This element of the core offer for extended schools requires schools and their partners to ensure that there is 
swift and easy referral to a wide range of specialist support services such as speech therapy, child and adolescent mental health services, family support services, intensive behavior support and sexual health services. Some may be delivered on school sites.
Clarification points:
Whatever the degree of maturity in the move to establish a local children's trust, and other multi-agency arrangements, schools, with the support of their Local Authorities and other children's services will need to address the following criteria when looking at the requirement for swift and easy referral to specialised support services:
- The school has sought and received guidance from the local authority and other agencies on the range of services available in their area, with identified procedures to make a referral to those services.
- All staff have been made aware of their responsibilities, under existing legislation and common law, with regards to identifying pupil needs, including those of high ability pupils, which may require access to specialist support services.
- The school has clear internal processes, whereby any pupil who is identified as potentially having additional needs is swiftly assessed by an appropriate member of the school staff. Schools should have an agreed standard for the time in which such an assessment should be made and should communicate this to pupils, their families and school staff. There should be an appropriate internal tracking system in place once a child is identified as having additional needs.
- The assessment should determine whether a referral to another agency is necessary, or whether the need can be met within the school - either by school staff or other children's services professionals based in the school.
- When a referral is made to a local service there is a named individual within the school staff who has responsibility for liaising with the pupil, his/her family and the service to be accessed. An important element of this role is to ensure that the journey between referral and actually accessing a service is as swift as possible and to inform the child/young person and his/her family of progress. This person would remain in this 'key worker' role until such time as a Lead Professional is appointed from within another agency, and would then remain the key contact within the school.
- After a pupil accesses a service there is ongoing integrated partnership working between the school and the agency or organisation delivering the service and systematic monitoring within the school setting, of the impact of any intervention. The named individual within the school should be responsible for providing the pupil and her/his family with any such information.
Useful Local Links:
- Bury safeguarding unit - this is located in the social care division of Bury children's services department. The unit leads in respect of safeguarding, being responsible for developing appropriate policies and procedures. Also located within the unit are the reviewing officers who chair child protection conferences and looked after children reviews. The reviewing officers can be a source of advice for any professional who has concerns about the welfare of a child.
- Social care teams within Bury children's services department. Information and contact details relating to a wide range of social care teams that exist within Bury children's services department.
- Bury Children & Young People's Information Service - Provides information on local childcare, activities and family support services available to children and young people (0 to 19 years and to include disabled young people up to 25 years) their families, carers and those working to support local families and also includes the Bury Service Directory (Bury Community Contacts) - information about services available to children, young people, families and local communities within Bury.
- Mental Health Services in the Bury area - This section of Bury PCT website holds a large directory of information on Mental Health Services in the Bury area.
National Links:
- Common assessment framework - this section of the every child matters website, provides information about the development of the common assessment framework (CAF), that is to be implemented in all local authorities, to ensure that children and young people with additional needs are identified early and quickly referred to an appropriate service. The website contains national guidance and downloadable copies of the CAF assessment form. The common assessment framework will be developed within Bury in the near future.
- Lead professional - this section of the every child matters website, provides information about the development of the lead professional. The lead professional is closely associated with the CAF. When a child or young person has complex needs that require a multi-agency response, the expectation is that one of the professionals involved will take on the role of the lead professional, whose responsibility it will be to co-ordinate and review the multi-agency
- Information sharing - In order to be able to refer children and young people appropriately to other agencies and services, professionals need to be clear about their responsibilities in terms of sharing personal information and the requirements of the law on information sharing. New guidance has recently been published by the government to assist professionals, which is available on this website. Local guidance together with downloadable leaflets for young people and for parents/carers that provides information about how agencies record and in what circumstances may share with others, their personal details, is available through the council website. This information will be reviewed in due course to ensure consistency with the most recent government guidance and legislation.
Resources:
Extended services home page
