After a cross-party visit to Haringey Council’s Younger Children Assessment team, Cllr Matt Davies (Lib Dem, Fortis Green) has praised the dedication of the staff and the vital work they are doing. The team takes on families for a period of six weeks – families who have been referred by social services teams as needing help but where children are not immediately at risk.

Staff offer support with parenting and general living and aim to find sometimes simple solutions to problems which initially seem insurmountable. Following the six week involvement, cases are either closed as successfully solved, referred on to other agencies for further support or referred back to Social Services if further social work is necessary.

“The dedication of the team was obvious from meeting them – the enthusiasm and commitment were both clear. The benefits of a preventative approach like this cannot be underestimated and are far-reaching,” said Cllr Davies.

“Working with children and parents in the home, the team is able to achieve so much and work out solutions to problem areas before they escalate into anything more serious. This excellent approach is a credit to the staff involved and the only downside is that there is a waiting list for families to be seen, due to a reduction in the number of staff.”

Due to budgetary savings, the Younger Children’s Assessment Team had two posts “frozen” recently when employees left, meaning they cannot recruit replacements and have a reduced capacity.

“With a successful team like this, it seems madness not to enable them to work at full capacity,” said Cllr Davies. “They are empowering families and working hard in the community for the good of us all – not to mention the obvious financial return to the Council in solving these problems early, before more work is needed. When you think that there are five times as many staff at the Council working in the “spin” department as there are in this team helping troubled children, it does make you question the way priorities have been set.”