4.2 Surrey Children’s Service Levels of Need and Eligibility Criteria |
Contents
- Introduction
- Levels of need for Children's Social Care Services
Appendix 1 - Detailed Examples of Eligibility Criteria
1. Introduction
This guidance is intended to support professionals in identifying need and appropriate referral pathways. It is not prescriptive and requires judgement of a child's level of need from the perspective of the professional(s) considering referral.
Descriptors are provided to aid this decision-making about needs level - they are examples not definitions as there will always be issues that do not easily fit. They are a starting point to assist professionals from different disciplines to come to a common understanding of a child's and family's needs. This chapter should be read in conjunction with the 'Children Social Care Eligibility Criteria and Overall Contextual Framework' to guide referral requests to the Children's Contact Centre.
Where identified needs demonstrate that a child may be suffering Significant Harm a Strategy Meeting and Section 47 Enquiry may be completed following the procedures below. The descriptors that follow are referenced to the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families and the Common Assessment Framework.
2. Levels of need for Children's Social Care Services
At the most serious end of the continuum of need, Levels 3 and 4, we would expect children to be receiving services from the Children's Services, often with a social worker as the Lead Professional.
Level 4, described as acute needs, are those, which will have a significant impact upon a child or young person's safety and wellbeing. It most commonly will include: children who are suffering or at risk of suffering Significant Harm frequently associated with immediate concerns of physical or sexual abuse or severe neglect.
Level 3 refers to children and young people with complex needs. Examples of the characteristics that indicate they will be likely to meet the threshold for social work assessment and time-limited, targeted intervention are: home breakdown, self-harming, very challenging behaviour or situations where harm has been averted but intensive specialist support is still required. The majority of these examples relate to situations that would escalate into the acute spectrum without urgent intervention.
Level 2 refers to vulnerable children who, whilst not requiring formal intervention, need some additional help and support.
Attached as Appendix 1 are more detailed examples of need at each level of the intervention windscreen.
When a referral is made to Children's Services, consideration will need to be given as to whether the referral identifies a Child in Need. The definition for this is in section 17(10) Children Act 1989. This states that a child is in need if he is unlikely to achieve or maintain or have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him of services by a local authority; or his health or development is likely to be significantly impaired or further impaired without the provision for him of such services; or he is disabled.
If the referral does not identify that the child is in need, then the local authority has no obligation to provide any services under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989. In these cases the Local Authority will provide signposting advice. (If the child is identified as being in need then consideration will need to be given as to whether the child is then at Level 3 or 4 of the eligibility criteria and only normally then will an assessment or service be provided to meet the child's needs.
It may be necessary to carry out an Initial Assessment to determine whether the child is in need and the level of need that is relevant if there is insufficient information from the referral.
For the avoidance of doubt, these eligibility criteria replace those agreed by the Council's Executive in May 2001 and amended in July 2006.
Please note that these eligibility criteria do not apply to disabled children. If a referral identifies that the child is disabled, he or she will be considered a child in need. Separate eligibility criteria are in the process of being devised for these children. In the meantime the current thresholds operated within the Disability Teams will continue to be applied.
In the event that a person is not satisfied by a decision made by Children's Services about them or the child they are caring for in relation to these eligibility criteria, they can make representations to Children's Services in accordance with its Complaints procedure.
Due regard needs to be given to the relevant statutory equality duties. There are three such duties:
- The disability discrimination duty requires the authority to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful disability discrimination, to eliminate harassment of disabled persons, the need to promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons, the need to take steps to take account of disabled persons' disabilities (even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons) and the need to promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons and participation by disabled persons in public life.
- In this regard consideration has been given to the impact of these criteria on disabled children and disabled carers. It is noted that these criteria do not specifically replace the thresholds applied for the provision of assistance for disabled children. However, as regards disabled carers, the criteria are non-discriminatory and will be applied in practice in a non-discriminatory way in accordance with the Council's commitment to equalities and diversity.
- The other relevant duties are the race discrimination duty and the sex discrimination duty. As regards race, this is the duty to have regard to the need to eliminate racial discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups, and as regards sex to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment and to promote equality of opportunity between men and women. Again the criteria are non-discriminatory - they are equally applicable to different racial groups and to children or parents/carers of either sex, and will be applied in practice in a non-discriminatory way in accordance with the Council's commitment to equalities and diversity. "
Appendix 1 - Detailed Examples of Eligibility Criteria
Examples of Level 4 needs: (acute needs)
- Children suffering actual or likely Significant Harm and disclosures of physical, sexual or emotional abuse; this includes concerns in relation to Looked After Children placed by other local authorities in Surrey where the alleged incident is in Surrey and the child normally resides in Surrey
- New referrals in cases of severe neglect - this may include parents with severe and acute mental health and / or drug and alcohol misuse problems; parents with severe learning difficulties
- Very serious or chronic cases of domestic violence, which are likely to cause Significant Harm to the child.
- Children in immediate danger or those who require immediate assessment to ascertain whether they need to be Looked After by the Local authority to ensure safeguarding
- Children at risk due to actual or likely contact with persons who pose a risk to children and / or young people (e.g. convicted of causing harm to children; sex offenders register) or where there is an allegation made against a professional abusing a child or young person
- Children subject to a Child Protection Plan
Examples of Level 3 needs: (complex needs)
- Children needing to be immediately looked after by someone other than their normal care giver
- Pre-birth/post natal assessments where there are concerns for the safety or well being of the unborn / new born child
- Children whose names have been removed from the Child Protection Register/where the Child Protection Plan has been discontinued but remain in need of ongoing targeted social care child in need services.
- Children who self-harm, run away or whose behaviour places them at immediate risk
- Young carers, where there is a need for a joint assessment with Adult Services to identify significant unmet need for either the child or parent.
- 'Abandoned ' teenagers who are vulnerable as a result
Examples of Level 2 needs: vulnerable children
There are a significant number of children and young people who at any given time may be considered vulnerable and in need of support services and this is the group referred to as Level 2 'vulnerable children' in the model of prevention. There are a wide range of services that can be used to meet the needs of vulnerable children and their families at this level and normally these will be met elsewhere than in Children's Services.
Children and young people at this level frequently require time limited targeted intervention or lower level ongoing support services. Examples of children at this level include:
- Children whose health / development is unlikely to be maintained without the provision of family support from a variety of service providers
- Children where there are parenting difficulties and families experiencing short term crisis, which impacts on the children's health / development
- Children experiencing family instability and changes of primary carer.
- Children where concerns about parental substance misuse have some impact on the child's health or development
- Situations of domestic violence which might have a detrimental effect on the child
- Children where there are concerns about the environment or the level of parental supervision being adequate.
- Children and young people who present challenging behaviour
In addition there are specific groups of children and young people or presenting concerns that could be met by identified alternative service providers. Examples include:
- Homeless young people (where the duty to accommodate under section 20(1) Children Act 1989 has not been established)
- Behaviour problems in children and young people
- Emotional upset
Alternative support could be provided by:
- Extended school provision
- Health visitors
- GP
- Schools
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