Children in need and child protection

The place and conditions a child grows up in have a big effect on their  health and wellbeing in later life. Serious negative experiences, such as abuse or neglect, can cause long‑term harm to a child's physical and emotional development. Stockton‑on‑Tees Council, health services, and the police all have a legal responsibility to keep children safe, support their wellbeing, and protect any child who may be at risk of serious harm.

Councils must work closely with partner organisations to make sure all children in their area are safe and supported. National guidance called Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) explains how these organisations should work together to protect children and young people.

The Tees Safeguarding Children's Partnership Framework of need sets out the thresholds used by all professionals working with children and families to identify a child's level of need and determine the appropriate response, ensuring the right help is provided at the right time. The framework includes four levels of need, ranging from low to high, and staff use these levels to guide decisions about the most suitable support or intervention.

Where a child or young person may have additional needs but not be at immediate risk, an assessment may lead to a Child in Need Plan which outlines the help and services that the child needs to maintain their health and wellbeing.

If there is reason to believe a child is being harmed or could be harmed, children's social care will conduct a Section 47 enquiry under the Children Act 1989. They will decide what action is needed to protect the child. This could include:

• Early Help or Support Services - if the child has needs but is not at risk of harm.
• Child Protection Plan - if the child is at risk of significant harm.
• Legal Action - in the most serious cases, this may involve going to court to get orders that protect the child.

The national Department For Education Families First Programme aims to transform the system of help, support, and protection to ensure that families can access the right help and support when they need it with an emphasis on early intervention to prevent crisis. Stockton-on-Tees Council and its safeguarding partners are working together to bring together targeted early help, child in need and multi-agency child protection into a seamless system of help, support, and protection. By enabling support to be wrapped around families at the earliest opportunity, the reforms aim to prevent escalation and reduce the flow of families toward child protection investigations where this is possible.

This Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for Children in Need and Child protection draws on a range of data sources understand the current and future needs of our children and young people who receive support and services under Child in Need Plans or Child Protection Plans. The data for Stockton-on-Tees in this JSNA is compared to the national and regional averages, and where available statistical neighbour averages have been used, which gives us an insight into how we are performing compared to local authorities who have similar populations and characteristics.

Children who are classed as in need or who have a child protection plan often face bigger challenges than their peers. This can be for a number of reasons, for example, they may have missed out on early experiences that help development, or they may have special educational needs that require extra support.

Children in need and those needing protection are often affected by circumstances at home. This can include family money problems, domestic abuse, poor adult mental health, or alcohol and drug use. These problems can make it harder for parents and carers to keep children safe and supported. Babies, disabled children, and children living in more deprived areas are often at greater risk, as these challenges can affect their health, learning, and wellbeing now and in later life.

Stockton-on-Tees has a wider mix of needs as the main reasons for children and young people needing support compared to other areas, suggesting local families may be facing higher levels of pressure, such as challenges with housing, money worries, or parental mental health. Embedding our Systemic Practice model for professionals working with families will support a preventative, relational and strengths-based way of working, better identifying and addressing the underlying conditions that affect family wellbeing.

The sustained high volume of contacts to children's services over recent years may reflect not only increased need in families but also pressures on universal and targeted services, where professionals feel unable to hold risk or intervene without social care involvement. Shared and strengthened understanding of thresholds across partners is essential to ensure consistency, reduce inappropriate referrals, and ensure children and families receive the right help at the right time.

The redesign of the Stockton-on-Tees front door arrangements into a multi-agency, integrated front door with a clear focus on prevention and early intervention will be essential to supporting referring professionals from across the partnership to enable them to work confidently with families at the early help level, reducing unnecessary escalation into statutory services.

While our children in need are more likely to achieve good outcomes in their education compared to national, regional and statistical neighbour averages, overall, they are much more likely to require additional support than their peers and achieve lower educational outcomes. The role of the Virtual School in Stockton and the continued connective working between social care, SEND and education are crucial factors to narrow the attainment gap for our children and young people and keep them safe.

Visit the DFE site for more information on Families First

Safeguarding Partnership