Lewisham Children and Young People’s VCS Forum Friday 5 October 2016, Lewisham Methodist Church, Albion Way Lewisham, SE13 6BD
Attendees Lola Akinyemi I Am More CIC Folla Bello Family Action Juliet Campbell Olivespring Consultancy CIC Josiah Clarke Creative Development Skills Peter Dacres Somerville Youth and Play Provision Jane Hendrie Lewisham Education Arts Network Sharon Hogsden St Andrew’s Community Nursery Joanne Hussain Kids Lewisham Najah Ismael London Borough of Lewisham Musa Jama Deptford Somali Islamic Centre Catherine Kinsey Clyde Nursery School Katarzyna Kurylowicz NSPCC Paula Lane Oak Hill Community Nursery Carole Litchmore First Principles Parenting Kevin Makwilika Straight Talking Peer Education Sheryl Malcolm Lewisham Youth Theatre Paul McDaniel Working with Men Sophie Milward Voluntary Action Lewisham Karen Morgan London Borough of Lewisham Samantha Odogwu Youth First Adeyinka Opedare South London Counselling Services Rosanna Ottewell Voluntary Action Lewisham John Paschoud London Borough of Lewisham Chyloe Powell BelEve UK Joanne Roberts Voluntary Action Lewisham JulieRush New Cross and Deptford Families First Nalan Salih Lewisham Parent/Carers Forum Charity Sekyi London Borough of Lewisham Hannah Sweet St Michael’s Fellowship Val Pope Lewisham Pre-school Learning Alliance Fay Russell-Clark Healthwatch Bromley and Lewisham Lucy Toole Carers Lewisham Tonia Vassell Creative Development Skills Philippa Wall Lewisham Young Women’s Resource Project Marcia Wallace Chair - CYP Forum Steering Group Wendy Watts Bromley and Lewisham Mind Welcome and Introduction – Marcia Walker, Chairperson – CYP Forum
Marcia Walker welcomed everyone to Lewisham’s 25th Children and Young Peoples Forum and introduced the topics which were Five to Thrive and Early Help.
Secondly, Lewisham’s Early Help Team, led by Karen Morgan, would give presentations and lead a workshop to enable participants to become familiar with the new referral procedures for safeguarding children. Marcia Walker, CYP Forum Chairperson Everyone would have the chance to get Firstly participants would hear from Val involved in both tables and there would be Pope from the Lewisham Pre-School a short feedback session to be followed by Learning Alliance and Cathryn Kinsey from completion of monitoring forms and then Clyde Nursery School and Children’s Centre. networking over a light lunch.
Their presentations and workshop would help participants to gain an understanding of how using the Five to Thrive approach could promote the use of consistent messages for positive relationships between parents and children, leading to healthy brain development in children.
Respond, Cuddle, Relax, Play, Talk - The five to thrive approach. An approach to give practitioners simple, consistent key messages to reinforce positive relationships between parents and their children – Val Pope, Executive Manager, Pre-School Learning Manager and Cathryn Kinsey, Head Teacher, Clyde Nursery School and Children's Centre
Val Pope presented information on the five to thrive approach. Recent research proves that the way a parent interacts and behaves around their child in the first three years of its life plays a crucial part in how the child’s brain develops and has an impact on that child’s later life chances. The Lewisham Children and Young People’s Plan and the Lewisham CYP Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy both state as a priority for the borough the need to improve parenting and secure attachment.
Although there is work already taking place to improve parenting and secure attachment with families in Lewisham, the approach is inconsistent. Practitioners have many different ways of conveying this important message and these differences can cause a lack of understanding and give confusing or mixed messages to parents. The aim is to use the Five to Thrive framework to underpin practice across a range of disciplines, programmes and organisations and to have a shared common language that parents and professionals – promoting consistency and understanding. This has been used successfully is Hertfordshire, Luton and elsewhere.
What is five to thrive? RESPOND CUDDLE RELAX PLAY TALK These are the ‘building blocks for a healthy brain’.
They are drawn from research into the key processes of attachment and attunement that forge bonds between children and their carers.
They are designed to give practitioners a ‘toolkit’ of simple, consistent, key messages to reinforce positive interaction between parents and their children, through the use of simple language that parents can relate to.
The success of five to thrive is founded on In addition there will also be Five to Thrive the fact that it is not a rigid, one-size-fits-all “champions” in each service area who will programme. Rather, it is a collection of cascade the training within their own simple resources and tools available services. through training to help staff across a range of types of organisation to deliver a simple, The CAMHS funding has also paid for a Five consistent message to parents about the to Thrive licence for 5 years – enabling importance of interacting with their baby. access to a download area where practitioners can make use of a range of How is this being implemented in resources to give visual reinforcement of Lewisham? the messages.
A steering group has been set up involving Our aim is to ensure that Five to Thrive early years, children’s centres and Public becomes an integral aspect of practice Health and members of the group are all across all services involved in working with fully committed to the implementation of 0-5 and is fully embedded across the Five to Thrive in Lewisham borough. Funding has been provided through the We want to know what our impact has Lewisham CAMHS Transformation Fund to been and so will be evaluating staff enable the roll-out of a cross-sector multi- throughout the programme to assess the agency training programme over the next impact on their confidence and skills. 18 months. The aim is to train 660 practitioners as part of a workforce In addition, we will be seeking feedback development approach and to ensure that from parents about their increasing practitioners fully understand the science recognition of the Five to Thrive message behind the key messages and are confident and understand from them how it has in using the Five to Thrive elements in their helped support their relationship with their work with families. child. Click link to book training: https://connected.kca.training/register.cfm?form=lftt-2017 Beautiful Babies, Beautiful Brains - Catheryn Kinsey, Head Teacher, Clyde Nursery School
Catheryn talked about how Clyde Early Childhood Centre has used the Five to Thrive principles as part of a new parenting course. They realised that parents knew something about attachment but didn’t always know what it meant, why it happened or why it was so important. Their response was to develop a course that was a mixture of brain development theory and practical experiences for parents/carers and children.
The result is a nine week course for parents/carers and their children that covers each of the five principles to enable health brain development, delivered in a way that encourages sharing of ideas and strategies.
The course includes Stay and Play sessions, send an email to with resources and activities themed [email protected] accordingly. These provide an opportunity for participants to critique how they apply their learning and how their children respond - with the added benefit of a reflective practice approach.
It currently runs at Clyde Children’s Centre in Deptford with plans to offer it elsewhere in Lewisham. To find out more or to refer someone, please call 0208 692 3653 or
Securing Early Help in Lewisham – A presentation to brief practitioners on the latest developments in early help, including practical aspects, on how to assess families, use the referral forms and understand the new system - Karen Morgan (Team Manager), Najah Ismael (Advanced Practitioner) and Charity Sekyi Lewisham Early Help Co-ordinator, Lewisham Early Help Service.
What’s new in Lewisham? MASH and Early Help Team *new* Early Help Assessment *new* Online Referral form
https:// www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/socialcare/children/keeping- children-safe/Multi-agency-Safeguarding-Hub/Pages/MASH-request-form.aspx
Karen and the team delivered a presentation and explained about the new early help assessment process. referral procedures for the different levels of referral including:
Consent based model Lewisham Continuum of Need Nothing will be NFA (no further action) unless a notification is received Appropriate information needs to be in order for CSC to make an informed decision and prevent delay What has been done before? If you need help contact MASH and Early Help teams for Consultation or assistance. SOS: They showed examples of the new on line o What is working well? referral form and the assessment and o What you are concerned about? o What needs to happen? The procedures are illustrated here: The early help team continued their presentation with case study exercises in workshop groups and questions and answer feedback sessions. They demonstrated the use of the new on-line referral forms with guidance (Form for help and support or protection). Practitioners will find the following FAQs document helpful:
MASH - Request help or protection for a child FAQS
How do I register? Via the Lewisham council website. This is a four step process, 1. Enter and confirm your email address. 2. Enter your title, first and last names. 3. Enter your postcode & organisation 4. Create your password and memorable word or phrase and then you click submit to create your account.
https://auth.gfaid.co.uk/gfa/register/lewish am/
How do I log in?
- Once you have registered you will receive an email to activate your account, once activated you must log in using your email and password.
- https://auth.gfaid.co.uk/gfa/login/lewisham/ Forgotten password - If you have forgotten your password you can change your password by accessing the “forgotten password” page on the Lewisham Council website and entering your email address. - Once entered you will be given the option to change and create a new password. You will be then sent an activation link to activate your account password. Finally, you can log back in again with your new password.
Why do I have to register if I am an employee of Lewisham Council/borough? / Why can't I log in? - Everyone must register to create an account when initially completing this form.
Can I access this form on my tablet/mobile? - Yes, this form can be accessed and completed on of tablets and mobiles, and should be compatible with most browsers.
Why did my account log out? - You may have been logged out because your session was timed out, meaning you spent too long on a page without making response or adjustment so for security reasons you were timed out. - Or, if you clicked the back button the browser page you will be logged out of your session.
How do I go back and change details? - Details can be amended towards the end of each section via the summary sheet and at the end when finally completing the form. You can also go into “my account” at a later date to see any “started but not completed” forms as long as you have completed at least section 1.
Are all fields mandatory? /Do I have to fill in all of the boxes? - The only mandatory fields are: - The address of the child, if you are unsure of this, you must enter where they are currently staying or your own work address - The consent of the parent/carer which must be filled in
How and where can I find the child's NHS ID? - Only enter if known.
What is EHC Plan? - An Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) outlines the special educational needs of the child and young person, to secure the best possible outcomes for them across education, health and social care and as they get older, prepare them for adulthood.
How and where can I find the unique pupil number? - Only enter if known.
Why was my session timed out? - Your session was timed out because you spent too long on a page without any response or adjustment so for security reasons you were timed out.
How do I upload documents? (On my computer/iPad/tablet/phone/laptop) - Computer/laptop – You select the browse button and search through the folders in which you saved the document. - Tablet/Mobile- You select the browse button to find the location/application in which you saved the document, once selected you can search through to find the document and upload it. What do I do if the website has crashed? - If the website has crashed you can either restart the form or log back into your account to continue from the section at which the form was last saved.
What do I do if the website is down? - If the website is down and it is an emergency you can contact Mash directly on 020 8314 6660 or email them at [email protected]. / [email protected] - Or otherwise, continue to come back and refresh the page.
Who can I contact if I am need advice on which sections of the form I should complete and the content I should include? - For advice or a consultation, you can contact Mash directly on 020 8314 6660 or email them at [email protected]. / [email protected]
The team delivered a practical workshop to familiarise participants with the continuum of need. When a referral is made, social workers and advance practitioners use the continuum of need to make a decision about the most appropriate level required in each case and the child is then referred accordingly, namely - Universal - Universal Pus - Targeted - Acute and specialist
Participants worked on case studies to gain some practice in using the continuum of need to assess whether to refer the cases.
Early Help Team – who are we?
tht Natasha Logan Najah
http://www.safeguardinglewisham.org.uk/lscb/lscb/professionals/early-help
Questions and Answers and Networking
There was a short feed-back and question inviting people to remain behind for and answer session after which Marcia networking and refreshments. Walker brought the forum to a close by thanking everyone for participating and Forum 25 Evaluation Summary
23 monitoring forms returned
How did you find out about this event? VAL website x 1 Email x 13 E Bulletin x 1 Colleague x 5 Other x 2 Not ticked x 1
Confidence in Five to Thrive Before After No Confidence 7 A little confidence 11 3 Quite confident 4 12 Very confident 7 Missed Session 1 1
Knowledge in Five to Thrive None at all 7 A little 10 3 Quite a bit 4 11 A lot 1 8 Missed Session 1 1
Confidence in Securing Early Help No Confidence 7 A little confidence 8 2 Quite confident 5 11 Very confident 2 9 Not answered 1 1
Knowledge in Early help None at all 6 A little 10 2 Quite a bit 6 12 A lot 8 Not answered 1 1
Can we contact you about impact Yes x 19 No x 2 Unanswered x 2
Can we use your comments Yes x 17 No x 3 Unanswered x 2 What topics/issues would you like to suggest for future CYP Forums? - Young people’s ante natal nurse to present about teenage parenting - Serious Youth Crime - How to deal with school children within the community - Funding for CYP Projects - also meet the funder type sessions - A follow up on the peer abuse and the council’s response - Safeguarding - Any topics are great - Healthy Teenage Relationships - How to motivate young people/engage them - Ways to make learning fun for children
How would you improve in the future? Have the tables further apart so that you can hear clearly. Access to everyone’s emails addresses Heating 2 x Bring back market stalls; presentation opportunity for other organisations to share their work/information or what they are offering in Lewisham.
Final Comments - Great information. Thankyou (LYWRP) - I thought that presentations were good and although I don’t work with early years, provided accessible information that is useful as a background reference (Bromley and Lewisham Mind) - I am really supportive of the CYP forums. They are an invaluable resource for relevant information, support and advice in many areas of social care in Lewisham (Working with Men) - Very useful and good to network with others (Somerville Youth and Play) - Very good session – interesting (LPCF) - Always very useful to network – get updated and remember that there are lots of organisations delivering excellent support for CYP in Lewisham but many new projects that we did not know about. Not sure if there is an updated directory? (New Cross and Deptford Families First) - Excellent. Great to network with others. Informed and intelligent delivery from the experts. Thank you. (Anon) - Found today really useful (Youth First) - Great opportunity to network and exchange knowledge. Thank you.