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.