Children's services: working together to improve services

This agenda challenges children’s services leaders and managers to build integrated teams that put the child and family at the heart of all that they do. Work with colleagues from other professional backgrounds to bring together a broad range of knowledge, skills, and working practices to develop successful integrated working.

Integrated working means everyone supporting children and young people works together effectively to put the child at the centre, meet their needs and improve their lives. These different services join forces with the aim of preventing problems for families from occurring in the first place. It is an effective way of supporting children and families with additional needs, and helping to secure real improvements in their life outcomes.

Strong and effective leadership is central to successful delivery of integrated services. The Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the children’s workforce sets out the basic skills and knowledge needed by all people (including volunteers) whose work brings them into regular contact with children and young people helping individual practitioners deliver front line services.

In practical terms, this means that the organisations involved in meeting the needs of children, young people and their families (local authority, health services, schools, police, voluntary groups etc.) in Luton have teamed up in new ways, to protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve what they want in life.

Threshold Framework

Welcome to Luton's multi-agency guidance on accessing the right help and support for children, young people and their families at the right time. This guidance for threshold of need and intervention is a vital tool that underpins the local vision to provide targeted support services at the earliest opportunity - right through to specialist and statutory interventions when it is needed to promote the welfare and safety of vulnerable children and young people. It aims to offer a clear framework and a common understanding of thresholds of need for practitioners within all agencies, to help to promote a shared awareness of the different interventions required to effectively support children, young people and their families or carers.

Many agencies, professionals, parents, carers, family members and volunteers are involved with providing support, by collectively working together we can make improvements and a 'real difference' to the outcomes and life chances of the children and young people living in our area that need it the most. Understanding the access criteria for services and thresholds detailed within this guidance should strengthen local arrangements and help everyone to work together to identify the best support for an individual child, young person and their family or carers across the spectrum of need.

We hope you find this guidance helpful in supporting you to make a difference for children and young people.

Follow this link to the Luton Safeguarding Children's board threshold framework.

Information Sharing

Sharing information is essential to enable early intervention for people who need additional services to achieve positive outcomes. It is vital for providing effective and efficient services that are coordinated around the needs of an individual or family and for safeguarding and protecting the welfare of individuals.

It is important that practitioners understand why, when and how they should share information so that they can do so confidently and appropriately as part of their day-to-day practice.

The local information sharing protocol can be downloaded from the Luton Safeguarding Children Board Inter Agency Child Protection Procedures - Information Sharing Protocol.  

• Information Sharing: Guidance for practitioners and managers

Common Assessment Framework (CAF)

The CAF is a key part of delivering services that are integrated and focused around the needs of children, young people and their families. CAF assessment facilitates the process by which different agencies and organisations offering support to children, young people and their families can `join up’ to create a team around the family that works together with parents/carers and young people in a co-ordinated and timely way. 

• Please visit the CAF webpage for more information.

Safeguarding

A key objective for the LSCB is to promote the message that ‘Safeguarding Children is everybody’s responsibility’ and therefore this site is aimed at, not only professionals but children, young people and their families. 

• Luton Safeguarding Children Board

Stronger Families

Luton’s ‘Stronger Families’ programme will involve the Council working with the police, health, probation, youth offending, voluntary and community sector organisations to improve the lives of more than 500 families facing multiple problems and a high level of need. 

• Please visit the Stronger Families webpage for more information.

Other documents are in the process of being updated and will be available soon.