Children's Social Care, and Early Intervention - what’s the evidence?
Only 2-5% of children previously known to Children’s Services, re-engage after AllChild support.
The Education Select Committee has an ongoing inquiry into the state of Children’s Social Care in England - here are five key takeaways from AllChild’s submission of evidence:
- The context: For early intervention to work, a better operational model is needed
The current system is facing problems that prevent effective early intervention from occurring. Lack of resources, engagement difficulties and a siloed system leads to fragmented support that is more focused on crisis management than preventing escalation of needs. Sustainable early intervention is contingent on resourcing and delivery of support, but for many families, particularly those in poverty, they struggle to access these necessary resources. A truly holistic and joined-up operational model is needed, rooted in trusted relationships, located in a universal setting, and delivered by community based resourcing.
- The solution: Schools based approach facilitates early identification and early intervention
Effective prevention is contingent on identifying children and families at a tipping point of need, before their emerging issues escalate to crisis and social care intervention. Schools are crucially positioned to help identify those children and families in need of support - they are the frontline, seeing children everyday and offer a universal setting for support to take place. AllChild employs a unique methodology, working closely with schools to proactively identify children most in need of early intervention, using social, emotional and academic data, teacher judgements and school insight.
- The solution: Trusted adult relationships
AllChild provides each young person we work with their own AllChild Link Worker. Based full-time in schools, Link Workers develop a trusted relationship with each child, and by collaborating with key adults in each child’s life, they are able to gain a complete and shared picture of their needs and progress. Effective prevention requires tackling root causes that present in day to day behaviours and Link Workers, through deep relational working, understand each young person’s context, strengths, and needs, before co-designing a tailored holistic support plan with them. Having a trusted adult familiar with a child’s context inside and outside of school helps target the root causes and means we provide the right support, sequenced and delivered at the right time, improving the child’s socioemotional and academic wellbeing and supporting the wider family with their own needs. Only 2-5% of children previously known to Children’s Services, re-engage after AllChild support.
- The solution: Shared resources and shared outcomes
By pooling funding via an independent organisation known and trusted by families and giving all stakeholders (Early Help, schools, government) a seat at the table, AllChild enables targeted meaningful collaboration between services to take place and provides a joined-up experience for families. Utilising Social Outcomes Partnerships, communities work towards and are accountable to shared outcomes, resources are driven towards prevention, innovation and tailored interventions can be delivered, and risks are shared with upfront costs eliminated.
This funding model is a shortcut to prevention: a means to go out and identify children and families in need, a tool to build a local network of cross-sector partnerships and get services to people much earlier, and a mechanism for strategically utilising philanthropy in the system. Consequently, the need for interventions like CAMHS and EHCPs reduces and children and families receive the right support at the right time. Less than 1% of the 40% of our cohorts on school SEN Support registers escalate to EHCP.
- The solution: Strategic partnerships with stakeholders and connecting communities
AllChild brings together local systems of support for both the design and delivery of each child’s tailored support plan. We microcommission local community and voluntary organisations, bringing them into schools enabling children to access specialist support personal to their own needs. Place-based working is central to our model - working in and with communities, AllChild undertakes deep listening in a place to gain a complete understanding of its assets, context and needs, before co-designing a place-based programme of support to be delivered in schools and the wider community. Utilising an area’s strengths and assets, and co-delivering support with local people and organisations, embeds ongoing collaboration, cultivates trust between families and services and strengthens community ties.
Click the link to read our full submission to the Education Select Committee’s inquiry: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/135708/pdf/
