School-Home Support

ACTION

Most social workers are reporting rising thresholds due to budget cuts, both for "child in need" intervention and "early help", putting the onus increasingly on schools to identify struggling families and facilitate support. For more than 30 years, School-Home Support's (SHS) trained school-based practitioners have been helping hard-to-reach families address the root causes of their children's poor attendance and behaviour, and helping them to reach their full potential.

SHS has more than 60 practitioners, mainly employed by schools. But it's also contracted by two London authorities to work within Troubled Families programmes. Newham allocates borough-wide cases to a six-strong team of SHS practitioners. Meanwhile, in Barking and Dagenham, three practitioners work with 30 families they've identified from day-to-day work in schools. Each becomes the family's "lead professional", agreeing a plan with them to tackle their issues, enlisting help from other professionals through "team around the family" meetings. "[SHS practitioners] have a very early relationship with families who know their face in school, enabling them to gather intelligence before things escalate," explains Shaun Childs, the council's head of intervention and community solutions.