Lincolnshire's Inclusion Strategy

For children and young people that need additional support, the actions take by professionals to meet these needs as early as possible can be critical to their future.  Lincolnshire’s early help strategy identifies the need for timely support for children and their families as soon as difficulties start to emerge, or when there is a strong likelihood that difficulties will emerge in the future.  Lincolnshire’s early help offer is not just for young children as problems may emerge at any point throughout childhood and adolescence. The early help offer includes universal and targeted services designed to reduce or prevent specific difficulties from escalating or becoming entrenched.

The critical features of this strategy are: 

• a multi-disciplinary approach that brings a range of professional skills and expertise to bear through a “Team Around the Child (TAC)” approach  
• a relationship with a trusted lead professional who can engage the child and their family, and coordinate the support needed from other agencies
• practice that empowers families and helps them to develop the capacity to resolve their own problems
• a holistic approach that addresses children’s needs in the wider family context 
• a simple, streamlined referral and assessment processes

Lincolnshire’s early help strategy reflects the emphasis on the importance of early help in promoting the welfare of children and young people, together with clear arrangements for collaboration.  This further supports the application of preventative services to do more to reduce abuse and neglect rather than reactive services, co-ordination of services to maximise efficiency and positive impact, and a strong mechanism for supporting people to identify children and young people suffering harm that may need a referral to children’s social care.        

Central to this strategy is the early identification of children and their families who would benefit from early help and a coordinated early assessment and response to prevent harm and improve outcomes for children and families as a whole.