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Section 4: Getting it right for every child: the approach in practice

The Getting it right for every child approach in practice builds from the foundation of support available in the family, in the community and universal services. In practice, Getting it right for every child needs shared tools and models and an understanding of how practitioners approach action with children and young people and how agencies work together. This approach requires a Lead Professional to co-ordinate support when two or more agencies are working together to support a child or young person.

The Well-being Indicators are used to record observations, events and concerns and as an aide in putting together a child's plan and the My World Triangle and the Resilience Matrix are used to gather, structure and assist in the analysis of information.

The Getting it right for every child practice model supports practice to ensure action can be taken to improve outcomes for the child or young person. It also supports the recording of information in a consistent way that allows it to be collated when needed to provide a shared understanding of the needs of the child or young person.

Building a network of support around each child or young person

Getting it right for every child aims to have in place a network of support to promote well-being so that children and young people get the right help at the right time. This network will always include family and/or carers and the universal health and education services. Most of the child or young person's needs will be met from within this network. Only when support from the family and community and the universal services can no longer meet their needs will targeted and specialist help be called upon to help. Only when voluntary measures no longer effectively address the needs or risks will statutory measures to support the child or young person be considered.

The Lead Professional role

When two or more agencies need to work together to provide help to a child or young person and family, there will be a Lead Professional to co-ordinate that help. The role of the Lead Professional is:

• to make sure that the child or young person and family understand what is happening at each point so that they can participate in the decisions that affect them
• to be the main point of contact for children, young people, practitioners and family members, bringing help to them and minimising the need for them to tell their story several times
• to promote teamwork between agencies and with the child or young person and family
• to ensure the child's plan is implemented and reviewed
• to be familiar with the working practices of other agencies
• to support other staff who have specific roles or who are carrying out direct work or specialist assessments
• to ensure the child or young person is supported through key transition points, particularly any transfer to a new lead professional
• to ensure the information contained in the child's virtual shared record (where there is one) is accurate and up-to-date.

More information about the role of the Lead Professional can be found on the Getting it right for every child website.

The Getting it right for every child practice model and tools

When assessment, planning and action are needed, practitioners can draw on the Getting it right for every child practice model which combines knowledge, theory and good practice. The tools in the model can be used in a single- or multi-agency context.

The model:

• can be used by practitioners in all agencies who are working with children, young people and their families to facilitate a pathway to getting help that is appropriate, proportionate and timely
• provides a framework for agencies to structure and analyse information in a consistent way that can be used to understand a child or young person's needs, the strengths and pressures on them, and consider what support they might need
• defines needs and risks as two sides of the same coin.

It promotes the participation of children, young people and their families in gathering information and making decisions as central to assessing, planning and taking action.

The components of the practice model have been designed to ensure that information about children and young people is recorded in a consistent way by all agencies. This should help in providing a shared understanding of a child or young person's needs and identifying concerns that may need to be addressed.

Therefore, in all children's services, recording of routine information needs to align with the way information is recorded in the practice model for children or young people who may need additional help. Information recorded in universal agency systems may become critical in understanding a child or young person's journey when he or she requires either enhanced single- agency or multi-agency support. This routine information may be of immense value in assessing a child's additional needs.

In the future an electronic information system will allow information recorded using the practice model to be shared more easily between agencies where this is appropriate.

The Getting it right for every child Practice Model

There are three main components in the practice model:

? eight Well-being Indicators

? the My World Triangle

? the Resilience Matrix

The eight Well-being Indicators have been identified as areas in which children and young people need to progress in order to do well now and in the future and they allow practitioners to structure information which may identify needs and concerns and to structure planning.

The My World Triangle introduces a mental map that helps practitioners understand a child or young person's whole world. It can be used to explore their experience at every stage, recognising there are connections between the different parts of their world and, in assessment, can be used to explore needs and risks.

The Resilience Matrix can be used in a single or multi-agency environment. It supports practitioners to analyse the more complex information they have gathered, using the My World Triangle and other sources and plot it on a blank matrix so that the balance between vulnerability and resilience, and adversity and protective factors can be weighed.

There are six parts in the Getting it right for every child practice model. Practitioners will combine some or all of these parts in the way most appropriate to the child or young person's needs:

• Using the Well-being Indicators to record and share information that may indicate a need or concern and then take action as appropriate
• Using the My World Triangle (and where appropriate specialist assessments) to explore this information and to gather further information about a child or young person's needs
• Using the Resilience Matrix to help organise and analyse information when necessary
• Summarising needs against the Well-being Indicators
• Constructing a plan and taking appropriate action
• Reviewing the plan

Using the Well-being Indicators to record and share information and to record concerns

The Well-being Indicators are used in a number of ways. They can be used to structure the recording of information about a child or young person, under whichever headings are appropriate, to record their progress in universal services. In the future, this will allow relevant information to be shared more easily.

In some cases, recording progress using the Well-being Indicators will allow practitioners to identify concerns that only become apparent from cumulative information or collated single agency or multi-agency records.

The Well-being Indicators can also be used to structure recording of a specific concern that may be raised with or by practitioners that may need further assessment or action, for example, not doing as well in school as expected. A concern can be an event itself, or a series of events, or attributes, which affect the well-being or potential well-being of a child or young person, for example, missing appointments for health checks. A concern might be a fact, an attribute or characteristic of someone associated with the child or young person which does not take the form of an event (again something that might make the child or young person vulnerable), for example, living in a family where a parent may be misusing drugs or alcohol. Parents, children and young people themselves may have concerns that they bring to the attention of practitioners.

The Well-being Indicators are also used when a plan is being constructed or reviewed, to summarise the child or young person's needs that will be addressed in the child's plan.

There are five questions practitioners need to ask themselves when they are concerned about a child or young person:

• What is getting in the way of this child or young person's well-being?
• Do I have all the information I need to help this child or young person?
• What can I do now to help this child or young person?
• What can my agency do to help this child or young person?
• What additional help, if any, may be needed from others?

When practitioners have sufficient information to know what needs to be done to support the child or young person, then they can ensure help is put in place without delay either by a single agency or more than one agency.

Using the My World Triangle (and where appropriate, specialist assessments) to gather further information about the needs of the child or young person

When working with children or young people the My World Triangle can be used at every stage to think about the whole world of the child or young person.

It is particularly helpful to use the My World Triangle to gather more information from other sources, possibly some of it specialist, to identify the strengths and pressures in the child or young person's world. This may include, for example, information about health or learning, offending behaviour or information about issues affecting parenting.

The My World Triangle promotes a model of practice that considers the child or young person's needs and risks as well as the positive features in their lives. Strengths and pressures are given equal consideration and can be structured around the triangle. Information gathered should be proportionate and relevant to the issues in hand. In many cases, it will not be necessary to explore every area of the triangle in detail but only look at those relevant to any presenting issue. However, it is still important to keep the child or young person's whole world in mind and provide immediate help where necessary while continuing assessment.

The My World Triangle

The Whole Child or Young Person: Physical, social, educational, emotional, spiritual and psychological development

Using the My World Triangle allows practitioners to consider systematically:

• how the child or young person is growing and developing
• what the child or young person needs from the people who look after him or her
• the impact of the child or young person's wider world of family, friends and community

How I Grow and Develop

What I need from People who Look After Me

My Wider World

Using the Resilience Matrix to analyse information from the My World Triangle and other sources

The concept of resilience is fundamental to the well-being of children and young people and is used in assessments by practitioners from many agencies. Practitioners can use the Resilience Matrix to make sense of the strengths and pressures from the My World Triangle along with any specialist assessments and to identify the areas where help should be focused. They can group the information around the four headings of resilience, vulnerability, protective environment and adversity so that the balance of strengths and needs can be judged. A detailed explanation - Using the Resilience Matrix - is available on the tools and resources pages Getting it right for every child website.

The Resilience Matrix

Adapted from Daniel, B., Wassell, S. and Gilligan, R. (1999) Child Development for Child Care and Protection Workers, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd., London and Philadelphia and Daniel, B. and Wassell, S. (2002) Assessing and Promoting Resilience in Vulnerable Children, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd., London and Philadelphia.
Published by kind permission of the authors and Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd., London and Philadelphia.

Summarising needs against the Well-being Indicators

When the child or young person's needs are clear they can be summarised using the Well-being Indicators to develop a plan for action. Well-being Indicators can be used to identify priorities, construct a description of what needs to change to improve the child or young person's well-being and the expected outcomes.

Constructing a plan and taking appropriate action

In the Getting it right for every child approach, any child or young person who requires additional help should have a plan to address their needs and improve their well-being. This may be a single agency plan. When two or more agencies are involved there will be a multi-agency 'child's plan' co-ordinated by a Lead Professional.

Where necessary Getting it right for every child integrates and co-ordinates plans developed by different agencies. It looks to practitioners to work in accordance with legislation and guidance but also expects agencies to think beyond their immediate remit, drawing on the skills and knowledge of others as necessary and thinking in a broad, holistic way. For example, a care plan for a child looked after by the local authority, a health care plan, or an individualised education plan should be incorporated within the child's plan where the child or young person's circumstances require this.

Every plan, whether it is single or multi-agency, should include and record:

• reasons for the plan
• partners to the plan
• the views of the child or young person and their parents or carers
• a summary of the child or young person's needs
• what is to be done to improve a child or young person's circumstances
• details of action to be taken
• resources to be provided
• timescales for action and for change
• contingency plans
• arrangements for reviewing the plan
• lead professional arrangements where they are appropriate
• details of any compulsory measures if required.

Information on the detail of planning for children and young people can be found in the Getting it right for every child - Guidance on the Child's or Young Person's Plan, Scottish Executive 2007.

Reviewing the plan

It is important to look at whether the actions taken have achieved the outcomes specified in the plan and what changes or further action, if any, are required.

In reviewing the outcome of the plan with the child or young person and family, there are five essential questions practitioners need to ask:

• What has improved in the child or young person's circumstances?
• What if anything has got worse?
• Have the outcomes in the plan been achieved?
• If not, is there anything in the plan that needs to be changed?
• Can we continue to manage the plan within the current environment?

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