1.2.1 Thresholds for Need for Intervention by Safeguarding & Specialist Provision Service

This chapter should be read in conjunction with CAF Interface between Children and Young Peoples Service Providers Specialist Provision and Safeguarding.

Introduction
Roles of Agencies
Inter Agency Working
Information Sharing with those with Parental Responsibility
Information Sharing/Recording
Sharing Information and Confidentiality
Rights of the Child
Rights of the Adult Including Parental Responsibility
Minority Ethnic Communities
Advance and Guidance From Other Agencies
Threshold of Needs for Intervention by Safeguarding and Specialist Provision

Appendix 1: Levels of Need

Appendix 2: Indicators of Need Guidance

1. Introduction

The Children Act 2004 identifies 5 key outcomes that are crucial to well-being in childhood and later life:

Being Healthy;
Staying Safe;
Enjoying and Achieving;
Making a Positive Contribution;
Achieving Economic Well-being.

When children's needs are appropriately met they will reach their full potential. The Framework for intervention provides a consistent approach for practitioners from all agencies to identify and respond effectively to children/young people's needs. The framework is underpinned by the following principles:

The child/young person's welfare and safety is paramount;
Assessments of need will be child/young person centred and holistic;
All organisations are committed to the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children/young people;
All organisations demonstrate their commitment to integrated working and the Common Assessment Framework processes;
Integrated working will avoid duplication of assessments/service provision and unnecessary intrusion into family life.

In addition, all agencies aim to work with children/young people and their parents/carers to:

Ensure that children, young people and their parents/carers are informed about key risks to their safety and how to deal with them;
Children and young people are provided with a safe environment;
The incidence of child abuse and neglect is minimised;
Agencies collaborate to safeguard children;
Action is taken to avoid children becoming subject to Child Protection Plans;
Action is taken to avoid children having to be Looked After by the Local Authority;
Children and young people with learning and/or disabilities live in safe environments and are protected from abuse and exploitation.

2. Roles of Agencies

All statutory and non-statutory agencies working with children and families in Kirklees have a responsibility to contribute positively to the assessment of need in relation to children who are known to them. This will ensure that assessments are thorough and comprehensive.

Each individual or Agency should be clear about the contribution they are expected to make to each assessment and have an opportunity to influence the outcome of that assessment.

Assessments should be completed within timescales set out by the framework. This is consistent with the need to put plans in place within timescales, which accord with children's needs.

It is inevitable that some assessments may involve professional disagreement. The process for resolving disputes should be transparent to all agencies and individuals working within those agencies.

Decision making must be accountable, visible and consistent. Decisions must be clearly recorded and management involvement in decisions explicit.

Assessments will be child centred;
Rooted in child development;
Ecological and systematic in their approach;
Ensure equality of opportunity;
Build on the strengths of families;
Multi-agency in approach;
Regularly reviewed;
Grounded in evidence based knowledge.

The child and their family are at the centre of all assessments. When working within the Child in Need Framework, information is shared only with full consent of the service users. Services following assessment are provided in agreement with the child and their parents.

3. Inter Agency Working

To offer children and young people the most effective services (from safeguarding and promoting their welfare to protection from abuse) all agencies involved must work together, sharing skills, resources, knowledge and responsibility. It is important to recognise that:

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children/young people is a statutory duty under section 11 of the Children Act 2004 and section 175 of the Education Act 2002;
All workers involved with children/young people and their families have a duty to act in the best interests of the child/young person. It is the worker's responsibility to identify and respond to concerns about a child/young person's welfare and to know how to effectively challenge decisions which in their professional opinion do not promote positive outcomes;
Each Agency must understand and appreciate the role of others;
Children and young people, parents, carers and workers will be treated with respect and should not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, age, race, culture, disability or sexual orientation;
All Agencies should work in partnership and where necessary help bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against children/young people.

4. Information Sharing with those with Parental Responsibility

Although the primary focus of work with children and young people is to ensure they are safe, protected from harm and their welfare is promoted, the rights and interests of parents, those with Parental Responsibility and other family members, must be given due consideration.

So far as it is in the child/young person's interests, children/young people should grow up within their natural family. Childcare agencies and organisations in general have a duty to assist parents to undertake this task.

Should it not be possible for children to remain within the family, parents and other family members will be supported to achieve a positive separation.

All parents have the right to support to enable them to ensure that their children/young people grow up adequately cared for and safe from harm.

When there are concerns about children/young people, the family have a right to an open and honest explanation of the reasons for those concerns. Additionally, they are entitled to information concerning the duties and powers of relevant agencies and must be involved in all decisions affecting their lives.

Families should be supported in making their own plans for the welfare and protection of their children and only in exceptional cases should there be compulsory intervention in family life, for example, when it is necessary to safeguard a child from significant harm.

5. Information Sharing/Recording

Each partner Agency accepts their responsibility under the Data Protection Act. Each agency must seek explicit consent to sharing of information for the purpose of completing an assessment, under this framework

Children/young people and their parents are able to see any information held about them and correct any factual errors. They should have the opportunity to record any disagreement with any recorded information whether this is fact or opinion.

6. Sharing Information and Confidentiality

Sharing information in a timely and appropriate way is integral to promoting positive outcomes for children and young people and ensuring they are kept safe. In many cases it is only when information from a range of sources is brought together that a full understanding of need is established and the right support offered.

Workers should explain to children, young people and families at the outset, openly and honestly, what and how information will, or could be shared and why, and seek their agreement.

The exception to this is where to do so would put that child, young person or others at increased risk of Significant Harm or an adult at risk of serious harm, or if it would undermine the prevention, detection or prosecution of a serious crime including where seeking consent might lead to interference with any potential investigation.

Workers must always consider the safety and welfare of a child or young person when making decisions on whether to share information about them. Where there is concern that the child may be suffering or is at risk of suffering significant harm, the child's safety and welfare must be the overriding consideration.

Workers should, where possible, respect the wishes of children, young people or families who do not consent to share confidential information. Staff may still share information, if in their judgment on the facts of the case; there is sufficient need to override that lack of consent.

Workers should seek advice where they are in doubt, especially where their doubt relates to a concern about possible Significant Harm to a child or serious harm to others.

Workers should ensure that the information they share is accurate and up-to-date, necessary for the purpose for which they are sharing it, shared only with those people who need to see it, and shared securely.

Workers should always record the reasons for their decision - whether it is to share information or not.

In most situations, consent to share information should always be sought from relevant parties, including where appropriate, the child or young person.

Workers in all services should proactively inform children, young people and families, when they first engage with the service, about their service's policy on how information will be shared and seek their consent.

The approach to sharing information should be explained openly and honestly. When this is done, young people and families will be aware how their information may be shared and experience shows that most will give consent.

Information which is not confidential may generally be shared where necessary for the legitimate purposes of preventative work.

Where information is confidential and consent to refused, that should be respected, unless in the workers professional judgment there is a clear risk of Significant Harm to a child/young person.

The key factor in deciding whether or not to share confidential information is proportionality. i.e. whether the proposed sharing of information is a proportionate response to the need to protect the public interest in question. In making the decision you must weigh up what might happen if the information is not shared against what will happen if it is not and make a decision based on a reasonable judgment.

It is critical that all practitioners working with children and young people are in no doubt that where they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child or young person may be suffering or may be at risk of suffering Significant Harm, they should always refer their concerns to Safeguarding and Specialist Provision.

In general, concerns should be discussed with the family and, where possible, seek the agreement of the family members to make a referral to Safeguarding and Specialist Provision. This should only be done where such discussions and agreement seeking will not place a child/young person at increased risk of significant harm or lead to interference with any potential investigation. The child/young person's safety must be the overriding consideration in making such decisions.

Decisions should always be recorded, documenting the reasons why information was or was not shared. If the decision is to share information, the record should document what information was shared and with whom.

Detailed guidance for workers about sharing information can be found in 'Information Sharing; Practitioners Guide' published by the DCSF (Ref: IG00065) or alternatively at: Every Child Matters: Change for Children.

Links to Integrated Working and Common Assessment Framework

All professionals should ensure that they are familiar with the content of the Integrated Working & Common Assessment Framework Handbook for Practitioners and they apply the principles outlined in the handbook when sharing information with and/or about children, young people and their families/carers.

Links to Local Safeguarding Children Board Procedures

Where there are concerns about Significant Harm, the interagency child protection procedures will apply. These procedures give guidance about the circumstances when parental consent can be dispensed with.

Provision of Services

Services may be provided without delay to meet immediate need, but the level of provision will be reviewed once the assessment process has concluded.

Assessments are undertaken in the context of limited resources, which must be focused on those most in need. Eligibility criteria aim to ensure that children in similar circumstances receive a fair and equal level of provision.

Assessment is in itself an intervention, with a cost attached. Agencies reserve the right to limit the range of circumstances which will warrant an assessment. This will be reviewed regularly by agencies individually and jointly to ensure that an acceptable level of service provision is maintained.

7. Rights of the Child

Children and young people have individual rights, separate to that of their parents or carers. These rights should be recognised and respected. Where there is conflict of interest between parent(s) and a child/young person and in all decisions relating to their future, the child's interests must be given primary consideration.

8. Rights of the Adult Including Parental Responsibility

Definition of Parental Responsibility

Those that hold Parental Responsibility for a child are given the right to determine key issues for the child/young person, including where the child/young person should live, whether the child/young person might receive medical treatment and what school the child should attend.

Who has Parental Responsibility

The child/young person's mother;
The child/young person's father.

When a child is born to married parents, both parents have Parental Responsibility from the child's birth.

If the parents are unmarried, and the child's birth was registered before the 1st December 2003, the mother alone has parental responsibility for the child.

If the child's birth was jointly registered by the mother and unmarried birth father on or after the 1st December 2003, the birth father shares parental responsibility equally with the child's mother.

The unmarried birth father may also acquire parental responsibility as follows:

By formal agreement with the mother;
By obtaining a Parental Responsibility Order;
By marrying the mother after the child's birth;
By obtaining an adoption order granted to the unmarried father in special circumstances.

Other Individuals with Parental Responsibility

Individuals other than the child's parents can acquire Parental Responsibility by:

Being appointed guardians after a parent's death;
The granting of a Residence Order (PR is shared with the birth parents);
The granting of a Special Guardianship Order (PR is shared with birth parents and can exercise it to the exclusion of the birth parents on most but not all issues);
The granting of a Parental Order (PR is conveyed to a married couple for a child born in surrogacy, where one of the couple is a genetic parent of the child);
The granting of an Adoption Order (adoptive parents acquire full PR).

Please note: Any family member or other adult who previously obtained via the Court a Residence Order OR Special Guardianship Order in respect of a child and that order has not been disposed of by the Court retains Parental Responsibility even if the child no longer resides with that family member or other adult.

Shared Parental Responsibility Between the Parent/Carer of a Child/Young Person and the Local Authority

The Local Authority shares Parental Responsibility with those identified above if:

The Local Authority obtains via the Court an Interim Care Order in respect of a child;
The Local Authority obtains via the Court a Care Order in respect of a child;
The Local Authority obtains via the Court a Placement Order in respect of a child. Following the making of a Placement Order or formal consent to a child's placement for adoption the Local Authority acquires parental responsibility for the child, shared with the child's birth parents or others with parental responsibility and with the prospective adopters upon placement.

9. Minority Ethnic Communities

Kirklees has a large number of different and emerging minority ethnic communities. The children/young people constitute a significant proportion of the Kirklees child population.

The Laming Report concluded that the basis need for children/young people to be kept safe is universal and cuts across cultural boundaries.

All children are entitled to be given the protection of the law, regardless of his or her background. Cultural heritage is important but it cannot take precedence over standards of childcare embodied by law.

Minority families are not all the same. They include much diversity of language, religious observance, customs and family and parenting styles. Everyone should be sensitive to these during childcare processes. Some families will have newly arrived in Britain and some will have lived here for several generations and all will exhibit significant diversity of life style.

It is important to remember not to make assumptions regarding cultural norms and styles of parenting. The range of cultures and parenting are so wide that it is meaningless to make generalisations and potentially damaging to an effective assessment of the child/young person.

When working with children/young people, it is important to be able to understand the child/young person and family's situation and also to be able to communicate the systems and processes back to the child/young person and family.

Finding out the family's primary language or the child/young person's preferred method of communication is central to any professionals' assessment/involvement.

It is important to consider the language needs of all family members and not to make assumptions that one family member will accurately translate information on behalf of others or be representing their views when speaking on their behalf.

If the family are not comfortable with English and you have insufficient knowledge of their preferred language, it is important to enlist the help of an interpreter. See Working with Interpreters Procedures.

This interpreter should have a good knowledge of the family's language and the child care processes.

Using relatives or children to help translate is not good practice and should be avoided wherever possible.

10. Advance and Guidance From Other Agencies

Professionals working with children, young people and their families may at times require advice and guidance from other professionals and in particular, from the Safeguarding and Specialist Provision Service.

Promoting accessible advice and guidance encourages those professionals working with children/young people and their parents/carers to actively obtain additional information that can support their ongoing work with the family concerned.

The seeking of advice and guidance should inform and enhance the professionals' assessment and practice whilst supporting him/her to promote positive outcomes for children/young people.

Those professionals working with a child/young person can request advice and guidance from a wide range of agencies within Kirklees.

Requesting advice and guidance may be requested when:

It is an agreed outcome of a worker's supervision/case discussion with a line manager and the child/young person or family's needs cannot be met within your own agency;
There is an immediate need for advice and guidance in relation to a specific issue about which a worker's own agency does not have the knowledge/expertise;
To clarify the child/young person's level of need.

Parental Consent

Prior to contacting Safeguarding and Specialist Provision for advice and guidance workers should consider whether they need to inform the child/young person and his/her parents/carers that they are seeking advice and guidance from another agency.

Process for Seeking Advice and Guidance

Prior to contacting an external agency for advice and guidance you should:

Consider whether you need to inform the parents/carers of your intention;
Be clear about the reasons for requesting advice and the desired outcome;
Prepare information relevant to the advice you are requesting. This should include:
1. Details of the child's name, date of birth and home address;
2. Names, dates of birth and relationship of members of the household;
3. Names of other agencies involved with the child, young person and family;
4. Needs/strengths of the child, young person and family;
5. Significant events in the child/young person's life;
6. Previous/current involvement/interventions.

Recording of Advice and Guidance

Advice and guidance must be recorded. It is important that information shared and the agreed outcomes and actions resulting from this process are recorded in a consistent manner.

It is the responsibility of the worker requesting the advice/guidance to record details of the conversation including the following information:

The name, professional title, workplace and telephone number of the person giving the advice/guidance;
The date the advice is sought;
The reason for seeking the advice and guidance;
The advice/guidance provided;
The agreed outcome/action.

A copy of the advice and guidance should be placed on the child's case record held by the requesting organisation.

Only in exceptional circumstances will it be necessary for the person giving the advice to record the discussion/outcome. Individual agencies will need to determine whether or not it is appropriate for the person giving the advice/ guidance to make a record of the advice/guidance given.

Advice/Guidance Provided by Staff in Safeguarding and Specialist Provision

If a worker from an external agency contacts Safeguarding and Specialist Provision seeking advice and guidance about an individual child/young person and is parents/carers the information must be recorded by both the worker from the agency seeking advice/guidance and the worker providing the advice/guidance.

11. Threshold of Needs for Intervention by Safeguarding and Specialist Provision

The framework for involvement with children and young people is designed to enable all professionals to work together to support and provide appropriate services to children and young people to enable them to achieve their full potential and that children and young people at risk are appropriately protected.

It is agreed that all organisations in Kirklees will work to the same framework and in doing so, will promote a common use of language, understanding and consistency across all services for children, young people, families, workers and volunteers from all organisations.

Workers should refer to the Integrated and Common Assessment Framework - Handbook for Practitioners which contains material relevant to Integrated Working across Kirklees and will guide practitioners through the use of the Integrated Working tools and how they relate to the Kirklees Integrated Working processes. This handbook was available from December 2008.

The majority of children/young people living in Kirklees will have their needs met by parents/carers, their extended families and community and with access to Universal Services.

The difficulties of parenting are recognised in order to address those issues; some families may need short or long term support from outside their existing network. Different issues may arise at different times and children/young people's difficulties may be due to the child/young person's development, financial problems, education, health and social issues within the family.

The Integrated Working process is aimed at targeting children/young people who may need extra support than is currently being provided by the family and universal services. This process includes:

The Common Assessment	Refer to Integrated Working & CAF Handbook for Practitioners
The Kirklees Information Sharing Service
The Multi Agency Support Team (MAST)
The Lead Professional

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) enables those professionals working with children/young people with additional needs to identify and respond effectively to assess their needs.

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) will help identify:

The child/young person's level of need;
If a child/young person needs to access additional support from other services;
Which needs must be prioritised;
What actions are needed to meet the identified needs;
Which services can meet those identified needs;
What outcomes are to be achieved and in what timescale.

Agencies who are the recipient of the CAF should use the information received as part of any further more in-depth/specialist assessment that may need to be undertaken and not start again with their own agency's assessment.

Level of Need

The Framework enables professionals to determine differing levels of need and identify an appropriate response.

Every Child/Young Person: Children whose needs are being addressed in relation to the 5 outcomes.

Level 1: Some children will have additional needs whose health and development may be affected. These needs should be met by access to identified universal services and which can be met via the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). If the needs of the child/young person are unclear you can use the pre-assessment checklist to check progress against the 5 Every Child Matters Outcomes. It is not appropriate to refer to Safeguarding and Specialist Provision.

Level 2: Some children will have additional needs and will require the support of one or more agencies working together and in conjunction with parents/carers to promote positive outcomes. The worker will have actual or increasing concerns for children and young people with additional needs which can be met via the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). A CAF must be undertaken to identify and evidence levels of need and plan an inter-agency response. It is not appropriate to refer to Safeguarding & Specialist Provision.

Level 3: A small number of children and young people will have complex needs that require a planned package of support by a number of agencies to meet the identified needs and address risk factors. These children/young people with multiple and/or complex additional needs some of which can be met through the provision of Universal Service and the CAF. However, some of the more intense multiply/complex needs will have to be addressed through specialist and/or statutory assessment and intervention. A CAF is required to access an in-depth/specialist assessment. This may include a referral to Safeguarding & Specialist Provision.

Level 4: A very small number of children and young people will be at risk of significant harm and will require a co-ordinated Child Protection Plan or will become Looked After by the Local Authority. These children are suspected to be at risk of Significant Harm (either suffering or likely to suffer such harm) and therefore will require statutory child protection intervention. This will require a referral to Safeguarding & Specialist Provision.

Different Levels of Need and Action to be Taken by Professionals

Appendix 1 illustrate the different levels of need and the action to be taken by professionals.

Indicators of by Example

The attached Indicators of need are for guidance and are not an exhaustive list.

Guide to Indicators of Need

There are many ways in which additional need can be defined and, within a multi-agency environment, it is likely that this will continue. Practitioners from a variety of organisational backgrounds will be working together but will retain their particular professional identity and a particular definition of need.

For many children and young people these aims are achieved through care in the family and access to Universal Services such as schools and general health care. We are concerned here with those children and young people who, to a lesser or greater degree, need additional support to achieve these aims. The Indicators of Need Guide describes levels of concern for children, young people and their families. It is set out in a way that reflects the structure of the Common Assessment Framework, as well as age bands.

It should be used to inform good practice but not as a definitive statement of and indicator for concern. There may well be circumstances that are not covered in this section or particular issues that lead to a professional judgement which leads to a different conclusion. A range of agencies offer support to children, young people and their carers who have complex and acute levels of need. It is important to identify the most appropriate service to meet those needs. All organisations need to have in place suitable supervisory or advisory arrangements for staff involved in the process of identifying children and young people with additional needs.

The use of this guide and these processes will have two main benefits:

Consistent application of definitions;
Promotion and maintenance of good practice.

How to use this Guide to Indicators of Need

Use it as a guide, not a prescription. It should prompt you to think more clearly and interpret the situation;
Try to see the whole situation and weigh up the all of the issues;
Take advice when you are not sure;
Share it with families as a way of expressing ideas and concerns.

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