Archived decisions

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY INTERVENTION SERVICES

1. "Every Child Matters" highlighted the need to "ensure that every child receives the universal services to which they are entitled and, any additional services they need, at the earliest opportunity". (DfES). Hampshire has considered how it can best deliver this new agenda for early intervention, together with the structural arrangements that will be required. It plans to create new locality teams and to implement the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) which is a new assessment tool to be used by a range of personnel working with children and families in different agencies. The Executive Lead Member for Children's Services has considered a report on this matter and has endorsed the plans for introducing the new locality teams.

2. The CAF is intended to enable a worker to identify at an early stage the additional needs of a child or family and the services required to meet those needs. The purpose of earlier intervention is to ensure that these services are made available at a point that is at a lower level of need than that which would presently generate a response. A key element will be the establishment of the role of the lead professional, who could come from a number of professional backgrounds and would be someone known and trusted by the child and his/her family. Their task is to act as a single point of contact for children and their families, and to ensure that professional involvement is rationalised, co-ordinated and communicated effectively.

3. New structural arrangements are required to facilitate the delivery of services to meet those needs identified through the CAF process. The mechanism chosen is that of a locality team, with its own manager. The intention is for there to be one team per District (District Council area) with a locality team manager being identified for each team. This is to be funded from within the existing children and families budget and will be achieved in many cases by redeployment of existing staff. A longer-term aim is for the locality team to include staff from other agencies. In addition to the redeployment of existing staff time, a major new resource has been allocated by the Schools Forum. This will allow for three new family support workers to be appointed to each locality team. The Schools Forum has also allocated additional resources to support the development of these teams through the planning and setting up stages, including the funding of project management time.

4. Oversight for the new initiative comes from the Programme Board, supported by a County-Wide Steering Group. Locality Team Steering Groups are being established in each District area to address local arrangements and also to maximise communication between relevant staff and agencies. It is a Government requirement that the CAF, which is an integral part of the locality team development, is fully operational by the end of 2008. Hampshire's plan is to have a phased roll-out, District by District with a target completion date of March, 2008. The Phase-One roll-out areas, which are based on school clusters rather than full District Council areas, are Basingstoke (Fort Hill School Cluster), Rushmoor (Oak Farm School Cluster), Gosport (Brune Park School Cluster) and Havant (Leigh Park School Excellence Cluster). In addition, the Targeted Youth Support Path finder in Test Valley (Alamein Ward) is included. The Executive Lead Member is to receive a future report on an evaluation of Phase-One of the roll-out. Members of the Council are to be consulted as well on this by way of the Hampshire Action Teams.

5. This decision will establish arrangements whereby the needs of children and their families can be met at an early stage, and a team structure will exist to support a range of staff in meeting these needs. Also, it will optimise the point at which services can be made available by a range of agencies. This supports the Council's Corporate Priorities.