These goals are contained in government guidance (Every
Child Matters) and the council and other agencies in the borough
are working together, using shared practices, to bring about
changes that will allow children and young people to develop their
full potential and support families when and where they need it
most.
As part of this process we want to ensure we meet the needs of all
children as early as possible so that problems can be dealt with or
support put in place to stop real problems developing.
Integrated working practice guidelines are
available to support all practitioners.
The first part of this process is a
Common
Assessment.
The common
assessment is a simple and straightforward way of assessing a
child's needs.
Your child will have a common assessment and information will be
shared, with your agreement, with other professionals who may be
able to help. The assessment will also help show if there are any
other problems in the child's life or in his or her family that can
also be solved - perhaps managing debt, dealing with housing
problems or gaining grant support to improve the home.
The assessment only uses terms everyone understands and doesn't use
jargon.
Once an assessment has been completed it may be your child's needs
can be met by a single agency - such as your school, a health
visitor or a youth worker. However if it is necessary for other
agencies to get involved a Team Around the Child (TAC) will be
called.
The Team Around the Child
This is the way professionals
will get together with you to sort out what needs to be done to
meet your child's needs. This supportive team will work together to
plan co-ordinated support from relevant agencies. Because of the
range of skills and knowledge on call, underlying issues can also
be tackled which are often the root cause of problems.
The team's work includes:
- Agreeing the needs of the child and
family.
- Agreeing the family support needs.
- Supporting the child to meet their
identified needs.
Arranging, if necessary, additional support from more specialist
services.
- Reviewing the support given to the child
and family on a regular basis.
The membership of the team may change as the needs of the child
and family change, but there will always be a lead professional to
be the main support and contact for you and your family.
The lead professional
The lead professional will
work directly with you and your family to build a trusting
relationship and act as the key link between you and other
professionals.
In Telford and Wrekin lead professionals have been health visitors,
education welfare officers and primary headteachers, but school
nurses, midwives, Connexions Workers and family support workers
have acted as lead professionals too. What matters is that you feel
comfortable working with your lead professional and you can choose
who this should be if you wish.
Your lead professional will help make sure that actions agreed by
the team (these will all be set out in a TAC Plan) take place and
support you throughout the process. They will make sure you, your
child and your family remain central to any decisions and that you
have the information you need to make choices.
The team's work will also help you improve or develop new
skills, such as managing your child's behaviour so they are better
prepared for school, less likely to behave badly and disrupt other
children and also learn more themselves.
Feedback from children, young people and parents so far has been
very positive. They feel their own or their children's needs are
being met more effectively and earlier, that known people are much
easier to deal with than faceless organisations, and that they are
building skills, confidence and knowledge and that things are
happening and making a difference to their lives.
"'The Team Around the Child' enabled information to be shared once
and I knew exactly who was doing what. If I have a problem I know
who to contact and I now feel things are going to be sorted out.
This is so different to how things were before, when you had to do
everything yourself and didn't know who could help."
(Parent using and still in the process August 2005)
These better ways of working are already making a difference.
Youngsters are doing better at school, and Telford and Wrekin has
some of the most improved exam result in the country. Teenage
pregnancy rates are dropping, more children and young people are
involved in sports and leisure activities than ever before,
re-offending rates are down, "looked after" children are doing
better in many areas and more young people are staying on in post
-16 education, with training and employment rates up too.
For more information on
Beacon Status for Integrated Children's
Services. |