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The Family Centre Hubs model enhances existing strengths to provide high-quality services for young children, expanding age ranges and service delivery locations. This approach includes governance structures and levels of need for effective support.
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Family Centre Model The Family Centre Locality Model - builds on the existing strengths, expertise and current infrastructure of Children’s Centres and confirms our commitment to Early Years and the importance of high quality, flexible and accessible services for the very youngest.
Recommendations from Cabinet Report • The service delivery model divides the city into 7 geographical locality areas, each area includes a main centre and linked centres or other community outreach sites for service delivery across the locality;
Recommendations • 2. Extended age range from pre-birth to 5 to pre-birth to 19 year olds (25 year olds if the young person has special educational needs or disabilities); and • that the 7 Family Centre main sites to be the designated Children’s Centres’ resulting in all services pre-birth - 5 in the whole Family Centre locality being regulated and inspected by Ofsted under the current inspection framework for Children’s Centres.
Recommendations 3. that services will be delivered in main and linked centres and outreach venues across the locality. They will run at various times and days and with core and extra services provided by a range of agencies at a variety of venues. Those services could include clinics, groups, drop-in and timetabled sessions.
Recommendations 4. to continue the current governance model of multi-agency stakeholder groups in each area which will support the assessment of need across the locality to ensure services meet the needs of families when and where they are required.
7 family centres taking in the existing 16 and the original 36 children’s centre areas
The 5 Levels of Need • 5 Levels of need are agreed: 1- Universal – No Unmet Needs 2- Universal Plus – Own Agency Provision 3- Partnership Plus – Early Help Multi-Agency Provision 4- Targeted Complex – Multi-Agency Intense Co-ordinated Provision 5- Acute/Specialist - Children in Need of Protection and Support. Referral to Sheffield Safeguarding Hub • The 5 Levels will support professionals to effectively identify the needs of children, young people and families and provide clarity on how to access support. • Level 4 –has been added to provide clear guidance to professionals for those families that are ‘stuck’, and that are at risk of escalating to Level 5.
The Model • Accessing early help Services for children, young people and families in a Locality happens through one of the following routes: • Early Help Gateway Meetings - At least 1 meeting in each locality. - For families that meet Level 3. - Broad and flexible membership from services in each locality including health, MAST and schools that can allocate resources to support families. 2) Complex Case Panel - 3 meetings across the city with senior members of services • For families that meet Level 4 • Will discuss cases coming up from localities and down form SSH.
Prevention and Early Intervention Service Core Offer • Our offer is underpinned by the value that offering support at an early stage is preventative, reducing demands in the longer term for more costly escalation into specialist services. • Our aim is to work alongside parents, in order to strengthen their resilience and capacity to avoid crisis, whilst remaining clear on our duty to safeguard children. The quality of whole family working and interventions we offer to children, young people and families is vital to our success. • We will deliver support and interventions that are evidenced-based and solution focused, so that outcomes are positive and achievable for the families we support.
Core Offer covers 4 key areas • Support to learn • Health and Wellbeing • Life Skills • Family Life
Core Offer delivered in 3 main ways • Through Advice and Self-Help guidance • Through Professional Discussion and referral at Early Help gateway Meetings • Through an assessment-led professional referral to early help screening
How do you refer • Needs identified through completing the new Early Help Assessment Form part 1 available at www.sheffield.gov.uk/earlyhelp • Send the completed form to your local MAST OFFICE by secure email or post • North MAST – 2331189 • northmast@sheffield.gcsx.gov.uk • East MAST – 2053635 • eastmast@sheffield.gcsx.gov.uk • West MAST - 250 6865 • westmast@sheffield.gcsx.gov.uk
Absence or Reduced Hours • One of the main benefits of Early Education is preparing children for the routine they’ll need to follow at school. • Absence and Reduced Attendance present two separate challenges to establishing that routine. • A child that is absent from the setting also presents a potential safeguarding issue. • Monitoring requirements for absence are accordingly designed to ensure the child’s welfare is considered. • Providers are advised to establish robust absence monitoring procedures that will warn them of the four week limit approaching. • It is not our intention to penalise providers who are working with parents to encourage children to take up their full entitlement. • Where children are not using the full session time agreed, we are looking for providers to support the family through flexible delivery and communication with the parents.
Attendanceand the Code of Practice • Our prime concern around absence is Safeguarding. • “Providers must maintain attendance records of all FEL children, and supply this on request to the Local Authority.” • For full details see Section 6 of the FEL Code Of Practice. This sets out what a provider is expected to do following: • The first day’s absence • Three consecutive days or a week’s absence • Two week’s absence • Providers can claim funding during periods of absence up to four weeks per funding year (as determined by the child’s birthday). • Monitoring procedures should take account of the Funding Year start date in order to protect the provider from funding claim issues.
Children Not AttendingFor Their Full Hours “Code of Practice Section 6.4,Reduced Attendance Where a child is not attending for all of the hours agreed in the Parent/Carer Agreement form, the provider should contact the parent to remind them of the agreed hours. If attendance does not improve, the provider should write to the parent explaining that if they do not use the hours they have chosen, these will be reviewed and possibly reduced. Providers should discuss the issues concerning the child’s absence with the family and explore options to encourage attendance such as reducing the number of sessions or rearranging the sessions to make them more easily accessible. Providers should record the actions they have taken to improve attendance and record the outcomes, i.e. did attendance improve?”
What is it? • The Sheffield Safeguarding Hub (SSH) has been in place since April 2017. • Single point of access to screen safeguarding concerns from professionals and members of the public. • A team of co-located safeguarding partners, with access to information and case recording systems, which work together to screen safeguarding concerns.
Why the change? • Need to develop the way concerns about the welfare and safeguarding of children are considered and responded to. • Need to improve compliance with existing regulation and inspection. • Ensure safeguarding concerns are dealt with in a prompt and timely manner. • Have access to a wide range of information about the context within which concerns have been raised.
Overarching principles • Evidence based - It should be future proofed and compliant with regulation and inspection requirements. • Improve the quality of decision making by ensuring screening decisions are based on a broader understanding of initial concerns. • Closer partnership working, with clearer accountability and less duplication of effort, supporting the ability of Information being shared in a timely and appropriate manner.
SSH Structure As part of the initial phase of development the following staff have been co-located: • 22 (full time equivalent) Screening Social Workers from SCC. • 1 Homeless & Prevention Social Worker from SCC. • 2 Police Sergeants and 7 Police Disclosure/ Research officers from South Yorkshire Police. • 1 IDVA officer from Domestic Abuse Service. • 2 (part time) CSE Social Worker’s from SCC. • 3 Prevention and Intervention Social Worker’s (SWPIs) from MAST. • 1 Nurse Specialist from Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. • 8 Business Support from SCC. • 5 (full time equivalent) Senior Fieldwork Managers from SCC. • 1 Service Manager from SCC.
Outcome of a Contact • Level 1 - Universal - No Unmet Needs - Children, Young People and Families who have the capacity to support themselves, or whose needs are being met, or can be met by engagement with Universal Services. • Level 2 - Universal Plus - Own Agency Provision - Children, Young People and Families with an additional need that may be met by a single agency, providing additional advice, guidance or support, or signposting to an additional service. • Level 3 - Partnership Plus - Early Help Multi-Agency Provision -Children, Young People and Families that would benefit from a coordinated package of support from more than one agency. (Early Help Gateway meeting).
Concerns verified • If concerns have been verified at the contact stage of being a higher level which includes: Level 4 - Targeted Complex or Level 5 - Acute/Specialist. • These concerns are screened on a multi-agency basis and a Referral record completed. • Complete a further screen using the systems, and agencies represented in the SSH. • Consideration given to all previous contacts, referrals, assessments and Social Care history.
Outcome of a referral • The outcome of the referral into screening needs to be determined within 24 hrs. • Level 4 Targeted Complex – Multi Agency Intense Co-ordinated Support. These cases will be referred to the Multi Agency Complex Case Panel where the case will be ‘stepped down’ with the appropriate level of support and intervention allocated. • Level 5 Acute /Specialist – At this level it indicates that the child or young person is at risk of significant harm and an immediate response will normally be required to ensure their safety. Children with this level of need will also require services and a multi-agency intervention. This maybe a Social Work intervention, or a specialist service.
Expectations of professionals contacting the SSH • Expectation that professionals identifying concerns will know who they are concerned about, what they are concerned about and why? • Should refer to the Thresholds of Need Guidance to support their judgement about the level of concern they are raising (If they need more information in relation to this they should contact the Early Help Advice Line on 0114 273 4450). • Requirement to complete Multi-Agency Confirmation Form (MACF) for concerns which aren’t immediate and to follow up immediate concern with a MACF.
Consent • In order for Social Workers to become involved with a child or a family at any level below the significant harm threshold (the child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm) it is necessary to have informed consent. • When contact is made by professionals seeking help on behalf of a child/ family, it is their responsibility to obtain consent. • On the MACF form for the Safeguarding Hub you will need to state whether you have sought consent to refer, and if not, why not.
Contacting the SSH • Telephone contact can be made to the SSH through Children’s Social Care Area Team numbers or by the single number which will eventually become the single point of contact number for the Hub on 0114 2734855. • Professionals should send an email to C&FScreeningTeam@sheffield.gcsx.gov.uk as this is secure. • Core operating times for SSH are 8:45 – 5:15 Monday-Thursday, 08.45 - 4:45 on Friday. • The Emergency Duty Service is the Out of Hours service and operates between the hours of 5.15 pm to 9.15 am weekdays and 24 hours during weekends & public holidays. • Whenever possible, service users and other agencies are expected to contact the SSH during office hours, when a full service is available.
Current Inspections 18 group care inspections have taken place in Sheffield since January 2017 Grades achieved Outstanding 1 Good 13 Requires Improvement 4
Current inspection cont. 41 Childminder inspections have taken place in Sheffield since January 2017 Grades achieved Outstanding 1 Good 32 Requires Improvement 1 Inadequate 2 Met 4 Not Met 1 7 newly registered childminders received Good at first inspection
Ofsted Updates From September 2017 • Ofsted are currently undergoing a reorganisation into regional teams • Early Years inspectors have been brought back in house to Ofsted • Childminders receiving a requires Improvement Judgement will now be re-inspected within twelve months bringing them in line with group care settings.
Things to look out for • Best Start Quality Improvement Workshops are running from Sept onwards through this academic year. Covering a range of topics. • Integrated 2 year Review - • From the 30th of October your health visitors will be contacting you in relation to the 2 year integrated reviews. • Look out for information sessions within your localities which will explore the process of an integrated review in more depth. • The process and information will also be available on the Sheffield directory in the near future. • Early Years Newsletter And finally please keep your information up to date on the Sheffield Information directory.
What is the Golden Ticket? • We will be issuing a “Golden Ticket” in the form of a letter giving guaranteed eligibility to 2 Year old FEL. • This will be sent as a one off trial in November. • The aim is to boost the number of children in place at the start of January. • All families on the DWP list in November will be eligible.
The Process • Families will bring their letter to the nursery/setting of their choice. • Please help the families with an assisted application. • If the application is ineligible use request help button and enter the reference number from the letter, or email it to eyfel.census@sheffield.gov.uk • The census team will then confirm eligibility. • The offer will be time limited so please register the children ASAP and get them in your Spring forecast.
