Agenda item

To receive Enfield’s new draft Early Help For All Strategy. 

In addition to the report in the agenda pack a presentation was provided by Arzhang Yusefi, Strategy & Policy Manager, and Helen Baeckstroem, Strategy & Policy Team Manager.

NOTED:

1.    This strategy was first drafted to set out the approach to provide effective early help with Children and Families..

2.    During discussions it became obvious of the need to extend early help as is not just for children and families it is important for other areas as well. So, this runs across the council at a high level and with partners to deliver effective early help to children, young people, families and vulnerable adults. This strategy will replace the previous Family Resilience/ Early Help Strategy.

3.    This is an ambitious strategy looking to coordinate the work of council services and work with partners including voluntary and community services. Over the next 4 years the system will be far more coordinated so that when anyone accesses help, they can receive the right support straight away ensuring that every contact counts.

4.    It is important not only to provide support at the initial contact point but to support individuals to build their resilience. The initial part is supporting them, and the second point is working actively with them and their families to build resilience. This is a prevention-based approach.

5.    Early Help is one of the cross-directorate areas within the Council’s Plan. This does not sit on its own it is built on a number of other strategies and all our responsibility.

6.    In order to develop this strategy, a process of research and consultation was undertaken. This has included; benchmarking with our boroughs; reviews of national and local evidence and latest research in the area of early help. Once the strategy is approved at full Council in February, the Early Help Board will develop annual action plans to deliver on the priorities of the strategy.

7.    The vision is to work with our communities and partners to help everyone in Enfield to be resilient, overcome challenges and lead happy and fulfilling lives. The priority areas are:

·         Provide Clear information, advice and guidance

·         Empower communities

·         Establish an effective early help plan

8.    The last priority is a prerequisite to achieving the other 2 priorities.

9.    Under each priority area there are a number of associated specific action areas agreed with the relevant services.

10.There are 4 levels of need:

·         Level 4 Critical needs (specialist services)

·         Level 3 Complex needs (integrated/targeted service)

·         Level 2 Additional need (Early help/targeted service

·         Level 1 Universal needs (universal services)

11.This strategy is at Level 2 and if the strategy is successful the number of people being referred to Level 3 and 4 will be reduced

12.Discussion is still ongoing on outcome measures for the strategy.  Indicators will measure how many people are receiving level 3 services; how many people are moving from Level 3 down to Level 2. Ideally if Early Help is run well and effective, we should see in Level 2 services referred back down to Level 1 (universal services). However, this only tells us about the movement not how outcomes for individuals and families have shifted.

13.To measure the outcomes within Children and Families services, the STAR assessment is used with children and families this shows progress and highlights the direction of change. This is one area of the council only. Next year we will be looking to work with specific families within a pilot to find out what changes they have been through and the ways in this can be measured. This can then be trailed/rolled out as the service is developed. Part of the development of the service will be bringing together a single assessment system and measurement is a key component in this development.

14.Supporting new communities such as Meridian Water need to be considered, this will be a whole new community, some people will be transient and have come for work and won’t necessarily have support networks around them.

15.The Early Help Strategy Board will retain oversight and actively drive the delivery of the strategy. This board will be accountable for implementing the strategy’s action plan and reviewing the measures of success on a quarterly basis. This board will report to the Safeguarding children Partnership and Safeguarding Adults Board on an annual basis.

16.Engagement on the strategy has been undertaken using; presentation and discussion, SNAP online survey, focus groups and paper copy questionnaires. This has been with the following groups: Parent engagement Network, Every Parent, Every Child, Early Help Strategic board, Safeguarding Adults Partnership, Health & Wellbeing Board, Voluntary Sector Strategic Group, Faith Forum, other voluntary Community Service organisations and Department Management Teams and Senior Management Teams. A short survey is live and will run until 10 December.

17.Once the engagement process is complete the strategy will be refined and finalised based on this feedback. The strategy will then go to Full Council for approval in February 2021.

18. The strategy document sets the expectation for the workforce to intervene as early as possible in the life of children or families to prevent the escalation of need. Resources are critical during the years of austerity many of the earlier intervention services are no longer there. If we do not do this the councils’ costs will increase substantially

Comments, questions and queries raised:

·         An observation was made that this is a really important document, early intervention in all services, prevention is better than cure. Even more so with all the financial pressures on the council. It is thematic going across all departments and service areas. This is about a culture shift within the staff, educating all staff at all levels on need to work and think about early help. The document was highly commended the fundamental point about early help is critical.

·         Page 8 of the document refers to increases in temporary accommodation with Enfield the second highest provider in England. How do we mitigate this increase and turn this situation around? Officers provided some feedback as part of the discussions on the strategy the Housing Service has put together a Housing Advisory Service. This is a new service that is the direct result out some of the previous strategies and research that has been undertaken (Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2020-2025). This will look at preventing people from becoming homelessness, empowering people to access tenancies that are appropriate for them. There is also a bigger piece of work being undertaken by the Housing Department on ensuring that there is more supply of affordable housing. The Housing Advisory Service looks at those who are unable to access or are at risk of homelessness and work with the community to access early help such as ensuring that they access welfare and get the right benefits.

·         Is this report going to be discussed with housing colleague councillors? Officers confirmed it will be discussed with councillors and discussions have been held with the Cabinet Member for Social Housing. Following a request, it was confirmed that it will be discussed with Cllr Smith, the conservative lead for housing.

·         An observation was made that the strategy has a big emphasis on working with the voluntary sector to achieve its aims why is this? Officers advised that Covid 19 provided the opportunity to show how the community and voluntary sector can support one another. The strategy will build on this strength and capacity that the voluntary sector demonstrated and keep up  this momentum. In one of the focus groups it was raised that they want to do more and contribute more. When working with families at this stage it must be a voluntary and some families prefer to engage with the voluntary sector organisations rather than the council. There is potential within the voluntary sector to provide bespoke support to particular communities.

·         Volunteering groups in Enfield will have their own financial pressures and seen their funding cut sometimes from the council. Voluntary groups were advised and supported by the council to seek funding elsewhere. Will the voluntary sector need financial support to undertake actions within the report? Is the Council in a position to be able to offer financial support? Officers advised that the voluntary sector will need financial support and it is unlikely the council will be in a position to provide this. The voluntary sector has more opportunities to apply for funding than the council. This strategy has been consulted with the voluntary and community sector organisations through an online survey most respondents that were received were from voluntary organisations that they would like to undertake a larger role.

·         Do they have the resources to do what the council is asking of them? The Panel was advised that a mapping exercise will be undertaken to look at what resources we have including looking at community assets such as community hubs to see if there is the capacity there. Firstly, this will map the services we currently have and understand what access to early help currently looks like in addition to identifying recognised providers. Alongside this will be looking at how this will be delivered and what assets are available. We may need to look at how the voluntary sector can also deliver from some of our community assets. Upskilling the voluntary sector so that if they do apply for funding they can make strong applications.

·         An observation was made that the council has looked at opportunities for various groups to use libraries in the past and some groups could not afford this. The council may need to subsidise this.

·         Does the council have any figures for people at the different levels of need at present that can be used to measure how the plan progresses? Officers confirmed that broadly speaking that there around 5k children at level 3 and 4 at any one time. The overwhelming majority of children are at Tier 1 with the only services they receive going to school or to the doctor or libraries. Most of the money is spent of those in levels 3 and 4

·         Due to the pandemic new regulations are in place meaning that the tenants who cannot pay their rent or are not paying their rent cannot be taken to court to be evicted. Concern was expressed that there are local landlords in the private sector who are not being paid rent and unable to take action but as soon as the restrictions are lifted more numbers will come through children services as these families who have children could be evicted and pressure will be on the council. What are we doing now to find out who are these families and what safeguards can be put in place once regulations lifted by government to allow landlords to take individuals or families to court to be evicted? This will cause financial, emotional and health burdens to these children. Officers are also concerned what might happen once these restrictions on landlords are eased. It was suggested that this issue is referred to the Housing Scrutiny Panel as an area of focus.

Officers were thanked for their presentation.