Getting it Right for Every Child
North Lanarkshire Council · 28 February 2023
Back to Education, Children and Families Committee — 28 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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P031.1 Getting it Right for Every Child North Lanarkshire Council Report Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref GMcL Date 28/02/23 From Gerard McLaughlin, Chief Officer (Education - North) E-mail mclaughling@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Executive Summary This report is intended to update committee on the progress of the implementation and development of the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) process, across the Education and Families Service. The report will update members on new Guidance regarding GIRFEC published by Scottish Government and how it is reflected in developments linked to the Roadmap to Recovery, mental health and wellbeing plan for children in North Lanarkshire. The report strengthens the GIRFEC pathway in North Lanarkshire, moving towards an approach based on planning for children’s wellbeing, linked to national developments. This approach brings us closer to the local and national vision of children getting the help they need, when they need it with their rights respected throughout the process. It will also update members on how a previously reported online tool has been developed to allow front line practitioners easy access to information on policy, processes and resources. The progress around the development of early intervention approaches to school attendance, family support and engagement, and school counselling and staff support will also be discussed. Recommendations It is recommended that the Education Children and Families Committee: (1) endorse the content of this report The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Support all children and young people to realise their full potential Ambition statement (7) Enhance collaborative working to maximise support and ensure all our children and young people are included, supported, and safe Education, Children and Families Committee
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1. Background 1.1 Members will recall the report to this committee of 13th September 2022 updating Committee on Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), the national policy framework for supporting children and their families in Scotland and related developments in North Lanarkshire. GIRFEC processes have existed in North Lanarkshire for over 10 years, but the formation and development of the Education, Children and Families Service required the redevelopment of existing GIRFEC pathways to fit with revised operating arrangements. As a result, a GIRFEC pathway was approved in May 2020. Since then, there have been significant developments around the use of GIRFEC in North Lanarkshire. 1.2 As GIRFEC is about all children it requires to sit alongside all developments in children’s services. The Promise arose from the Independent Care Review and sets out a range of measures and approaches to improve the experience of children experiencing care or close to requiring a care experience. One of the main elements of the promise is the provision of family support and principles of family support are set out as an integral part of the Promise. Developments around GIRFEC require to align with developments around meeting the promise, underlining the importance of integrative practice within Education and Families. 1.3 The landscape around GIRFEC has often been recognised as complex and diffuse. This recognises the range of needs of children that this policy must meet, the range of services that can be used to meet those needs and the developing nature of understanding of children’s needs and approaches that show evidence of effectiveness in meeting those needs. The Roadmap to Recovery, which was reported to this committee in September 2022, gives a structure around these factors and sets actions to improve approaches to children’s wellbeing with GIRFEC at the heart of these approaches. 1.4 The report of 13th September 2022 informed committee of the development of an electronic tool to be used in clusters and with partners to enhance communication and understanding of policy, systems and services across the cluster model. This report will update on progress around this tool. 1.5 The following report reflects the Wellbeing quality framework, introduced through previous reports approved by the Education and Families Committee. This introduced a framework to structure quality wellbeing services which can be summarised around three questions: • Why are we doing it? - Governance and Policy Drivers • How are we doing it? – Key Systems and Processes • What are we doing? – Our Outputs and Outcome 2. Report 2.1 This report is intended to update committee on developments around GIRFEC in light of new national guidance and the related elements of developments around provision of services regarding health and wellbeing. 2.2 The background information illustrates the broad developments in GIRFEC process within North Lanarkshire and at national level. The following report will highlight where further development has taken place across the levels of the Wellbeing Quality Framework. These developments include:
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• Why we do it – Developments in National Policy and its links to the Roadmap to Recovery. • How we do it - The development of approaches to meeting children’s wellbeing and early intervention. • What do we do? - The development of services including family support approaches linked to school clusters and early years services. 2.3 GIRFEC National Policy 2.3.1 The Scottish Government launched an update of the GIRFEC policy in September 2022. This included commitment to the proposed incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC into Scots law, to the maximum extent possible the publication of The Promise and the Plan 21-24 and a continued commitment to eradicate child poverty. The GIRFEC publications included: • Using the National Practice Model, strengthening the use of established models used in practice around assessment and intervention to improve wellbeing. • Guidance around the role of the named person, moving from the previously intended legislative approach to the named person to a policy commitment to offer this service to children and families where they wished to have this as a first point of contact. • The role of the lead professional as the co-coordinator of a multi-agency plan where this is required. • Guidance on information sharing consistent with decisions of the Information Commissioner. • Statutory guidance on Assessment of Wellbeing – Part 18 (section 96) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. Which guides professionals on their duties to assess and support the wellbeing of children and young people. 2.3.2 The updated guidance stresses a strengths-based approach seeks to realise children’s rights on a day-to-day basis and is therefore underpinned by key values and principles: • Placing the child or young person and their family at the heart of the process, promoting choice, with full participation in decisions that affect them • Working together with families to enable a rights-respecting, strengths-based, inclusive approach • Understanding wellbeing as being about all areas of life including family, community and society. • Valuing difference and ensuring everyone is treated fairly • Considering and addressing inequalities • Providing support for children, young people and families when they need it, until things get better, to help them to reach their full potential • Everyone working together in local areas and across Scotland to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families. 2.3.3 The above developments in the national GIRFEC policy reflect developments in the practice of GIRFEC in North Lanarkshire and therefore do not require major change to the local approach, however the new emphasis on rights respecting approaches and on professionals and services working together, has been particularly helpful in developing local processes around integrative practice with the cluster model. 2.4 Integrative Practice 2.4.1 In late August 2022 the new online tool Empowering Our Clusters - A Guide to Integrative Practice was launched with a partnership event to promote the use of the
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tool. This online resource provides a single source of information for practitioners working with children and families around the cluster model. Information is provided around resources process is and relevant policies. This is an important tool in the delivery of work with children and families following the GIRFEC model. 2.4.2 As part of the suite of information provided within this online tool a new pathway and guidance on planning for children’s well-being has been developed to update the previous GIRFEC pathway. This updated key process document is attached to this report in Appendix 1. The new guidance takes forward the emphasis in national policy on rights respecting approaches through an individualised planning process that places children young people and families at the centre. As part of the development of the Integrative Practice and GIRFEC approaches, the Early and Effective Intervention approach to young people in conflict with the law is being aligned with the GIRFEC pathway. This is the subject of another report to this committee. 2.5 The Roadmap to Recovery 2.5.1 The Roadmap to Recovery plan sets out a way forward in developing the health and wellbeing of our learners over the next three years recognising the current context in North Lanarkshire, particularly following the impact of COVID19. The plan recognises the importance of developments in North Lanarkshire in relation to health and wellbeing including the Empowering Clusters model and the GIRFEC pathway. It looks at high level outcomes that can be improved, linking into the Integrated Children Services Plan and the Plan for North Lanarkshire. It also looks at improvements in day-to-day operations and presents a format intended to assist schools, centres and teams to improve health and wellbeing in line with quality indicators currently used in improvement plans. 2.5.2 The GIRFEC approach and pathway is identified in the plan as the key approach to delivering improvements in children’s wellbeing. The three-stage model of intervention used in this plan fits well with the updated national policy development which promote the development of early intervention approaches. The model is based on the following stages: • Universal – reflecting the services available to all children • Additional – where early intervention supports are introduced for targeted children and families • Intensive – where multi-agency planning, and intervention become the basis for support to meet significant need. 2.5.3 Within the Roadmap to Recovery a number of areas for development are identified which sit at the additional level of support, and in terms of the Wellbeing Quality Framework are good examples of what we do to achieve better wellbeing for our children and young people. Some of these are: • School attendance • Family support and engagement • School based counselling 2.6 School Attendance 2.6.1 Members may recall that an update regarding the Scottish Attainment Challenge and Pupil Equity Fund was reported to this committee in November 2022. This report reflected the changing national picture around these areas of investment, with a
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move to the Strategic Equity Fund, showing a reduction in funding for North Lanarkshire year on year, up to financial year 2025/26. Stretch aims related to the fund are required as specific local authority targets related to attainment and health and wellbeing of children and young people. 2.6.2 Following the unavoidable disruption to school attendance that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic attendance rates have been a concern. Low school attendance has a well-established relationship with both health and wellbeing needs and lower attainment in children and young people. Improvements in school attendance were set as a stretch aim for North Lanarkshire with targets for increases set at 2% for the primary sector and a 3% at secondary, by June 2023. 2.6.3 In order to monitor this, a tracking process has been developed looking at school attendance across all sectors and the whole authority. This has shown that up until December 2022 attendance rates rose by 2% based on the figures for the full school year 2021/22, however are still down on the 2019 attendance rates (Appendix 2). The monitoring also shows that attendance is lower among children from lower SIMD areas and children from care experienced backgrounds, illustrating an association between deprivation and lower attendance. As indicated in the Roadmap to Recovery, a family support model is being developed alongside work carried out by schools, to improve family engagement and attendance. Attendance will continue to be monitored as part of the work to implement and evaluate this approach. 2.7 Family Support and Engagement 2.7.1 The report to committee in September 2022 highlighted that eighteen posts have been created through the use of Scottish Attainment Challenge funding to work around the school clusters with a view to supporting families to maximise school attendance of their children and minimise exclusion. This follows a key theme in the Roadmap to Recovery around the development of family support approaches as an additional level intervention, particularly aimed at improving school attendance and inclusion. 2.7.2 Ten of the eighteen posts have now been recruited and five have now started. Further interviews are planned to recruit the remainder of the staff. In order to monitor the effectiveness of these posts, an attendance monitoring system has been set up. This will look specifically children being worked with through the family support model and will allow direct comparison of their attendance with the overall attendance monitoring information discussed above 2.8 School Based Counselling 2.8.1 Development of School based counselling was an action identified in the Roadmap to Recovery. School based counselling is currently well used with a spend of 97% achieved in financial year 2021/22 and latest data covering July to December 2022 (Appendix 3) shows 1366 children and young people received the benefit of counselling support. These figures illustrate the demand for counselling services. An issue that has arisen is that some clusters are operating waiting lists due to demand for counselling access due to demand across cluster not being evenly spread. 2.8.2 To further ensure schools are using the funding appropriately and timeously to meet the needs of children and young people in NLC, a new Policy has been developed to highlight best practice to be followed to ensure equitable access to counselling services. This sets school-based counselling as being best implemented when it is part of an integrated pupil support system, and part of a GIRFEC staged intervention approach. This will embed school-based counselling in an integrative practice model.
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2.8.3 A counselling in schools check in has been introduced from November 2022 and is planned three times a year to be completed by cluster chairs and the Secondary Head Teacher as part of the Secondary Improvement Plan activities. The purpose is to support planning and provide more robust information to ensure targets from provision reviews can be better achieved. Subsequently, it can also be used as a tool to support improvement. It will allow for targeted support to ensure equitable cluster planning and is also a vehicle for collecting observational evidence of the impact of the service. 2.9 Staff Training, Wellbeing and Support 2.9.1 To ensure that staff are skilled, and have the capacity to deliver on GIRFEC, staff training is an important area to consider. To this end, we now deliver a Pupil Support Leadership Programme, endorsed by Education Scotland. This programme provides training on all the necessary aspects of understanding and delivering effectively through our GIRFEC Pathway. Additionally, two further training programmes – ‘An Introduction to Pupil Support’ and ‘An Introduction to Counselling Skills’ – have recently been developed to underpin this area of work further. 2.9.2 Staff support is an important element of providing support to children and young people. A new Staff Wellbeing Education Support Officer (ESO) took up post in August. This role helps to support the Roadmap to Recovery. The model recognises that to achieve the vision of this plan we must support staff wellbeing as this is essential for the consistent delivery of quality services to children, young people, families and communities. 2.9.3 The ESO has been introduced to Heads of Schools and Centers at meetings and details distributed to workforce in Education. Staff from across all sectors and at all levels have reached out for signposting and support. Signposting has been towards resources, courses, and support services to help meet the range of physical, mental, and emotional challenges they may be experiencing. The signposting takes place via a range of channels including NL Life/ Work Well NL and Health and Wellbeing Champions. 2.10 SDQ Survey 2.10.1 In November 2022, this committee supported the further use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) following it’s initial use in 2020. This would allow the gathering of comparative data from the initial baseline, which would be useful in measuring progress in children’s wellbeing in schools and planning further developments around the use of the GIRFEC pathway. 2.10.2 Since that date a group of officers has been in discussion with Youth in Mind, the company that holds the rights to SDQ, and a timeline for the running of the survey a second time has been developed. This builds in a two-month period required by Youth in Mind, following the uploading of initial data around school cohort numbers, which is required for preparing the electronic systems to allow questionnaires to be issued for each individual pupil and completed online, through a secure process. Key dates and actions are: • Early February 2023 - Uploading initial data for to Youth in Mind for preparation and issue of questionnaires by • Late February 2023 – Updating of guidance materials for issues to schools • March 2023 - Providing briefings to schools regarding the questionnaires, supported by issue of guidance materials
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• April – June 2023 – Questionnaires completed in schools by young people (secondary school) and teachers (Primary School) • July and August 2023 - Analysis of data carried out 2.10.3 Following this process, a report will be provided to this committee with full analysis and comparisons with the 2020 data. 3. Measures of success 3.1 The report shows several developments that will require to be monitored over the next year. Overall, these developments reflect the vision, discussed above, that is in place for the GIRFEC approach. 3.2 In terms of monitoring the process of GIRFEC and the strengthening of the pathway through the introduction of the Planning for Children’s Wellbeing model, monitoring will take place through evidence of the use of the model within the clusters. Numbers of children assisted through this model will indicate the outputs of the GIRFEC processes. 3.3 Attendance monitoring will continue as set out in this report and in Appendix 2. This will show outcomes of the approaches used to improve attendance across the authority. Comparison of this and similar data from the families being worked with by the Family Engagement staff will allow monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes of the family support and engagement model. 3.4 School based counselling check ins will show evidence of use and development of School Based Counselling. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix 1 – Planning for Children’s Wellbeing Guidance 4.2 Appendix 2 – Attendance Analysis 4.3 Appendix 3 – Counselling in Schools. Gerard McLaughlin Chief Officer (Education - North)
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The Family Engagement Support Assistant Posts have been funded, initially until the end of March 2024, through the Scottish Attainment Challenge. This has been approved through the Workforce Steering Group. As indicated in 2.11 above this is a reducing financial envelope and the funding and effectiveness of this approach will have to be revisited before March 2024. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐
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5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The use of the new approach to Planning for children’s Wellbeing as the basis for delivery of GIRFEC requires communication across all service that work with children. This has already started with the launch of an online tool covering all required resources. This will be further developed and updated as required. 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? As part of the SAC activity, the future of Family Engagement Support Assistant posts and the related family support approach poses a risk going forward, Given the stretch aims around improving attendance, the risk of failing to achieve or sustain these stretch aims must be considered. The risk associated with the implementation of SAC is regularly reviewed in line with Council arrangements. The most recent internal Audit report gave assurance as to the efficacy of SAC planning arrangements. Due to the downward taper of current funding within the Strategic Equity Fund, close scrutiny of outcomes from this initiative will take place to assist decision making around future achievement of the stretch aims. 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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1 Appendix 1 Empowering Clusters Guidance Guidance on planning for children and young people’s Wellbeing August 2022 Key content: 1. Introduction 2. GIRFEC Pathway for Planning and Support 3. Wellbeing Planning Meetings for Children and Young People 4. Requesting additional supports/resources for a child/young person’s unmet wellbeing needs 5. Alignment to other planning process 6. Useful links and information 7. Alignment to other planning process Alig n
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 2 1. Introduction The model of cluster working allows for the needs of children to be met through a joined-up approach to children’s services. The model, which replaces the HART process and is the same for primary and secondary, is built around the 23 educational clusters which includes secondary school, the feeder primary schools, early years establishments, SEBN and ASN provision within the cluster area. The model centres on integrative practice within and across agencies using staged intervention to plan for individual children and young people and their family at the earliest opportunity. This approach to planning will help to identify what needs to be done to improve the child/young person’s wellbeing and what support is necessary to meet identified outcomes. The principles and values are those underpinned by the UNCRC, ‘Getting it right for Every Child’, All our Children, all their Potential (Morgan Review), The Promise 2020 and the Review of National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 and align to the following themes: • Rights and Participation • Relationships • Wellbeing and Care • Inclusion and Universal Support Here’s a short interactive presentation on ‘Introducing Children’s rights’. You can access this e-learning on Assessment and Planning for Children and Young People. The term children and young people (usually for over-12’s) is used to describe anyone up to the age of 18 years, however the GIRFEC approach is applicable to assessment and planning for the wellbeing of unborn babies and certain groups of young people aged over 18. This includes situations where a young person is still enrolled at school, where they are moving through the transition into Adult Services, and where they have care experience. ‘Parent’ when used in this guidance has the same meaning as in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 and the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, to include any person who is liable to maintain or has parental responsibilities in relation to or has the care of a child. Use of the term ‘parent’ therefore means parent or parents, carers, or guardians, and recognises these may be part of any family network. Policy and legislation Policy and legislation around planning for children and young people’s wellbeing is complex and wide reaching. This reflects that it covers those at the universal service end who require no specific intervention to those with the highest levels of need in receipt of very complex packages. It also covers the breadth of service offered. The following are intended to give examples of the legislation and policy requirements that impact on the delivery of services to children covered in this model. It is not intended to be a complete list. This includes: • The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 • The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 • Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 3 • The Promise 2020 • The National Child Protection Guidance 2021 • The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 enshrines UNCRC in Scottish legislation A Relationship-based Practice Approach All services and agencies involved with children, young people and their families are committed to developing positive relationships built on transparency, trust, inclusion, and respect. Recognition of diversity and appreciation of differing family backgrounds and cultures is key to achieving the best possible outcomes for an individual child or young person. Families know their home situations best and can be key to finding the solutions to challenges children, young people and parents may face. Improved outcomes are achieved by adopting a relationship-based practice approach, which draws on professional skills, knowledge, and expertise and uses innovative and creative ways to engage with families. Trauma Informed Practice (TIP) The trauma-informed practice toolkit has been developed as part of the National Trauma Training Programme and can support all sectors of the workforce in planning and developing trauma informed services. The model is grounded in and directed by a complete understanding of how trauma exposure affects service user’s neurological, biological, psychological, and social development. The key principles of TIP
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 4 peer support and mutual self- help. Efforts are made by an organisation to ensure the physical and emotional safety of clients and staff. This includes reasonable freedom from threat or harm and attempts to prevent further re-traumatisation. Safety Transparency exists in an organisation’s policies and procedures, with the objective of building trust among staff, families and the wider community. Trustworthiness Families and staff have meaningful choice and a voice in the decision-making process of the organisation and its services. Choice The organisation recognises the value of staff and families’ experience in overcoming challenges and improving the system as a whole. This is often operationalised through the formal or informal use of Collaboration Efforts are made by the organisation to share power and give families and staff a strong voice in decision-making, at both individual and organisational levels. Although there may be differences in terms of their application, it is widely acknowledged. Empowerment Points to remember throughout the planning process 2. GIRFEC pathway for planning and support The GIRFEC Pathway for Planning and Support is attached below to enable you and your staff to familiarise themselves with Education and Families agreed practice to support effective planning for our children and young people. Contextual Safeguarding Child protection
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 5 In 2021-22, NL partners introduced the contextual safeguarding approach. Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to understanding, and responding to, young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families. It recognises that the different relationships that young people form in their neighbourhoods, schools and online can feature violence and abuse. Access this ’What is Contextual Safeguarding’ video for more info. Where a potential Child Protection concern emerges at any stage of involvement with a child, young person or their family, agency protocols must be followed. To seek help or share concerns for a child or young person’s safety please contact the police if there is immediate risk of the child being harmed or the relevant locality social work children and families team. 3. Planning for Children and Young People’s Wellbeing GIRFEC aims to support and promote a child/young person’s wellbeing by making sure they have access to the right support when they need it. For any level of planning and intervention the first step is to undertake an assessment to establish areas of need, risk, resilience, and strength. The Named Person will plan by recording actions against wellbeing outcomes and review this to see if the plan has been effective in reducing need and promoting resilience. If there are continuing wellbeing needs unable to be resolved by single agency led planning then the Named Person may decide, in consultation with parents/carers and the child/young person, that planning needs to take place at a meeting level. The Named Person will then arrange a child/young person wellbeing meeting Planning meeting A Child/young person’s Planning Meeting may be called when one or more of the following apply:
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 6 Consider wellbeing needs, and potential risks to the child/young person Hear the views of the child/young person and their parents/carers Share and collate assessment information about the child’s/young person’s wellbeing Consider whether a Request for Assistance to a specific service(s) would be helpful Consider whether a child’s plan is required to co-ordinate input from the involved services Consider whether a multi-agency chronology would support ongoing assessment & planning Identify a Lead Professional if a Child/young person’s Plan is agreed Arrange a review meeting date if a Child/young person’s Plan is agreed 1. The assessment of a child’s/young person’s wellbeing suggests that their needs are more significant 2. It is not clear that a request for assistance to a specific service will be sufficient to improve outcomes 3. The involvement of another service following a request for assistance has not adequately addressed the presenting needs of the child/young person 4. There is a need for co-ordinated assessment and planning between 2 or more services. It is a responsibility of the named person to co-ordinate planning; therefore, it is likely that they will initiate a child/young person wellbeing meeting with the agreement of the child/young person, their parents/carers, and any other involved service. If another service considers that there is a need for a Child/young person Wellbeing Meeting to take place they should discuss this with the named person and agree on how to proceed. The main purpose of a child/young person’s planning meeting is to:
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 7 For further consideration in planning In addition to the above, planning for a child/young person might involve local dialogue about the following: • ensuring partners all are aware of staffing issues and maintaining links and connections • managing the GIRFEC process and emerging issues • managing requests for assistance and thresholds for social work involvement • capacity issues affecting teams • ensuring the effectiveness of family group decision making • the progress of vulnerable children and families • reviewing the data available on the effectiveness of interventions (Outcome Star) and wider data around performance (safeguarding, the balance of care, attendance patterns, outcomes of VSEs and inspections). Staged intervention Key throughout all stages of planning and intervention is the cycle of assess > plan > review. The named person will lead and co-ordinate planning for children/young people until a wellbeing meeting has agreed and identified a lead professional when the level of planning requires someone to take on this role.
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 8 The first point of contact for any child or young person with wellbeing needs, will be the named person. In keeping with the GIRFEC pathway, supports at universal level will be provided in early years, school, may be independently offered by the NHSL and can be a collaboration of the two universal services. The named person provides a clear point of contact for anyone worried about a child/young person’s wellbeing. They have a responsibility to collaborate and discuss with the child, family, and other agencies to explore support available to address identified wellbeing needs. The named person should make families aware of their rights around information sharing as per this guidance. When it has been identified that early help/support is needed for a child or young person, the named person, in collaboration with the child, young person, parent, will analyse unmet need using the single agency wellbeing assessment and this will inform the development of a single agency led plan (GIRFme plan for education). The named person will review and update the plan to make sure the child’s needs are met and wellbeing improved. The named person can at any time have a professional dialogue with another professional within their own service or another universal service. If necessary, a request for assistance, can be made. Good communication helps provide as full a picture as possible for assessment, can aid decision making, and help clarify whether a request for assistance would benefit a child or young person through accessing extra support. If the current plan has had a positive impact and the child’s wellbeing is improved, then going forward, additional planning may not be necessary as the child’s needs are being met within universal provision, health, early years, school. See the Planning for Children’s Wellbeing (Universal) summary guide on the next page.
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9 Empowering Clusters Guidance Summary guide Planning for Children’s Wellbeing (Universal)
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10 Empowering Clusters Guidance Planning Meeting (Additional) When the named person has identified wellbeing concerns cannot be met within universal services and a single agency led plan alone, consideration needs to be given to what additional support is required. The named person can have a discussion with the Cluster Integration and Improvement Lead as required (CIIL-this is an educational post but available for professional dialogue with health colleagues or those from other services who have wellbeing concerns for a child). Wellbeing needs are likely to be met and managed within school but need support from partner services and agencies. The ‘My World Triangle’ assessment may be initiated to analyse unmet need and if required a Planning Meeting will be arranged by the Named Person and the assessment and analysis shared. (See earlier section on wellbeing meeting). Engagement with the child/young person and their family is crucial and tools to seek views should be used. Wellbeing needs may continue to be met and managed within school with support from partner services and agencies but if the assessment informs the need for a Child’s Plan, then the most appropriate Lead Professional should be identified to oversee the plan. • The planning meeting should discuss clearly whether the level of integrated working requires a Lead Professional at this point. Duties of a Lead Professional include co-ordination of the child’s plan; ensuring everyone in the team around the child is clear about roles and responsibilities; ensuring children and families are involved and supported; ensuring everyone involved has a copy of the plan and it is reviewed/monitored regularly. If there is disagreement about the need for a Lead Professional or who should fulfil the role, then the CIIL/Senior Social Worker can be approached to help resolve this. See the Planning for Children’s Wellbeing (Additional) summary guide on the next page.
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11 Empowering Clusters Guidance Summary guide Planning for Children’s Wellbeing (Additional)
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12 Empowering Clusters Guidance Planning Meeting (Intensive) A Planning Meeting should take place to prevent further escalation, when the concerns are such that the child, young person is, for example, on the ‘edges of care’. Other examples might be children who have been hospitalised with restricted eating, have returned from out of authority care or have come off the child protection register. This meeting can facilitate further assessment and interventions from additional staff from other agencies. Children and Young People may already have an identified Lead Professional but if not, then a Lead Professional should be identified, and they will: • Co-ordinate the Child’s Plan • Ensure children and their families are involved and supported • Ensure everyone in the team around the child are clear about their role • Appropriate services are provided • Ensure child’s plan is monitored and reviewed • Arrange reviews of the child’s plan See the Planning for Children’s Wellbeing (Intensive) summary guide on the next page.
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13 Empowering Clusters Guidance Summary guide Planning for Children’s Wellbeing (Intensive)
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 14 4. Requesting additional supports/resources for a child/young person’s unmet wellbeing needs If a planning meeting (intensive) is being convened to discuss additional resourcing which are unable to be accessed by the team around the child/young person currently then this meeting will be chaired by the Cluster Chair who can have a dialogue and/or seek support from the Education and Families Manager Social Work. The purpose of this discussion is to seek support for problem solving if insufficient progress is being made. The plan may be ‘stuck’ despite support from the team around the child and there are barriers which need further reflection, including the possibility of additional resources which will be proportionate to the needs of the child. This meeting can agree resources to enable the most vulnerable children to have access where possible to community based education, health, and social work support services or when additional or alternative resources are required to maintain the education placement and to enable the child/young person to be supported by their family. The planning meeting can: • Approve additional resources from within the cluster or within authority to support a child/young person’s plan • Act as a problem-solving group where barriers arise in supporting a child’s plan • Agree if progression is necessary to change the level of intervention • Agree a review date if necessary Outwith Term Time Planning issues for children, young people and their families may need to continue out with the school term. If a plan is already in place, it should be reviewed prior to the school term finishing and updated, including additional resources to maintain the child, young person and support the parents during the holiday period. Inclusion Team are available over the school holidays and can be contacted via ef.sfl.northlan.gov.uk if an education input is required to support the child/young person’s plan. Education and Families Managers in Education will also be available
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 15 5. Alignment to other planning processes Core Group: Further Support • Should further support be felt necessary in discussion with the CIIL, a request for assistance can be made to the Inclusion Core Group at ef.sfl@northlan.gov.uk • The Core Group normally meets on a monthly basis during the academic year. • Requests to Core Group should provide the background to the situation, a clear outline of the support being sought, details of any associated costs and strategies / timescales for reviewing the interventions. • Feedback on such requests will be given as soon as possible in the days following the meeting. Care experience at home Where a child/young person has been experiencing care at home (subject to compulsory supervision) then social work, as the lead agency, has internal processes to review the child on a multi-agency basis. A child, young person who has been experiencing care at home will also be reviewed by a children’s hearing 12 monthly or sooner. When a child or young person is no longer subject to compulsory supervision then their wellbeing needs will continue to be met within the wellbeing planning process. The named person or lead professional (whichever has been agreed) will lead on the assess/plan/review cycle Care experience away from home At the point of a child/ young person returning to the care of their parent (the decision of a looked after review), the social worker as Lead Professional and the team around the child will update the Child/young person’s Plan, with agreed interventions to support wellbeing. The level of intervention- universal, additional, or intensive will be agreed. The CIIL, if necessary, will discuss with the senior social worker to determine the level of staged intervention. Child Protection De-Registration If the child, young person is not subject to a compulsory supervision order and the chair of the review child protection conference (the locality education and families manager) makes a decision to deregister a child/young person then the level of intervention- universal, additional, or intensive, will be agreed at the child protection conference. The named person or lead professional (whichever has been agreed) will lead on the assess/plan/review cycle
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Empowering Clusters Guidance 16 6. Useful links and information www.girfecinnl.com Interim Information Sharing Guidance (PDF) NL Chronology Multiagency Practice Guidance (PDF) Care Inspectorate – Practice guide to Chronologies (PDF) SidandShanarri.co.uk Download Wellbeing Web (PDF) What I Think Tool – Early Years (PDF) What I Think Tool – Children (PDF) What I Think Tool – Young People over 16 (PDF) Outcome Star – see note below and signpost to further guidance Education and Families are introducing Outcome Star, with a programme of training being developed, from April 2022. The ‘star’ is an evidence based tool which will help us identify what is impacting on a child, young person’s wellbeing and what we need to do to support change. The use of the ‘star’ over a period of time, identifies what has changed across the child, young person’s wellbeing, if they are safer, healthier, more able to participate etc, a visual record for the child, young person, family, and any professional offering support to make changes. See the HWB guidance section in this Empowering Clusters Guidance resource for more details on the ‘Use of outcome star’.
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Appendix 2
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Appendix 3