|
Introduction In England, the Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) indicator E44 measures the proportion of spend on children in need. However, the figure for spend does not indicate quality. A council may have a low figure in its comparator group for E44, but offer well planned and effective services to children in need. For England see National Performance Indicators, for Wales go to www.lgdu-wales.gov.uk. Working in partnership to analyse local needs The development of an effective range of family support services is a key objective for most Children's and Young People's Strategic Partnerships (in Wales these are called strategic frameworks). One of the key challenges is to achieve better co-ordination of services previously developed using different funding streams (e.g. Early Years Partnerships, Sure Start schemes, the Children's Fund, Cymorth [Wales] Connexions, etc). Preventative strategies for children should be based on robust analysis of local need and current services. Mapping need and planning services is more effective if done across agencies. All key stakeholders should be involved throughout the process - this will help build consensus about shaping services to meet need. The active involvement of children and their parents in planning and delivering services is particularly important. Regeneration and Neighbourhood Renewal schemes (in Wales these are called Communities First) also need to consider how such schemes will fit with developments in children's services. See Partnership Module. a. Analyse the needs of the population and plan services to meet need.
b. Consult extensively with parents, children, young people and community representatives. Seek to achieve a shared understanding of the main priorities. See Good Practice: Portsmouth (1). Talk about people's experience of getting access to help. Note that the families who most need support may be the most reluctant to seek help; how can services be made more available and acceptable to them? c. Map services and identify where there are gaps, both geographically and in terms of particular types of service. Use the Children in Need census data.2 d. Jointly plan services to meet the range of identified need. This may involve pooling resources, reshaping existing services or commissioning new ones. Whatever funding stream will be used, think hard about the sustainability of new services, including agreements about who will be responsible and how budgets will be shifted over time. Some authorities have used Matching Needs and Services3 to assist in looking imaginatively at what services should be provided. e. Use a 'Best Value' approach to identify the right provider or to encourage new providers into the locality. Involve users, and potential users, not only in designing but also in managing new services. The voluntary sector often brings specialist expertise and can give added value by being more acceptable to many potential users. (The most vulnerable families may have negative perceptions of the role played by the public sector in this area). The recent inspection of the Children's Fund pilots provides some evidence of the effectiveness of voluntary and community organisations in this area. |
|
Ensuring that services are available to meet a wide spectrum of need Whilst some services will be
designed for all children in a locality, others will provide more specialist
and targeted support. There is a very careful balance to be struck between
these two broad types of intervention and both will be needed in most
places.
|
|
Ensuring a good fit between individual assessments of need, and the service offered Some services will be targeted to achieve specified outcomes for families identified as having particular needs. In these instances, the key to success is effective systems for identifying families who need particular support and for assessing their needs and planning their services. See Assessment and care planning.
|
|
Considering imaginative new service models The most effective models are likely to be those that tap the skills of a range of staff and volunteers, and which achieve the full engagement of disadvantaged children and families. Some examples are:
|
|
Developing services that provide alternatives to high cost interventions a. Children with disabilities 4 It is good practice to look at ways of supporting children with disabilities in mainstream family support services, so they are not isolated and can develop with their peers. Services for this group are addressed in a separate section of this module. See: Services for disabled children and their families b. Alternative to care
c. Joint services for children and young people with high levels of need
|
|
Evaluating services to ensure they are achieving good outcomes. It is essential to seek and collate feedback from parents and children and to find innovative ways of doing this. However, this evaluation method needs to be underpinned by other methods, designed to test whether the service is actually achieving its stated objectives. The aim must be to ensure that services are not only welcomed by those using them, but also reaching the right people, delivering the desired volume of activity, responding within the right timescales, achieving the desired outcomes and offering Best Value.
2.
Available at http;//www.doh.gov.uk/cin/cin2001/htm
|