Where the worries about a child/young person being at risk of HOTH can be managed by universal services, such as schools, school health, youth and sports clubs, you will be the lead practitioner for the child/young person. This means you will be the main point of contact for them. This does not mean you have to do everything by yourself. There are many services in Durham who can offer support to children and young people directly, and/or their parents/carers, who can work alongside you.
We should always aim to ‘work with’ children and families, rather than ‘doing to’. This means building positive, trusting relationships and involving children and families in decisions about their lives and what they think would help them, including which services they think would help. Wherever possible, we should involve other services with the agreement of the family.
Below is a list of services who can offer support when there are concerns about HOTH, alongside any help you are already providing. This includes services run and commissioned by Durham County Council, such as Way Through.
If you feel stuck at any point, for example if you need advice on signposting or how to pull together a plan to support a child/family, then the Early Help Advisors based in Durham’s Family Hubs are here to help.
Durham County Council Community Protection
| Team | Support |
|---|---|
| Safer Places Team | Crime/anti-social behaviour/community involvement/walkabouts/intelligence/attend Operational Child Exploitation Group (CEG). |
| Community Action Team/Place Based Team (Horden) | 11 week intensive projects in specific locality in east area. |
| Multi Agency Problem Solving (MAPS) Groups | Share information and intelligence about children and young people/those who cause harm in a specific area. |
| Horden Together | Place based multi-agency team working closely with residents and community groups. |
| Durham City Partnerships Team | Place based multi-agency team working closely with working with businesses. |
| Anti-Social Behaviour Interventions Team | Interventions with perpetrators and victims, visiting young people and guardians. |
| Licensing and Trading Standards | All licensing matters, visiting businesses. |
| Resilience and Emergency Planning | Responding to emergency/community incidents. |
| Special Investigations/Intelligence | Gathering intelligence and visits in the community/businesses. |
| Animal Health/Consumer Safety | Community visits/businesses. |
| Neighbourhood Wardens (Neighbourhood Services) | Daily patrols of ‘hot spot’ areas (where there are current worries about harm outside the home in certain locations), anti-social behaviour such as investigating untidy yards and fly-tipping. |
Way Through/County Durham Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service (CDDARS)
| Team | Support |
|---|---|
| Young People’s Team | Work directly with young people who have issues with drugs or alcohol. |
| Family Team | Offer support to anyone who is impacted by someone else’s substance use. |
| Safeguarding Team | Offer safeguarding support and advice to all teams within CDDARS. |
| Adult Service – Managers and Senior Practitioners | Work with people aged 21 and over, but may still come across harm outside the home or their clients could have children who may be at risk of, or experiencing it. |
Durham County Council Family Hubs/early help
| Team | Support |
|---|---|
| Operations Manager/Team Manager | Lead area for harm outside the home. Attend Child Exploitation Vulnerability Triage (CEVT) meetings, share information, support the identification of need within the service to support learning. |
| Frontline staff – Key Workers, Practitioners/Team Managers | Team Managers oversee practitioners who deliver direct work and group work to young people and families. Early identification of harm outside the home. Examples of intervention include: delivery of Safer Choices and risk-taking behaviour interventions, completion of Child Exploitation Matrix (CE Matrix), police information sharing forms, multi-agency planning |
| Early Help Advisors | Work alongside and directly assist Lead Practitioners to develop and deliver effective early help. This includes training and mentoring for practitioners involved in Team Around the Family arrangements and those who work with vulnerable children, young people and their parents/carers. |