Item No. /
Classification
/
Date:
21.03.17 / Meeting:
Southwark Safeguarding Children Board
Report title: / Early Help – Getting the right help at the right time – no wrong front door
From: / April Bald & Jenny Brennan

1.0Background

1.1.1In 2011 Children’s services and partners were challenged by Ofsted for the underutilisation of the CAF. In response a decision was made that the Interagencyreferral form for Children’s social care would incorporate the CAF. Theexpectation going forward was that any referral for Social care intervention required a CAF assessment to be undertaken by the referring agency, with exception of the police and in urgent safeguarding matters. Extensive CAF training was rolled out and the newCAF referral from was launched. This remained in place until2013 when Southwark’s MASH was launched.

1.1.2MASH promoted a single front door, and a new CAF Referral from reflected this change, it allowed professionals to complete the same form whether they wanted Early help or Social care intervention. The SSCB and MASH Manager lead on a series of events promoting the Southwark threshold document and referral pathways into Early help services and MASH.

1.1.3Deep dive reviews of the MASH and Social Care’s front door and Early help servicesin 2016 identified specific findings in relation to the CAF referral form and thresholds:

  • Variable quality of CAF‘s impacting on the accurateness of decision making by the MASH team .
  • The original purpose of joining the CAF and referral form has not been achieved , with the CAF losing it’s essence and the form being a referral tool only
  • Agencies not being clear on the services they were requesting nor the threshold which resulted in MASH receiving a high volume of contacts that lead to No further action or step across to Early help
  • The burden of inappropriate contacts into MASH had an adverse impact on the capacity of the system to cope
  • Southwark’s MASH model required some re-design to reduce the number of decision makers in MASH in order that consistency of threshold application could be achieved

1.1.4Partner agencies have consistently fed-back their dislike of the CAF being a requirement for a referral for Social care intervention

1.1.5Changes since the reviews in 2016 have included:

  • the re-shape of the Social care MASH team which now includes a permanent MASH manager , two MASH deputy managers (Advance practitioners), with 5 social workers permanently based in MASH working alongside the strong multi agency partnership that has been integral to Southwark’s MASH .
  • Early feedback of this model has been positive, data and audit has evidenced improved performance, consistent thresholds and good quality decision making .

1.1.6A further agreed change is for separate referral forms for Early help and MASH. This proposal will support the drive for:

  • all partner agencies to confidently consider the service need for the family and thresholdat the outset
  • reduced inappropriate contacts into MASH , thus freeing the system up to focus on Safeguarding
  • ‘ no wrong front door ‘ message instead of a ‘single front door ‘ , as both services continue to work alongside each other in MASH thus can ensure swift exchange of referrals where appropriate

1.1.7This change in referral processes has been considered alongside a more general review of the Early Help offer commissioned by the board in Dec 2016. Early Help in Southwark is delivered by a variety of services and over the last three months we have been exploring more collaborative ways of working across ‘tier 2’ as well as universal and statutory services. The leadership decision to bring together services under an Assistant Director for Family Early Help & Youth Justice aims to improve consistency and ensure the effectiveness of our early intervention work.

1.1.8Conversations and appreciative enquiry workshops with colleagues have started to identify the strengths and areas for development within the early help offer. Initial findings highlight the need to

  • improve the consistency of a whole family approach
  • clarify pathways to support
  • promote the breadth of the early help available within all partner agencies.

1.1.9The process of ‘step down’ from statutory social work intervention has also been reviewed to ensure thresholds are agreed and accepted by the receiving agency plus there is clarity about escalation.

1.1.10Strengths of practice identified in the review

  • Children’s Centres for under 5s;
  • Early Help Localities staff and their relationship with schools;
  • work with adolescents and their families through the Specialist Family Focus Team (SFFT)
  • the Parental Mental Health team for 0 – 5s
  • our voluntary sector projects who can support those families that are historically difficult to engage with statutory services.

2.0Key issues for consideration

2.1Current task and finish group to map the variety of early help services available and plan the publication of the offer

2.2Governance of the Family Matters Early Intervention Strategy, including Troubled Families agenda.

2.3Clarity over referral pathways and the forms to be used by universal services

2.4Promotion of the new ways of working across the partnership

3.0Recommendations

3.1That the Board endorses;

  • A MASH referral form to replace the current CAF process
  • A separate referral form is developed with partners where identified needs of a child can be matched to appropriate Early Help services
  • Board representatives to ensure completion of the Early Help review questionnaire

Appendices:

New MASH referral form

Early Help review questionnaire

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