Requesting support from Children's Services

There is lots of support universally available to all children and families across Lancashire. These services can offer families experiencing difficulties help and guidance and can prevent them from requiring intensive family support or statutory intervention.

You can find more about what community services are available to help children and families whose needs are assessed to be in line with level one and two of the continuum of need within our local resources directory.

For those children and families whose needs are intensive or who are experiencing significant difficulties, a coordinated multi-disciplinary approach where people from different organisations with different skills, knowledge and experience work together with a family may be most effective.

This will most often be in circumstances where extended networks and community support have been exhausted. In such situations, it may be most appropriate to request support from Lancashire's Children and Family Wellbeing Service who can offer intensive family support. Again, these services must only be requested with the consent of those with parental responsibility.

This service can be accessed by completing the Lancashire Children's Services Request for Support form.

Conversations about a worry should usually begin with the family. It is a good way of exploring whether they share the concerns and worries and to assess any help that might be needed. If parents or young people understand that you're trying to help and are willing to work with you, they may be open to you making a referral to get the help they need, which will need their explicit consent.

When you have concerns about the welfare or development of a child, wherever possible the permission of parents/carers/children/young people (as appropriate to age and understanding) should have been sought before contacting Early Help Services or Children's Services.

The following questions will help you ensure that consent is obtained:

• Does the person with parental responsibility know that a request for service is being made?
• If this referral is based on information from a third party, are they aware that it is being made?
• Does the child or young person know about this referral?
• Does your Line Manager or Safeguarding Lead know about this referral?

There will be rare occasions when it would not be appropriate to inform parents / carers that services are being contacted about a safeguarding concern, when by doing so the child/young person would be placed at immediate or greater risk of harm.

7 golden rules of Information sharing

1. GDPR isn't a barrier to sharing information.
2. Be open and honest.
3. Seek advice.
4. Share with consent where appropriate.
5. Consider safety and wellbeing.
6. Necessary, proportionate, relevant, accurate, timely and secure.
7. Keep a record.

There is also national guidance on sharing information to help you decide when and how to share personal information legally and professionally.

The law in England outlines that the state can only interfere in family life without the consent of those with parental responsibility when there is a risk that a child is at risk of, or experiencing, significant harm (Children Act 1989).

Legal definition of (Section 47) which is where the Local Authority have a duty to investigate on basis of Child Protection concerns:

Where a local authority –

1. are informed that a child who lives, or is found, in their area and is the subject of an emergency protection order; or is in police protection;
2. have reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives, or is found, in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm,

The authority shall make, or cause to be made, such enquiries as they consider necessary to enable them to decide whether they should take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare.

This legislation also places a duty on the local authority to provide a range and level of services appropriate to those children's needs.

Legal definition of Section 17 (Child in Need):

A child shall be taken to be in need if:

1. s/he is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development.
2. her/his health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision for her/him of such services; or
3. s/he is disabled

Section 17 support to children and families is more commonly known as Child in Need support. There are two clear difference between these two levels of intervention that are provided from statutory services:

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) provides statutory guidance to all Local Authorities and Professional Partners throughout England. This document states:

Where a child's need is relatively low level, individual services and universal services may be able to take swift action. Where there are more complex needs, help may be provided under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989. The document goes on to say that there should be clear criteria amongst all organisations and agencies working with children and families for taking action and providing help across this full continuum to ensure that services are commissioned effectively sand the right help is given to the child at the right time.

Working together to Safeguard Children also sets out the requirement for Local Authorities to publish a threshold document. Lancashire's threshold guidance is called 'Working Well with Children and Families in Lancashire' which outlines Lancashire's Continuum of Need.

Working Together to Safeguard Children reminds us that providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later. It states that:

"Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child's life; early help can also prevent further problems arising. The guidance outlines that effective early help relies upon local organisations and agencies working together to:

• Identify children and families who would benefit from early help;
• Undertake an assessment of need for early help;
• Provide targeted early help services to address the assessed needs of a child and their family which focuses on activity to improve the outcomes for the child."

Early help may be offered to children and families in Lancashire assessed as having needs in line with level 1, 2 and 3 of the Continuum of Need.

An Early Help Assessment and Plan (previously the Common Assessment Framework or CAF) can help to identify areas of need and support for a family.

If the child lives outside of Lancashire you should report any concerns to the local authority in the area where the child lives. Contact details are available on their websites:

• Blackpool Council website
• Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council website 

When contacting the service on 0300 123 6720 for advice only you will be asked to provide details regarding the nature of your enquiry with reference to Lancashire's Continuum of need.

This is to ensure your call is directed to the MASH Social Work Team, or Children's Services Support Hub.

If a Request for Support is required following the receipt of advice – you will be advised to complete an electronic Request for Support Form.

Children's Social Care will only accept telephony referrals if the child or young person is at immediate risk of harm and in need of assistance from Children's Social care in the next 24 hours.

If you believe that a child is in immediate danger, please contact the Police in the first instance using 999. Next, report your concerns to Children's Service by telephone: 0300 123 6720 or 0300 123 6722 if out of hours. Please have available the Police crime log number.

For guidance on completing each section of the form please see the following:

• Request for support form: system guidance (PDF 673 KB) 
• Request for support form: practice guidance (PDF 60KB) 

You can also read more about our new processes in this Partner Practitioner Guidance document (PDF 550KB).

The request for support process visual (PDF 113KB) shows the process and what happens next as a flow chart.

Families tell us that support works well when they are respected and listened to by the people who work with them or they approach for help. This is more likely to be successful when practitioners show empathy and work with families to explore how problems have come about and how to make changes.

It is important that any problems are identified early, so that the child and their family receive appropriate support in a timely way to prevent the problem from escalating.

Do:

• Provide clear, factual information.
• Provide clear details about what work you have done to support the family, and the impact of your worries on the child.
• Detail information about consent, make sure that children and families are aware of the request for support (when age appropriate and safe to do this).
• Acknowledge protective factors and family strengths.

Avoid:

• Formalising and watering down language; use the child’s and parents’ actual language and quotes wherever possible.
• Including the history of our past involvement – unless you are aware that a child has been open to CSC in other areas. We do need to know what has happened since CSC involvement ended.
• Writing anything that is not appropriate for sharing with families in terms of language that can be perceived as judgemental and stereotyping