I’ve been trying to develop some means of representing how integrated children’s services works in East Lothian. The
attached file makes a start but will need considerable amendment before it reallly captures what we are about.

The basic premise is that most children will probably get through their childhood without much need of support from external agencies. The universal service (the service which every person comes into contact with) from 0-3 years of age is the Health Service and once again most children and their familes will have any additional need other than that required for every child. However, there will be some children who are born into circumstances where they, and their families need significant levels of support, e.g. chronic parental substance abuse. In such circumstances our Child Protection teams would be alerted and a range of support mechanisms put into place. Similarly there will be children who require additional support due to their health or physical/mental development.

From 3-18 the universal service is education. Once again most children will only require the basic pastoral care and advice provided by teachers and specialist guidance teachers. However, there will be some children who require significant support due to their family circumstances or their own health of development needs. Where this is complex or severe the child and their family will engage with children's services throughout their educational period. However, there will also abe a number of children who will require additional support at certain points in their lives but who can be helped through these periods to where they are less dependent on support. The key to engaging with children and their familes and to provide a coherent and well focused service is our Staged Assessment and Intervention (SA&I) system.

I look forward to developing this framework over the next few months. Comments welcome