Understanding what works

Doncaster Children’s Services Trust are developing a new model of support for young people who experience neglect.

Doncaster Children’s Services Trust are specifically targeting their learning to better understand:

• Adolescent neglect –so that the Children’s Social Care system understands and responds to the distinct risks adolescents face.
• Organised Crime Group Families – to co-produce a pledge and new relationship between families and care services with a shared and mutual understanding of risk and neglect.
• Re-referrals of children and young people – those families who present at the front door to Children’s Social Care and where previous interventions and support had not resulted in sustained changes.

In doing so, Doncaster Children’s Services Trust are bringing together Multi-Systemic Therapy – Child Abuse and Neglect (MST-CAN) intervention with the ‘Graded Care Profile’ (GCP) to supplement and better inform the Children’s Social Care assessment or early help assessment. This provides a consistent methodology of identifying, assessing and stratifying needs, strengths and risks associated with neglect.

Using this strengthened, evidence based approach to assessment they are trialling a consistently delivered proportionate graded response to neglect through direct therapeutic and systemic strengths informed practice, which supports behaviour change, alongside other family needs, reduces risks and improves outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Sector improvement

Doncaster Children’s Services Trust are delivering improvement support to Sandwell Children’s Trust over the next 12 months. They will build their capacity over the next year with the intention of delivering support to other local authorities over time.