwatch Shropshire, said, “The report highlights the need for the system to reduce waiting times and provide information, support and advice for children, young people and their families and schools while waiting for assessment, diagnosis and specialist services to prevent crisis. Alongside this there needs to be close monitoring to ensure children and young people can be prioritised according to need and closer partnership working to include schools and adult services to ensure no child or young person falls into the gaps between services. We heard from families and professionals who were calling for more awareness raising and training to help them to support the children and young people who are struggling.”

People can read the full report here

Tackling child neglect is a priority for Shropshire Safeguarding Community Partnership.

Everyone coming into contact with children who are experiencing neglect must take responsibility for assessing and responding to the situation. Please ensure you have access to the Responding to Child Neglect in Shropshire Learning Briefing.

Professionals working with families in Shropshire should be accessing the Neglect Tools and Practitioner Support Pack from the Shropshire section of the West Midlands Child Protection and Safeguarding Procedures.

Everyone coming into contact with children who are experiencing neglect must take responsibility for assessing and responding to the situation. Please ensure that all practitioners Professionals working with families in  Shropshire should be accessing the Neglect Tools and Practitioner Support Pack from the Shropshire section of the West Midlands Child Protection and Multi-agency training on Neglect and the Graded Care Profile 2 (GCP2) Toolkit is also available to those working directly with children and their families. Visit the Safeguarding Children Training webpage to view the current training schedule and booking information.

Shropshire Family Information Service (FIS) is developing a website. This will link to the existing Family Information Directory (FIDy) to a new Information Section.

The information section will be a place for parent carers to go for general or early information on a topic they want to find out more information about, or one which is giving them cause for concern within their family.

To understand what information we need to include on the website, we need to know what the information needs of parent carers are, which is where we need your help.

Please could you complete this short survey indicating which topics you have supported a family with over the last 12 months and the frequency of this. This support might be for a child or young person or their parent carer. Thank you for your input.

The latest edition of the Newsletter for parent carers of children and young people with SEND has been issued and can be found on the SEND Local Offer. Shropshire Council, the Parent and Carer Council (PACC) and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have been issuing a SEND newsletter for parent carers since May 2020  to provide easy access to key information for SEND families, as well as an opportunity for parent carers to hear from each other about their experiences.

If you work with children and families on a regular basis, you can share information securely and quickly with other practitioners using the Early Help Module [EHM] of Liquidlogic. Following feedback from partners, we have changed the way that practitioners register to access EHM, so please check out the new module, called Gateway to EHM, on Leap into Learning.   

The new module consists of a short video explaining why we use EHM in Shropshire and how practitioners can access it. The video is accompanied by a number of assessment questions and once these are completed successfully, you will be given read only access to EHM. This will allow you to check if a family is involved with services.  

To gain full access to EHM, you need to complete the next module , ‘Using EHM to manage an Early Help Episode in Shropshire’ within 3 months. This taught module will be delivered via both live online and face to face sessions from Spring 2022 and, with read only access, you will be able to follow the module on your own computer. We encourage people to bring their devices along to face to face sessions so they can be supported to understand how to use EHM effectively.  

If you have any questions, please contact the team from Strengthening Families on 01743 253921 or email shropshirestrengtheningfamilies@shropshire.gov.uk  

If you are not registered with Leap into Learning please also email shropshirestrengtheningfamilies@shropshire.gov.uk with your NAME - AGENCY - JOB TITLE - INDIVIDUAL EMAIL ADDRESS (not a generic email address), so that a training account can be set up.  You will then be sent an email from Leap into Learning asking you to log in with your email and update your password to make your account live.  

Health Literacy awareness training from Health Education England.  For Health literacy is about people having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social care systems. Therefore, to access, assess and apply health information, people need to be health literate. 

People working in health and social care need to be aware of health literacy and of the techniques that can help to increase understanding, as we know that low health literacy is linked to health inequalities.

Please click on the link to book a place on a Health Literacy Awareness course

9^th March from 9am – 11am

https://forms.office.com/r/Bwu9YC0sUB

12^th April from 9am – 11am

https://forms.office.com/r/nyxX738Nma

FREE Webinars

For parents, carers and professionals throughout the region, watch “live” or via an automated link to watch a replay.  Click on the links to find out more including registration details –

Autism and Anxiety – Friday 4th March 9.30am – 10.30am

How Autistic People Process Information – Friday 18th March 9.30am-10.30am

ZOOM Together Teens – Wednesday 2^nd March 6pm-7pm

Part of the All In Short Breaks offer, an opportunity for young people over 12 to meet up online and have fun.  Hosted by AWM staff.

https://autismwestmidlands.org.uk/events/zoom-together-fun-sessions-for-shropshire-youngsters-2mar2022/

WEEKLY Zoom Advice slots – every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

For those would like some face-to-face contact we are offering this virtually via video appointments. Zoom works well on mobile phones. To book a 45 min advice appointment with a specialist autism advisor please book via our shop

https://autismwestmidlands.org.uk/events/online-autism-advice-shropshire/

Virtual Support Group for Parents

Wednesday Mornings 10am-11am & Wednesday Evenings 8pm-9pm – 1^st and 3^rd Wednesday’s of each month

From the New Year we moved our online support groups to twice a month via the Zoom platform. This is an opportunity to talk with other parents, share ideas, and offer support.

If you are working with a parent/carer who would like to join either of the support groups, please ask them to email the team here shropshire@autismwestmidlands.org.uk

Advice and support

We continue to offer advice and support over the phone and via email. Parents/carers and professionals can contact our small team directly to arrange an appointment please call:

Mon, Wed, Fri                Wendy Cowton            07900784186

Weds, Thu, Fri              Emma Hegenbarth      07881109480

Tue, Wed, Thu              Dawn Lewis              07706309382

Email                             shropshire@autismwestmidlands.org.uk

Helpline                        0121 450 7575

Over the winter Christmas holiday’s Shropshire Council worked in partnership with 26 organisations to run a successful programme of activities, as part of HAF (Holiday Activities and Food).

For four days and over 92 sessions, 1,162 children and young people took part in a range of fun enriching activities, happening at 30 venues from across the county.

Activities included: sports, music, arts, cooking, gardening, forest schools, child led play, trips to cultural venues and the panto. Alongside the core programme, 613 children and young people also participated in bespoke workshops delivered by 6 local arts and cultural organisations.

Free nutritious meals were provided at each session, with many children and young people having the opportunity to cook their own food, as well as information on nutrition to benefit the whole family.

‘I like coming here to chill out and speak to other people. To come here is amazing. You get to meet new people’. Participant.

‘This is the best thing ever!’. Participant.

‘I think the scheme is brilliant, my children never would have tried so many different activities, I can’t believe they had a go at knitting and sewing, I didn’t think they’d be interested. I also think giving everyone a hot meal is amazing especially in the winter, it saved me a lot of money’.

You can watch a film all about the Winter HAF programme   For more information about the HAF programme in Shropshire, please email - HAF.programme@shropshire.gov.uk