The latest news

Early Help System Guide - your feedback is needed!

Your help is needed to complete a short survey:-

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities published the Early Help System Guide (EHSG) in 2022 to help local areas with their self-assessment to support the refresh of their early help strategies and their future plans for early help. The assessment has subsequently been moved over to the Department for Education (DfE) to lead with all upper tier local authorities.

The assessment is undertaken in collaboration with all partners to inform future plans alongside the current Supporting Families outcomes framework.

We have been provided with a template with a set of questions that need to be given consideration. The results of the assessment will be returned to the DfE at the beginning of July and will be used locally to prioritise further developments of our early help offer and to ensure that our Early Help Strategy is kept up to date.

To help us with this assessment, we would be grateful if you can consider the questions in this survey.

Please answer only the questions that you feel are relevant to your service and leave any that are not relevant blank.

Survey Link: https://surveys.hertfordshire.gov.uk/s/IJX0QL/ All questions are optional.

The closing date for completion is Friday 7 June 2024.

Right Care Right Person - Escalation Process

Concern for welfare calls to police – reminder of escalation process

Hertfordshire Constabulary is reminding partners of the escalation process (below) in relation to calls to them about concerns for the welfare of individuals.

At the start of April, the force, in collaboration with partners across health, social care and the voluntary sector, launched the Right Care Right Person (RCRP) approach to concern for welfare calls.

You can find out more about RCRP on the constabulary’s website.

This involves police call handlers assessing each request for attendance and deciding whether officers should respond or if another agency would be better equipped to do so.

Chief Superintendent Nev Hanks from the constabulary’s control room said: “We’ve had a positive start to this process and are keen to continue working with our partners as RCRP progresses.

“As part of this I would like to remind you of the escalation process that is in place should you disagree with a decision for police not to attend your call.

“If you feel unhappy with the rationale for non-attendance, please ask at the time of the call for it to be escalated to an inspector for review. This will allow us to look at the decision again and come back to you.

“I would encourage all partners to not hesitate to use this process if they’re unhappy with a decision as this will enable us to further scrutinise our decision making and ensure we’re getting it right for all those involved, including and most importantly the individual concerned.”

In addition to this escalation process we are dip sampling our concern for welfare calls to evaluate and scrutiny meetings will be taking place with partners.

Asking the right questions about parental conflict

1 in 5 couples in a relationship are classed as being in distress, parental conflict, which is frequent, intense and poorly resolved can place children at risk. By seeing the signs and asking the right questions you can make a difference and improve lives.

Hertfordshire's Family & Health Services Commissioning team have commissioned the following video for all professionals working with families to ask the right questions to identify parental conflict.

Can we ask you to please share this video clip with your teams and colleagues: Noticing parental conflict? Ask the right questions

For more information on support available to parents, carers and professionals visit Relationship support for parents | Hertfordshire County Council

First Steps ED : Free workshops for families

Please help spread the word about First Steps ED's four-week programme offering free online workshops for parents, carers & older siblings, who are supporting a young person with their body image, disordered eating and/or eating disorders in Hertfordshire.

It's called First Steps ED Skills for Carers. Sessions are delivered online (via Zoom) and following the first session, the team will close the group to ensure that the parents and carers in attendance can develop a positive peer group through the entire four-week programme.

To find out if workshops are available in your area and/or how you can get involved in upcoming workshops here: Skills for Carers - First Steps ED

Supporting CYPs and families whilst they’re waiting for a service

Hertfordshire’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services* (Herts CYPMHS) encourage children and young people to access support for their emotional wellbeing and mental health early - as soon as their needs emerge. Herts CYPMHS system has made significant investment into increasing early help services in order to support this.

As a result, more children and young people are accessing help now than in previous years and whilst there is a wide range of support available for them, some will experience waiting times. There are support services with open access and no waiting times that we encourage children, young people and families to utilise whilst waiting e.g. digital support services with an instant chat function and self-help resources (With Youth (for ages 5-18) including Lumi Nova (for ages 7-12) and The Sandbox (for ages 10-25).

Herts CYPMHS recognise that waiting for a service can be an uncertain and difficult time. They are listening to feedback and striving to provide children, young people and families with clear expectations, communication and support whilst they are waiting, by providing them with information about:

What the service they are waiting for offers and what to expect.
Risk assessments and how to get in touch if the situation changes and/or if they have any concerns in between contacts.
Local resources and services available to help them whilst they are waiting e.g. the early help digital support services with instant chat and self-help resources (With Youth/Lumi Nova and The Sandbox), or the Herts Haven emotional wellbeing drop-in cafes, or the Mental Health Support Teams in Schools (MHSTs). Details of all these early help services and more commissioned services are on the Just Talk Herts website at: www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/youthmentalhealth
Other resources such as: YoungMinds and Anna Freud
Who to call in a mental health crisis situation including HPFT’s 24/7 freephone helpline (SPA): 0800 6444 101/NHS 111 or Samaritans freephone: 116 123, 24 hours a day, every day for any age.

Herts CYPMHS system partners will continue adapting and developing their support whilst waiting, in response to the feedback and suggestions they receive from children, young people and families.

*Hertfordshire’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (Herts CYPMHS) system includes commissioned mental health and emotional wellbeing services accessible for all children and young people in Hertfordshire.

Encouraging young people across Hertfordshire to get creative and express their emotions

Spring 2024 saw the return of Just Talk’s poetry competition, inviting secondary school aged young people across Hertfordshire to get creative and unleash their imaginations through writing!

There were no restrictions on style or content, participants were encouraged to explore the theme ‘The Power of Small’ in any way they felt meaningful.

Inspired by the recent Just Talk campaign, The Power of Small Changes, the theme shone a light on how small actions can make a big difference in people’s lives.

Just Talk is delighted to showcase the winning poems, alongside finalists’ entries, in a commemorative booklet that can be found The Power Of Small (justtalkherts.org)

Schools selected their top poems to compete, and judges had a tough job picking the winners. Thank you to everyone who took part, and we hope you enjoy reading the finalists' work!

Huge thanks to all our judges: Connor Fitzjohn (Watford FC CSE), Hayley Golding (Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust), Sam Arnold and Sarah Todd (Chats and Cuts).

For more information about Just Talk visit www.justtalkherts.org, and for regular tips and signposting for young people, and their parents/carers, follow Just Talk on:

Facebook: JustTalkHerts Instagram: @JustTalkHerts Twitter: @JustTalkHerts “

Talking Families Summer Programme 2024

Talking Families (run by Supporting Links) are still taking bookings for the final few places on the following events. This will be the last opportunity for parents to access support with us until the Autumn term:

Talking Families A 6-week online course.

For parents of children ages 0-12.

Wednesdays 8pm to 9.30pm,12th June - 17th July

Talking Teens IN-PERSON 6-week course

For parents of children aged 12-19

The Reddings Family Centre, Bushey

Wednesdays 5th June to 10th July, 7pm to 9pm

Talking ASD & ADHD: Tech use ONLINE workshop (663) online

Monday 17th June 7.30 to 9.15pm

Talking ASD & ADHD: Sibling Struggles ONLINE workshop (662)

Monday 10th June 9.30am to 11.15am

For more information can be found here: New What's On

Download a referral form

Family Lives Summer Programme

Family Lives are delivering 4 Online parenting groups and 2 online workshops (via MS Teams), funded by Herts County Council, in the Summer term for targeted parents/carers who live in Hertfordshire or who have a child attending a Hertfordshire school.

All our programmes provide support, information and resources to parents/carers and adult family members so they can help their child reach their full potential.

Bringing Up Confident ADHD/ASD Children (6 weeks) - New dates to be confirmed.

A programme to help parents gain a comprehensive understanding of ADHD/ASD and learn strategies to improve life at home and at school

Sorting Out Family Arguments (6 weeks) - Thursday 23 May to 4 July from 7pm to 9pm online Via MS Teams

A programme aimed at helping sort out arguments between parents and their children and between brothers and sisters

Less Shouting, More Cooperation (6 weeks) - Monday 3 June to 8 July 9.30am to 11.30am online via MS Teams

A programme to help parents be more effective at getting their children to cooperate and listen to them

Getting on with Your Pre-Teen/Teenager is a 6-week course running from Tuesday 04 June to 09 July 7pm to 9pm online via MS Teams

A course to help parents understand and get on better with their teenage children, maybe there is an FFA/CIN/CP in place and need more support.

Anxiety around ADHD Workshop – Friday 28^th June 9.30am – 11.30am

Reducing Conflict Workshop – Thursday 11^th July 7pm – 9pm

We accept referrals from professionals as well as self-referrals. Please click Referral Form for Family Lives Herts Parenting Groups and Workshops

for the online referral form.

You can also email services@familylives.org.uk or call us on 0204 522 8700 or 0204 522 8701 for more information.

HFL Education Summer Term Online Safety Newsletters

HFL Education are pleased to release two new summer term 2024 Online Safety Newsletters. Both newsletters feature a range of guidance, news, links and updates about online safety for all phases, with particular reference to the current situation, recent developments and concerns.

For Staff

The newsletter for staff includes reviews and details about:

Sextortion – national crime agency alert
Senso monitoring – now free for HFL supported primary schools
Artificial intelligence in education

Please download your copy here.

For Parents & Carers

Our newsletter for parents and carers includes reviews and details about:

Change in minimum age for WhatsApp
SnapChat MyAI – a guide for parents
Sextortion – what parents/carers need to know