A quick guide to your Local Support Team

This presentation covers • What is a Local Support Team (LST) and what it is not?• Who is part of a LST?• Where are LSTs based?• What does a LST do?• Who do LSTs support work with?• How do you access support from a LST?• How can a LST and schools work together?• Where can you get further information from?

This is a brief presentation and further training and guidance is available through your LST

What is a LST and what it is not?

What it is…• An avenue which provides access

to support services in your local area

• A means of getting additional support to help address unmet needs of children and families

• A method of engaging professionals more quickly in single service or multi-agency (Common Assessment Framework - CAF) support for children and families

What it isn’t…• Child Protection, social work team• Universal services• The port of call for everything• A team who holds all the Common

Assessment Frameworks (CAF)/Team Around the Childs (TAC)

• A team that works in isolation from everyone else

Who is in a Local Support Team (LST)?

Staffordshire County Council services including:• Children’s Centre Services – range of multi-agency services for 0-5 year

olds delivered via 52 children’s centres and targeted outreach• Locality Family Services – parent and family support, including education

welfare• Targeted Youth Support Teams – teenage pregnancy worker, prevention

workers, targeted youth workers• Inclusion services – hearing and visually impairment services, educational

psychology, disability gateway workers, portage, autism outreach linked to team

• SENs services – behaviour and learning support linked to teams• In-reach social work (planned not ad hoc)• Local Support Team (LST) Co-ordinator

Staffordshire County Council teams work in conjunction with a vast range of services locally, many of whom have linked up services at a local level as part of the LST

approach

Red denotes services managed under Families First Targeted Services

Where are Local Support Teams (LSTs) based?

• 20 LSTs across Staffordshire • Based on school clusters but approx 2-3 per district• In your local area• Co-located with Safeguarding Teams• Delivery in schools, family homes, community venues,

children’s centres, youth clubs

What do Local Support Teams (LSTs) do?

• Provide early help and support• Help identify, assess and act on a child’s unmet need• Deliver interventions

– Consultation– Case work– Group and family based work– Whole school/setting/community intervention

• Work closely with universal and specialist services to provide a continuum of support, avoid duplication and multiple assessment and enhance communication to ensure a child’s needs are met

• Remember where there is immediate concern about actual or likely significant harm Staffordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board procedures must be followed www.staffsscb.org.uk/procedures.

• LSTs are not a response to child protection concerns and deal with lower level unmet need.

Who do Local Support Teams (LSTs) support?

• 0-19 year olds or up to 25 years if a young person has a disability

• Children, young people AND their family• School cohorts or children living in the area not on

school role (education services only)• Children residing in Staffordshire• Children with additional (level 2) or multiple (level 3)

needs

How do you access support from a Local Support Team (LST)?

• Talk to a member of the team • Complete a ‘request for support form’ and send it to the team or

direct to the service you require– One form all services (some services still coming on line)– One form includes pre-CAF– One form kept simple but meaningful– One form but requires consent

• Team allocation meeting – outcome of request for support decided and communicated

• Some services such as Educational Psychology, Behaviour and Learning Support have a set number of sessions per school

How can a Local Support Team and a school work together?

• Together is key – schools and the LST will need to work jointly to address the needs of children

• Allocation meetings (some teams are running meetings at school venues and school pastoral staff are in attendance)

• Setting up a clear and agreed method of communication with your LST will be key

Where can you get further information?

• School Learning Network (SLN)

http://education.staffordshire.gov.uk/EveryChildMatters/familiesfirst/

(This includes contact names, LST boundaries, all forms and guidance notes etc)

• Local relationships will make this work– County Managers (East and West)– District Team Managers – Local Support Team Co-ordinators