Integrated Support Service Reportfor Young People’s Life 0pportunities Scrutiny Commission Meeting

Family Support Services

21st January 2009

1. Introduction

  1. INTRODUCTION

“The key featureof an Integrated Support Service is that it acts as a service hub for the community by bringing together a range of services, usuallyunder one roof, whose practitionersthen work in a multi-agency way to deliver integrated support to children and families.” (Every Child Matters website)

In July 2006 the Enfield Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board (Children’s Trust) agreed to set up a Steering Group to oversee the development of four Children’s Area Partnerships (CAP). Each Children’s Area Partnership has a Children’s Area Board (CAB) represented by a range of partners. Four Integrated Support Teams (IST) have been developed, one team aligned to each area partnership to ensure that services for vulnerable children are joined up and that information is shared and coordinated effectively. The Community Parent Support Service is fully aligned to the ISTs and an integral part of the Integrated Support Service

This report summarises the types of family support offered by the service.

2. Vision of Integrated Support Service

All Enfield children and young people with additional needs who require support should experience a seamless and effective service. The Integrated Support Teams (ISTs) and the Community Parent Support Service offer early intervention, prevent deterioration of vulnerability and improve the lives of those children who require more than Universal services but do not reach the threshold for services from statutory agencies.The service promotes partnership and collaboration between children, parents, communities and agencies. The ISTs offer support when more that 2 agencies are involved, taking a lead role to ensure that services are co-ordinated, coherent and achieving intended outcomes. This is achieved by: identifying a team around a child (TAC) or Team around the Family (TAF), appointing a lead professional to coordinate the services required and developing the use of Common Assessment Framework within their area. The ISTs offer support to those children whose vulnerability falls mainly within Tier 3 of the windscreen of need; the Community Parent Support Service primarily offers support to those parents whose children require targeted support (tier 2 of the windscreen of need). See appendix 1 for the Enfield 4 Tiers of Integrated Working.

The Integrated Support Service was fully operational from April 2008, managing Common Assessment Framework (CAF) implementation, Integrated Support Teams and the Community Parent Support Service The Head of the Integrated Support Service is also the Parent Commissioner for the London Borough of Enfield. A flow chart follows outlining the structure of the new service.

Integrated Support Service Organisation Diagram:








Membership of Integrated Support Teams is varied, some members of the IST are directly and solely line managed within the Integrated Support Service, some members of IST are directly line managed by the respective IST Manager but also have links to a professional development lead officer based within another IST. Some IST members are accountable to both an IST manager and their home agencymanager for their IST activities. Service level agreements or working protocols will set out the precise relationship between the home agency and the multi-agency service, including the basis on which staff is employed.

3. Telephone Consultation Service

Offering qualitative family support initially requires a good quality assessment of need, identification od outcomes and appropriate referrals onto agencies that can help meet the identified need. The IST managers themselves form a very experienced multi-agency team and are seconded from Social Care, Education, Youth Support and the Primary Care Trust.

The IST Managers offer a Telephone Consultation Service for anyone who is uncertain or unclear as to what action to take to help a child with additional needs. This service can help agencies decide whether a Common Assessment (CAF) should be completed and where a child/family should or could be referred too. The service offers a brokering role if there are cross border issues and can assist with decision making as to which Local Authority should complete and/or receive the CAF. The IST manager can assist any professional with queries as to what to do about any aspect of the CAF process. The telephone consultation number is 0208 3511642.Available Monday to Friday 09:00 to 16:45.

4. CAFs Received

The total number of CAFs that have been received by the Integrated Support Service from April 2008- November 2008, total 208:

Type of Referral

The total number of CAFs completed by Single Agency, referred onto another agency (Joint Agency) and referred to ISTs have been depicted below:

5. Community Parent Support Service

The Community Parent Support Service continues to develop through consultation with parents, carers, children & young people. The Community Parent Support Service is fully aligned within the Integrated Support Teams.

“All parents should be valued and supported in their nurturing/caring role, ensuring that all Enfield’s children are safe, loved, healthy and equipped to achieve their best and become independent young adults.” (Enfield’s Parenting Strategy 2008-2011) The Community Parent Support Service has adopted this vision.

The Parent Support Service is an early intervention and prevention service working with parents of vulnerable children aged 0-18. The Service is available to all families living within the borough of Enfield or for parents of children attending one of Enfield’s schools. The Community Parent Support Service offers:

  • To provide support to parents where difficulties may arise, including managing children’s behaviour, parenting difficulties, relationship problems, alcohol abuse, mental health issues or anti-social behaviour that may be limiting the child’s development and educational achievements.
  • To empower parents to find solutions and deal with their family challenges effectively whilst respecting their backgrounds, differences, cultural values and beliefs
  • To work in partnership with parents and professionals to build on families’ strengths and support good parenting.
  • To raise the achievement of children and young people where issues are hindering their attendance, behaviour and progress
  • To support parents to build positive relationships with their children
  • To promote good partnerships and share information, ideas, resources and solutions.

The Community Parent Support Service works with parents in many different ways as follows:

Individual Work with Parents either face to face or on the telephone

  • Talking, listening
  • Reflecting – cause and effect
  • Sign posting
  • Exploring what they want to achieve
  • Supporting parents in times of crisis i.e. bereavement, family breakdown

Parenting Workshops and Programmes

  • Bespoke workshops – adult focused i.e. building self-esteem, fun groups, and discussion groups on drugs, alcohol, sex, crime, and inviting speakers.
  • Accredited parenting programmes with specific aims and objectives and evidence based outcomes

Parent and Child Work

  • Health & safety
  • Attendance
  • Practical strategies including anger management and solution focussed approaches
  • Exclusion issues
  • Transition
  • Stay & Play
  • Share Plus
  • Family learning

Outreach in the Community

  • Visiting organisations
  • Accessing community resources
  • Working with parents in their own homes

The Community Parent Support Advisors participate fully in the development of integrated working, including taking on the role of the Lead Professional (LP) and the Team Around the Child (TAC) or Team around the Family (TAF). The Community Parent Support Service have recently developed a duty service, offering drop-in duty appointments, one off home visits and telephone consultancy support for parents. This is proving to be very popular approximatinh a hundred calls a week.

The total number of referrals that have been received by the Community Parent Support Service from April 2008 – November 2008 totals to 166

The parents have children of the following ages:

0-7 was 32%

8-13 was 30%

14-18 was 38%.

Parenting Programmes- The total number of parents that have attended accredited Parenting Programmes from April 2008 – September 2008, totals 117:

The parent programmes are popular with parents of teenage children.

The percentage of parents of 8 to 13 year old children who have attending the programme is 82% compared to 18% of parents with teenage children between 14 and 18 years of age.

6. CAP 1 CAFs

CAP 1 Integrated Support Service has received 52 referrals in the duration of April 2008 to November 2008.

The sources of referrals have been captured below:

The presenting concerns for each case have been highlighted below:

7. CAP 2 CAFs

CAP 2 Integrated Support Service has received 69 referrals in the duration of April 2008 to November 2008. The sources of referrals have been captured below:

The presenting concerns for each case have been highlighted below:

8. CAP 3 CAFs

CAP 3 Integrated Support Service has received 35 referralsin the duration of April 2008 to November 2008.

The sources of referrals have been captured below:

The presenting concerns for each case have been highlighted below:

9. CAP 4 CAFs

CAP 4 Integrated Support Service has received 52 referrals in the duration of April 2008 to November 2008.

The sources of referrals have been captured below:

The presenting concerns for each case have been highlighted below:

10. Role of the Integrated Support Teams

The ISTs are responsible for appointing the Lead Professional and coordination the Team around the Child and/or Team around the Family. Lead Professionals can be drawn from any agency within the Children’s Workforce. Examples of professionals within Enfield that have taken on the role of the Lead Professionals are:

  • Community Parent Support Advisors
  • School Parent Support Advisors
  • Class Teacher
  • Deputy Head
  • Assistant Head (Inclusion Manager)
  • SENCO
  • Learning Mentor
  • Connexions
  • Voluntary Sector

Enfield has very strong partnership working with the third sector and the voluntary sector have embraced the development of the CAF and the role of the Lead Professional resulting in the voluntary sector taking on the role of the Lead Professional in a number of cases.

11. Role of Integrated Support Service and Workforce development

To offer good, high quality family support one needs an excellent Children’s Workforce that can identify vulnerability, intervene early, complete good assessments and refer onto the appropriate services. The Integrated Support Service contributes to the Workforce Development Strategy and provides the following Training Programmes for all agencies within the Children’s Workforce:

CAF Awareness–This a half day session and is useful for governors and those who need to know about CAF but will not be completing CAFs themselves. There have been 27 practitioners who have received this training to date.

CAF Training – This is a one-day training programme and is aimed at those who have missed training or who are new – this will include an overview of information sharing. The total number of practitioners that have received this training to date is 1,300.

Lead Professional Training- This is a one-day training programmefor those taking on the role of the Lead Professional or would like to find out exactly what the role entails. To date 121 practitioners have attended this training.

Developing the Skills of a Lead Professional – This two day session that takes place on consecutive weeks is for those who will be undertaking the role and looking in detail at the skills needed to undertake this role. There have been 80 practitioners who have received this training to date.

Supervising and Managing Lead Professionals – This is a one-day training programme suitable for heads, deputies and SENCOs. There have been 61 practitioners who have received this training to date.

12. The Role Of the Parent Commissioner

From October 2008 the parent commissioner roles and responsibilities sit with the Head of Integrated Support Service.

The Parent Commissioner is currently completing a mapping exercise of named accredited practitioners from all agencies who are able to deliver parenting programmes on behalf of NAPP (National Association of Parent Practitioners) and DCSF. This will lead to more coordinated delivery of parent support. The parent commissioner will be appointing two parent experts (DCSF funding) to assist in the delivery of the Enfield Parent Strategy and Promise to Parents. A multi-agency parent support steering group has been formed.

Currently a consultation exercise is underway to engage those parents who are not accessing parent support services, such as BME parent disabled parents, parent with mental health issues, parents with drug and alcohol issues and many more. Initial findings from the consultation tell us that some parents are afraid of gangs, gun and knife crime and extremism, many parents are fearful for their children’s safety on the streets, some parents are fearful that they may be hurt by their own children. As a result of this the Integrated Support Service has brought together a number of key partners and is leading on the development of a parenting programme for those parents afraid of gangs, knife and gun crime and extremism. The consultation exercise should be completed in February 2009 and the findings will be incorporated into the Parenting Strategy, which is currently being reviewed.

13. New Developments for the Integrated Support Service 2008/2009

Housing Project- IST 2 is piloting an innovative housing project for homeless 16 and 17 year olds. Many homeless 16/17 years olds from CAP2 no longer present to John Wilkes House. The young people come to the Angel Community Centre where a holistic assessment of need (including housing) is carried out using the CAF. Young people are no longer being labeled as homeless but are being assessed as vulnerable young people in transition. Funding for this project has been secured for 1 year from Adult Community Housing and Supporting People. A multi-agency steering group oversees this project and it is hoped it will be generated across all of Enfield. To date 30 young people have presented as homeless to the IST 2 at the Angel Community Centre.

Team Around the Schools - The IST managers will coordinate and Chair Team around the School, (or clusters of schools) to deliver multi-agency on-site support to schools this will include attendance team. This is currently being piloted with 2 Secondary Schools (Lee Valley and Albany) and the Pupil Referral Unit. Services attending Teams around the School include, police, Social Care, Youth Offending, Youth Support, CAMHS, Education Welfare and Behavioural Support. This aim of the pilot is to focus upon some of the most worrying cases and decisions are made to review the action plans and clarify which agency will take a lead role in the coordination of high levels of support.

ECAF and Multi-view - Currently ECAF procurement is underway; this will be piloted within the ISTs from January 2009, with an expected roll out across agencies from June 2009, with full implementation expected March 2010. The ECAF will enable agencies to complete their own checks and enter information directly into an electronic database. The pilot team consists of representatives across all agencies including Health, Voluntary Sector, Secondary and Primary schools and many others. It will also assist the Integrated Support Service in completing CAF quality assurance checks across all agencies. The ECAF pilot team are also piloting multivue. Multivue is similar to contact point except it is a local hub of information, bespoke to Enfield. It allows certain designated staff to see the services that are actively engaged with families and which services have been retrospectively involved with families. Both of these projects will improve information sharing across agencies, and aide coordination of the services required to help support families to reach desired outcomes for children and young people.

PAN LONDON CAF PROTOCOL –The Pan London CAF protocol, which is currently in draft format. The Government Office of London (GOL) is expected to circulate the final protocol to all Local Authorities at the end on March 2009 for implementation from April 1st 2009.

14. Conclusion

The Integrated Support Service offers wide reaching family support. Enfield is fully implementing the CAF and embedding the role of the Lead Professional. Through the year it has become apparent that each month there is a growing number of referrals that are being submitted to the Integrated Support Service from a variety of agencies and services. In April to May 2008, 25 referrals were recorded. In October to November 2008, 75 referrals were recorded.

The Integrated Support Service continues to work well in partnership with all agencies. Clear referral pathways are being developed to ensure that all young people are offered appropriate services to meet their needs.

APPENDIX 1

1

Anne Stoker

Head of Integrated Support Service and Parent Commissioner

January 2009 Integrated Support Service Family Support