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Early Help

Acronyms and terminology demystified

We hope this list will keep evolving – if you are aware of an acronym that needs adding please send the detail to your locality mailbox.

AfC                         Action for Children.  Children’s Centres

ASB                        Anti-Social Behaviour

ASD                        Autistic Spectrum Disorder

CARA                     Child At Risk Alert (Police)

CC                           Children’s Centre

CFHD                     Children & family Health Devon (previously Virgin)

CME                       Child Missing Education

CORC                     Child Outcomes Research Consortium. How to measure children and young people’s mental health & wellbeing. (link on Devon SCP [EH] website)

CSE                         Child Sexual Exploitation

CVS                        Community & Voluntary Services

Devon SCP                     Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership (previously DSCB)

DfE                         Department for Education

DIAS                      Devon Information & Advice Service– parents of children with additional needs can be referred to DIAS for advice, support and advocacy re access to education

DICS                       Devon Integrated Children’s Services

DLA                        Disability Living Allowance

DSL                         Designated Safeguarding Lead

DV                          Domestic Violence

DWP                      Department Work & Pensions

EH                          Early Help– An approach bringing together people from a range of services. Support for families from pre-birth to adolescents before any formal interventions. Main point of contact= lead practitioner. Early Help has 10 criteria on which they are judged as payments by results (PBR) are made from the government for the Supported Families programme.

EHA                       Early Help Assessment. Families can refer themselves for an EHA or can be referred by a teacher, Health Visitor, GP etc.

EHCP                     Education Health & Care Plan

EHP                        Early Help Plan.  EHP states who is going to do what and when, including things a family can do to help themselves.

ESA                        Employment Support Allowance. (Formerly Incapacity Benefit). You can apply for ESA if you have a disability or health condition that affects how much you can work.

ETE                         Young people engaged in Education Training or Employment

EWO                      Education Welfare Officer

EYFS                      Early Years Foundation Stage

FGCP                     Family Group Conference Plus– offer a range of meetings including family group conferences and restorative meetings aimed at achieving positive change.

FIT                          Family Intervention Team– offers practical support, advice, how to build strengths and skills. Connects families with YIT, Domestic Violence support, DWP etc

FP                           Family Practitioner

IDVA                      Independent Domestic Violence Advisor – The role of the IDVA is to provide safety advice and support to victims of domestic abuse who are at high risk as measured using the DASH Risk Assessment.

IS                            Income Support. To help to cover costs if the person has a low income and gets the severe disability premium.

JSA                        Job Seekers Allowance

LADO                    Local Authority Designated Officer– deals with allegations made against an adult working with children

LO                         Locality Officer

MACE                   Missing Child Exploitation

MARAC                Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference.  A victim-focused information sharing and risk management meeting attended by all key agencies where high risk cases are discussed.

MASH                   Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub. A partnership between DCC, Children’s social care, education, youth services, NHS, police & probation working together to safeguard children. If a professional, family member or the public have a concern they can make a request for support.

MDA                      Multi-Disciplinary Assessment

NEET                      A young person: Not in Employment, Education or Training

OoSC                     Out of School Club

PBR                        Payment by Results

PHNT                     Public Health Nursing Team

PIP                         Personal Independence Payment

PNMHT                 Perinatal Mental Health Team

PPAP                     Parents Plus Adolescents Programme – Evidence-based parenting course promoting effective communication in families with adolescents aged 11 – 16 years.

PSPM                    Pregnancy Support Pathway Meeting

PTC                        Parent to Child

QA                          Quality Assurance

REACH                  Reducing Exploitation & Absence from Care or Home– a service which supports young people who either run away or who are at risk of CSE

RfC                         Right for Children – a web-based system that enables practitioners from a range of agencies, services and team to input and share information about the families they are working with.

ROI                         Record of Intervention

SEMH                    Social, Emotional, Mental Health problem

SEN                        Special Educational Needs

SEND                     Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

SFP                        Strengthening Families Programme– Strengthening Families training is for over 8-year olds. 8 sessions with children in the evening with food…

SGO                       Special Guardianship Order

SMART                  Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, with Timescale– for writing a good Early Help Plan

SOEH                     Support Officer, Early Help

SPA                        Single Point of Access

TAC                        ‘Team around the Child’

TAF                        Team Around the Family (TAF). The family and relevant agencies working with them are known collectively as the ‘Team around the Family’. A TAF meeting, engages effectively with the family and relevant professionals. The aim is to produce a plan of coordinated support enabling a child, or young person, and their family to achieve agreed outcomes within specified timescales.

TDC                        Teignbridge District Council

UC                          Universal Credit. A payment to help with living costs. It replaces Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit, Income Support, Job seeker’s Allowance, Working Tax Credit

VI                            Visually Impaired

ViST                       Vulnerable incident Screening Tool (Police) Police complete an incident form if children are present when they are called to a property, often related to a call about Domestic Abuse. Police will send this CARA to their safeguarding hub and data the police have – either about the property or about the people named on the report (or both) and this is then known as a ViST.

YES                         Youth Enquiry Service

YIT                          Youth Intervention Team

YOT                        Youth Offending Team

 

 

Assessment Triangle is used to identify different aspects of intervention to look at.

Family Outcome Star      A method to help to create a plan for a family- used by FIT.

Family Practitioner works with the whole family

Front Door   Devon’s entrance in Children’s Social care that incorporates our MASH.

Roots    Mental health/ bereavement

Step down to Early Help– Social Services might ‘step down’ a family from their care to Early Help. They should hold a closing meeting with EH

Talk works– for depression/ anxiety

Troubled Families Programme is a programme of targeted intervention for families with multiple problems, including crime, anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment, mental health problems and domestic abuse. One aim of the Programme is to tackle issues before they require costlier interventions. It involves the adoption of a ‘whole family approach’ and multi-agency working.

Young Devon– mental health support

Young Minds– A charity working for people’s mental health. Tips, advice and guidance on where to get support for mental health. Youngminds.org.uk

If you think that the child is at risk of significant harm, contact our Front Door directly by calling 0345 155 1071. In an emergency call 999.


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