Threshold of Needs Guidance

Hull Safeguarding Children Partnership Threshold of Needs Guidance (2024) ‘The Right Support, Right Time, Right Place’. This Guidance replaces the previous Threshold of Need document (2018).

Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility. We all have the ability to transform lives by working together with, and for families. In doing so, we can bring about positive change to help children and families in the community flourish.

This guidance has been developed to help and support practitioners working with children across all agencies and organisations, when faced with a decision about the safety and wellbeing of a child. Multi-agency working is at the heart of effective support and practice and by enabling the right support at the right time, we can be confident that children experience changes that help them thrive.

Children and families in Hull, deserve the highest standards of practice, from compassionate and skilled practitioners, who can support them to address the challenges they face. To do this we have a shared ambition for children and their families to live in an ‘Inspiring City’. We have a whole system approach that exists across the Hull Safeguarding Children Partnership to provide additional support for children when this is needed. The guidance sets a revised and shared vision of providing help, support, and protection; ‘The right support at the right time and from the right place’.

In Hull, we want to be ambitious for all children, so they feel safe, happy, healthy, and able to achieve whilst ensuring children are protected from abuse and neglect. This guidance sets out the levels of intervention which may be required to support families to build on their strengths, keep them safe, build resilience and overcome challenges to find solutions. This guidance will never provide all the answers and does not replace the need to talk and share information and work in collaboration right across the partnership. It is crucial that practitioners have good communication and exercise professional curiosity at all times.

All practitioners have a shared responsibility and should use their safeguarding leads and consultations with the Early Help and Safeguarding Hub (EHaSH) for support, guidance, and reflection. Protecting children can be complex which is why a multi-agency approach is essential and is fundamentally required for achieving better outcomes for children. It will support practitioners regarding decision making and is aligned to Hull’s chosen relationship based model ‘Signs of Safety’. The Guidance can be read in line with SofS Assessment Support Guidance.pdf. It aligns with Hull Early Help and Prevention Strategy 2021-25 (proceduresonline.com), Domestic Abuse Strategy 2021 to 2024 (hull.gov.uk) and Hull Community Plan 2024 - 2034

The newly revised guidance is central to delivering on the Department of Education Working together to safeguard children 2023: statutory guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk), and the strategy set out in Stable Homes, Built on Love (2023) which outlines the Government’s commitment to support every child to grow up in a safe, stable, and loving home. Guide for children and young people: Stable Homes, Built on Love - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In the context of the Children's social care national framework (publishing.service.gov.uk) we are fully committed to ensuring that:

Children and families stay together and get the help they need.
Children are supported by their family network.
Children are safe in and outside of their homes.
Children in care and care leavers have stable and loving homes.

We will do this by:

Ensuring children’s voices and experiences are kept at the centre of all our work.
Practitioners will take a whole family approach.
Work collaboratively with our partner agencies to ensure multiagency working is the foundation of practice