Best Practice Guidance for Children’s Social Work Teams

Step Across to Early Help (Level 2) from Child in Need

• Early Help is an offer of multi-agency level 2 support.
• All cases that receive an Early Help offer must have consent from the family – so an early discussion by the social worker with the family, and signed consent must be obtained. This consent must be uploaded onto the Right for Children system.
• Should the family not agree to all information being shared, they must be explicit about what information this is.
• Early Help is all agencies – health, education, police, youth support, job centre plus and many more.
• If a family would benefit from Early Help input there needs to be a clear plan, with clearly identified areas that need supporting. Most agencies, providing Early Help, work towards effecting change and offering support. They cannot ‘monitor’ situations.
• A discussion about what Early Help may be able to offer the family should be discussed with the family before the Child in Need meeting (CiN) or the Team around the Family (TAF) meeting is arranged.
• In all cases, it needs to be considered whether the family are potentially able to solve their own problems with some assistance and support and all workers need to consider a referral to Family Solutions services for a FGC before closing the family to CiN.
• The social worker needs to discuss with the family whom they would ideally most like to be the lead practitioner and discuss this with the relevant practitioner prior to any meeting.
• If there are challenges in identifying lead practitioners, social workers can get support their line managers or their locality team in each area – see the webpage for their contact details
• There is an expectation that professionals engage with undertaking the lead practitioner role and need to be asked. Clear reasons should be given by any practitioner chosen by a family as to why they are not able to be the lead and challenged if they say they are not able to take this role on.
• If the case has come through the Initial Response team- and a single assessment has been completed – a TAF meeting should be arranged to discuss the ongoing Early Help plan and intervention.
• If the case has been held at CiN level and a CiN meeting is arranged where the plan is clear that it is stepping down to Early Help – there is no need to organise another multi-agency meeting (TAF), the lead practitioner should have already been identified and the plan discussed with the family.
• Outcomes of the TAF/CiN meeting must be added to a Case Observation on Right for Children as well as on to Eclipse.
• The social worker (either directly or through business support) will need to ascertain if the family are already on the Right for Children system – if not – create a new family case and start an Early Help Assessment (EHA) using the details from the most recent assessment on Eclipse. Leave the EHA open – do not finalise it as other agencies need to add their respective information.
• Only once a multi-agency meeting/EHA has been opened and a lead practitioner has been identified can the case close to the social worker and on Eclipse. Should the family not engage with the Early Help plan, the family may need to reopen to Children’s Social Work again.

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