Reading Threshold Guidance
Reading Thresholds Guidance Booklet explains the thresholds (including risk factors and protective factors) and the appropriate routes into services. This is a guide only and should not be read as a definitive list of risk factors. It is important that good quality, appropriate referrals are made to ensure that the right service is given to the right child/young person, at the right time and in the right place. However, you must use your professional experience and if you feel a child/young person is at significant risk, you should make a referral.
You can download a PDF version of the Reading Threshold Guidance Booklet here.
Whilst the threshold guidance documents across Berkshire West are very similar, this document should be used for children who reside in Reading. For children residing in West Berkshire or Wokingham, please access the guidance for those areas at:
Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership - West Berkshire Threshold Guidance
Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership - Wokingham Threshold Guidance
Reading Threshold Guidance
Introduction
Resolving Professional Difference of Opinion and Escalation
Levels of Help
Framework for assessment of children in need and their families
Description of Thresholds – Risk factors and protective factors to consider
Level 1 - Help for everyone
Level 2 - Additional help
Level 3 – Intensive Help
Level 4 –Specialist Help
The Children’s Single Point of Access Pathway
Consent and Information Sharing
Additional Service Information
Risk of harm outside the home
Allegations Management
Useful Links
Acronyms
Introduction
Every child and family are unique; their needs must be carefully considered with them so that the help they receive is right for them. This threshold document supports practitioners to make a professional judgement about the best way to respond appropriately to individual children and their family contexts where there are needs or risk of harm.
This threshold document is intended to support the wider service partnership to work together, to share information and put the child and their family at the centre, providing effective support to help them solve problems and find solutions at an early stage to prevent problems escalating. This document is not an assessment tool and does not replace any professional judgement, rather it should be treated as a guide to assist in decision making.
This document provides example indicators for each level of need but by no means is this list exhaustive or prescriptive. The examples shown are indicative and not definitive of each level of need. The examples, when taken in isolation, may not amount to a cause for a concern, but when several of them are taken together, this helps to inform judgement about what to do next. This is not a science but an art – use your professional judgement when considering both the range and scale of needs in the threshold document as well the resilience and protective factors that surround the child’s life.
This guidance should be used as a reference point alongside your organisation’s policies and procedures. Berkshire Child Protection procedures can be found here.
Remember: safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility!
Members of the public and professionals requiring advice should contact the Children’s Single Point of Access (CSPOA) who will then review the information about those needs and determine the most appropriate level of service to be provided, which may be universal, Early Help or statutory provision. Professional referrers are expected to gain parental consent to share information prior to making a referral for further services, unless to do so would place the child at risk of further harm.
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Resolving Professional Difference of Opinion and Escalation
Differences of opinion relating to the level of risk will exist and are an expected part of day-to-day quality practice. Professionals are expected to discuss these differences in a professional and productive manner with a view to finding a solution that best serves the child’s needs. However, in order to be able to resolve difficulties within and between agencies quickly and openly there are a number of key principles that need to be adopted by all professionals:
- Seek to resolve any professional differences of opinion at the lowest possible level and within the shortest possible timescales
- Encourage others to challenge or question your own practice
- Respond positively to feedback
- The tone of challenge should be one of respectful enquiry, not criticism – ‘be curious’
- Challenge should be evidence based and solution focused
- Be persistent and keep asking questions
- Always keep a written record of actions and decisions taken
If differences are not able to be resolved at a practitioner level, then the issue needs to be raised with line managers/designated post holders who will investigate and liaise with the other relevant manager(s). Full details of the Resolving Professional Difference of Opinion and Escalation Procedure can be found here.
We also have local guidance and tools to support this process in a solution focused way, which can be found here.
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Levels of Help
Our framework follows the ‘windscreen’ model illustrated below. It is a model of practice whose aim is to assist practitioners and managers in assessing and identifying a child’s level of need, what types of services/resources might meet those needs and the process to follow in moving from the identification of need to the provision of services. It is important to say that each child is an individual within their own context and realise that each child’s situation is unique and specific to them. The model provides a guide to support professional judgements in determining the next course of action to meet those needs.
Our approach is underpinned by the following key principles:
- Children people at levels 2 to 4 can also benefit from, and should access, universal services (for example education and healthcare services) and voluntary sector organisations
- Children people can be at different levels for education, health and care within the continuum of need diagram
- Children and young people should be enabled to move quickly and effortlessly to the required service response without necessarily going through each level
- Families should only have to tell their story once
- Children and their families have a right to have their views heard, including children who are non-verbal – and this should have a strong influence on what happens next and be at the centre of what we do
- Our services should be child focused but also operate within the context of whole family working
Continuum of Need:
The terms ‘step up’ and ‘step down’ are commonly used to describe children moving between levels of need and are used within the guidance to describe the process by which children’s needs can change.
Children’s and young people’s situations and needs can change unexpectedly, and this means that practitioners should be familiar with the continuum of need so that if and when a child’s needs change due to a reduced or increased level of concern, then they do not fall between the services. Instead, children are held safely in the transition from one service/step to another. Well managed ‘step up’ and ‘step down’ processes between levels are a critical element of effective practice and decision making. Wherever possible, a successful intervention should result in a safe step down to universal services.
Level 1: Help for everyone:
All children and families using widely available universal services in the community to help them to learn, progress and develop to their full potential. The majority of children living in Reading require support from universal services alone. Children at this level have no additional needs; all their health and developmental needs will be met by universal services. These are children who consistently receive child focused caregiving from their parents or carers.
Level 2a: Additional Help:
Some children will have additional needs. Their health and development may be adversely affected and would benefit from extra help in order to make the best of their life chances. These children require additional targeted support from a single agency to address the concern that has been identified. This may include children with disabilities accessing universal short breaks with support or targeted short breaks.
Level 2b: Focused help for multiple needs:
Children whose needs/requirement for help are of greater depth and significance and must be met or their health, social development or educational attainment may be impaired without support, which may lead to long-term poor outcomes. Children are vulnerable and may be living with considerable adversity, including SEN and/or disabilities. This is the level at which there is a need for a clear coordinated multi-agency response and a multi-agency Early Help Assessment may be appropriate. Targeted packages of outcome focused support should be considered.
Level 3: Intensive help:
These are children who are unlikely to achieve or maintain a satisfactory level of health or development, or their health or development will be significantly impaired without the provision of services; including children who are disabled. They may require longer term intervention from statutory, specialist or integrated targeted services. The Early Help Assessment can be used as supporting evidence to gain specialist or targeted support. This is the threshold for a statutory assessment led by children’s social care under section 17, Children Act 1989.
Level 4: Specialist help:
Children who are living in circumstances where they are suffering or are likely to suffer significant harm, where the young person themselves may pose a risk of serious harm to others or where there are complex needs in relation to disability and may require a more specialist intervention. Children and young people will be referred to children’s social care and dealt with under section 47, 20 or 31 of the Children Act 1989. This will also include children who have been remanded into custody and statutory youth justice services.
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Framework for assessment of children in need and their families
Each level is broken down into three sections based on the standard Government ‘framework for assessment of children in need and their families’ (see diagram below). Under each section we have grouped the risk factors and protective factors to enable you to navigate the document more easily and track/compare increasing levels of risk. For children with disabilities increasing/decreasing levels of need are just as necessary to track alongside risk.
We use the assessment model that describes three parts of a child’s life:
- Child development
- Parenting capacity
- Family and environmental factors – to consider extra-familial and contextual risks
Child’s Viewpoint
Practitioners should always consider the factors above in terms of what it means for the child; consider their needs and the impact of any risk. The Scottish Government have created the ‘My World Triangle’ to help practitioners look at need and risk from the child’s point of view and understand the child’s world.
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Description of Thresholds – Risk factors and protective factors to consider
This section provides a table of information outlining a set of possible descriptors and related protective factors for each of the levels of need. The list of features outlined in the tables is not an exhaustive list; please remember to use your professional judgement.
Level 1 - Help for everyone:
All children and families using widely available universal services in the community to help them to learn, progress and develop to their full potential. The majority of children living in Reading require support from universal services alone. Children at this level have no additional needs; all their health and developmental needs will be met by universal services. These are children who consistently receive child focused caregiving from their parents or carers.
If you believe the child falls within this level but would like some additional information, explore options for support for the family via the Reading Family Information Service:
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Level 2 - Additional help:
Level 2a: Additional help – Some children will have additional needs. Their health and development may be adversely affected and would benefit from extra help in order to make the best of their life chances. These children require additional targeted support from a single agency to address the concern that has been identified. This may include children with disabilities accessing universal short breaks with support or targeted short breaks.
Level 2b: Focused help for multiple needs – Children whose needs are of greater depth and significance and must be met or their health, social development or educational attainment may be significantly impaired, and they may have long-term poor outcomes. Children are vulnerable and may be living with considerable adversity, including SEN and/or disabilities. This is the level at which there is a need for a clear coordinated multi-agency response and a multi-agency Early Help Assessment may be appropriate. Targeted packages of outcome focused support should be considered.
REMEMBER: It is possible for different agencies to provide a targeted service to different members of a family at this level. Practitioners will need parental consent to share relevant information with other involved professionals.
If you believe the child falls within this level please contact the One Reading Partnership email address – OneReading@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
If you are unsure, please contact the Children’s Single Point of Access:
Children’s Single Point of Access team will review the needs of the child and their family and this should lead to:
- Follow up from the One Reading Partnership Team
- Invitation to a Partnership Hub meeting
- Provision of advice and guidance
- An allocation of a Brighter Futures for Children Early Help service
A process chart is available in The Children’s Single Point of Access Pathway section of this document.
What happens when I contact the Children’s Single Point of Access?
- By using the web form an automatic reply will assure you that your contact has been received and you will receive a reference number for future communication.
- If more information is required immediately then the team will contact you to discuss the child
- Within 24 hours the information will be reviewed, and a decision made on who is best to help the child/ family. You will be contacted to confirm the decision they have taken.
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Level 3 – Intensive Help:
Children will have multiple and complex needs and be in need of specialist intervention, sometimes on a long-term basis, to achieve or maintain a satisfactory level of health or development or to prevent significant impairment of their health and development, including children with disabilities. This is the threshold for a statutory assessment led by children’s social care under section 17, Children Act 1989, although services are often provided by a range of other provision outside of children’s social care.
REMEMBER: Consent to share information from the parents (or young person if appropriate) is required unless there are concerns that doing so would leave a child or young person at risk of significant harm – in which case you should go straight to level 4.
If you believe the child falls within this level, please complete the following form: www.brighterfuturesforchildren.org/concerned-about-a-child/
If you are unable to use the form, please telephone 0118 937 3641, or email CSPOA@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
A process chart is available in The Children’s Single Point of Access Pathway section of this document.
What happens when I contact the Children’s Single Point of Access?
- By using the web form an automatic reply will assure you that your contact has been received and you will receive a reference number for future communication.
- If more information is required immediately then the team will contact you to discuss the child
- Within 24 hours the information will be reviewed, and a decision made on who is best to help the child/ family. You will be contacted to confirm the decision they have taken
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Level 4 –Specialist Help:
If you think a child is at immediate risk of significant harm, contact the Children’s Social Care Front Door or in an emergency phone 999.
Level 4 is for children who are living in circumstances where they are suffering or are likely to suffer significant harm, where the young person themselves may pose a risk of serious harm to others or where there are complex needs in relation to disability and may require a more specialist intervention. Level 4 also includes Tier 4 health services which are specialised services in residential, day patient, or outpatient settings for children and adolescents with severe and/or complex health problems.
Children and young people will be referred to children’s social care and dealt with under section 47, 20 or 31 of the Children Act 1989. This will also include children who have been remanded into custody and statutory youth justice services.
REMEMBER: Consent to share information from the parents (or young person if appropriate) is required unless there are concerns that doing so would leave a child or young person at risk of significant harm.
If you believe the child falls within this level, please complete the following form: www.brighterfuturesforchildren.org/concerned-about-a-child/
If you are unable to use the form, please telephone 0118 937 3641, or email CSPOA@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
A process chart is available in The Children’s Single Point of Access Pathway section of this document.
What happens when I contact the Children’s Single Point of Access?
- By using the web form an automatic reply will assure you that your contact has been received and you will receive a reference number for future communication.
- If more information is required immediately then the team will contact you to discuss the child
Within 24 hours the information will be reviewed, and a decision made on who is best to help the child/ family. You will be contacted to confirm the decision they have taken
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The Children’s Single Point of Access Pathway
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Consent and Information Sharing
All practitioners should aim to gain consent to share information but should be mindful of situations where to do so would place a child at increased risk of harm. Practitioners should be aware that consent is not necessarily needed in order to share personal information but where possible, consent should be pursued in an open and honest manner.
Consent will need to be sought for each episode of work that a professional undertakes with a family. An example of this would be if a case has been closed then re-opened, the consent must be re-sought when the case is re-opened.
All practitioners should be confident of the processing conditions under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This includes the lawful basis for processing data adopted by Local Authorities as set out in article 6 of the UK GDPR, which allow them to store and share information for safeguarding purposes, including information which is sensitive and personal. The GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 do not prevent, or limit, the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children and young people safe.
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) emphasises the importance of sharing information early and that practitioners should be proactive in sharing information as early as possible to assist in identifying, assessing and responding to risks or concerns about the safety and welfare of children. This should be the case whether the child is already known to the local authority’s children’s social care or if the risk is emerging. Information sharing can also be pivotal for identifying patterns of behaviour for when a child has gone missing or to provide contextual background when multiple children appear associated to similar locations of risk.
Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to promote the welfare, and protect the safety, of children, which must always be the paramount concern. It should not be assumed that someone else will pass on information that may be critical in keeping a child safe. All organisations and agencies should have arrangements in place that set out clearly the processes and the principles for sharing information.
For further advice on information sharing please follow this link to the Pan Berkshire Procedures.
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Additional Service Information
Reading Family Information Service
The Reading Family Information Service (FIS) is a statutory service providing free individually tailored information, advice and guidance on any family matter. It brings together all information under one roof as an information hub and a marketplace for information, advice and guidance. The service is available to any family member taking care of children or young people aged 0-19 years of age inclusive (up to 25 years for children and young people with special needs) as well as practitioners working with families in Reading. This service is suitable for any child accessing universal services appropriately, but where some additional information or exploring additional options for support for the family would be beneficial, this includes information on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services – known as the Local Offer. The service is delivered by qualified staff in Information, Advice & Guidance who will support the family to find the best help available. Click here to find out more.
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Early Help
Early Help refers both to help in the critical early years of a child’s life and also to help throughout a child, young person and family’s life too. Early help intervention should happen as soon as possible when difficulties emerge in order to prevent problems from worsening or becoming entrenched. Working Together 2018 states that ‘Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years.’
The One Reading Prevention & Early Intervention Partnership was formed in 2019 to take forward the ambitions set out in the Reading Early Intervention Strategy 2018 – 2021. The One Reading partnership is driven by key leaders from across the voluntary and community sector, health, education, police, business, children’s services, schools and colleges. The core aims are to improve outcomes for children, young people and families, reduce demand for specialist services and nurture resilient communities and a thriving voluntary sector.
The One Reading Partnership recognises that emerging needs within families are often best supported by practitioners known to the family, such as health visitors, schools or community-based programmes offered by the voluntary sector. Through working together, we will provide access to coordinated early help in accordance with need as soon as difficulties are identified - particularly for those with multiple and complex needs. This support will be based on a robust assessment of needs, will be personalised, evidence based, multi-agency, strengths based and embedded within our whole family approach.
The key principles behind this approach are:
- Children and their families/carers will be supported to live safe, happy, healthy and fulfilling lives to promote their development into responsible adult citizens
- Effective and timely early help services can break the inter-generational cycle of risk and vulnerability
- Effective early help services, underpinned by robust Universal Services will support families to become more resilient and develop the capability to prevent and resolve problems themselves - this is our vision for community capacity building and developing an asset-based approach
- Effective and timely early help services can help to reduce demand for higher cost specialist services and achieve much greater use of community based universal preventative services through, for example, our children’s centres offer, the 0-19 integrated Public Health offer, our schools and neighbourhood services
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Risk of harm outside the home
Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to understanding, and responding to, young people’s experiences of harm beyond their families.
It recognises that the different relationships that young people form in their neighbourhoods, schools and online can feature violence and abuse. Parents and carers have little influence over these contexts, and young people’s experiences of extra-familial pressures can undermine parent-child relationships. Therefore, children’s practitioners need to engage with individuals and sectors who do have influence over/within extra-familial contexts, and recognise that assessment of, and intervention with, these spaces are a critical part of safeguarding practices.
Contextual Safeguarding, therefore, expands the objectives of child protection systems in recognition that young people are vulnerable to abuse in a range of social contexts.
We are developing a multi-agency approach to working with young people where traditional safeguarding approaches are not appropriate, but where significant harm to that young person exists. The levels of need described below include risks for these young people and cases that meet the threshold criteria, as with any other case, should be referred to the Children’s Single Point of Access.
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Allegations Management
If a contact, regardless of the need of the child, indicates that a person who works with children (including volunteers) has:
- behaved in a way that has harmed, or may have harmed a child
- possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child or children; or
- behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children
- behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates he or she is unsuitable to work with children.
This must be referred to the Children’s Single Point of Access, who will allocate to the Virtual Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).The LADO will assess and determine any necessary action in relation to the worker. Responsibility for statutory safeguarding and assessing the needs of the child remains with Children’s Social Care. If it is not clear whether the Allegations Management threshold (as listed above) is met, the LADO is available for consultation.
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Useful Links
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Acronyms
| ADHD |
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder |
| BFfC |
Brighter Futures for Children |
| BWSCP |
Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership |
| CYPMHS |
Child & Young People Mental Health Service |
| CSPOA |
Children’s Single Point of Access |
| FIS |
Family Information Service |
| GP |
General Practitioner |
| LADO |
Local Authority Designated Officer |
| MASH |
Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub |
| SEND |
Special Education Needs or Disabilities |
| YOS |
Youth Justice Service |