Think Family Approach
In April 2023, Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) and the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) and jointly agreed to focus on Think Family as a strategic priority.
Learning from Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Safeguarding Adults Reviews have highlighted the importance of adult and children’s services working collaboratively and taking a joined up, whole family approach.
Families are dynamic, evolving and not linear. When we describe family, we mean:
Anyone who is identified by the service user as their family or who is part of their family network.
In Lewisham we have identified that a Think Family approach highlights:
- The importance of practitioners thinking about children and adults’ the wider context.
- The need to focus on family networks which safeguard and provide nurture and care for children and adults.
- The importance of looking beyond the household, to consider their extended family, friends, and the community.
- The importance of recognising children and adults’ connectedness to wider contexts than your immediate family, this could include faith leaders, mentors, and community support.
Familiarise
Familiarise yourself with the family, their unique culture, character, strengths and vulnerabilities. Who are the significant people in their lives (including any new partners/adults in the home)?
Ask
Be professionally curious about everything and ensure that when you encounter a family that you physically check that everyone in the household is safe and well.
Make a Plan and Review
Decide what actions you need to safeguard ‘adults at risk’ or children. Give special consideration to people who are pregnant and unpaid carers, and particularly young carers.
Information sharing
Information gathering and sharing is key to building a Think Family approach. Do not assume someone else knows an important piece of information.
Liaise
To demonstrate collaborative working, practitioners must communicate effectively to share concerns and work holistically together.
Your Responsibility
We must take responsibility for ensuring that we work effectively with our partners to help support families, and in doing so prevent abuse and harm.
Engaging Families
How we engage with families, children and young people is a critical skill to support positive engagement, participation and collaboration with families. Learning from reviews in Lewisham has highlighted a need for professionals to consider their approach to engaging families to ensure families receive intervention and support from the right service at the right time.
Engaging families can present challenges resulting in some families not receiving the necessary services to ensure the safety of their child/ren and themselves. There can be many factors contributing to why families may struggle to access support services, and professionals need to approach this with curiosity, compassion, and a trauma-informed perspective while prioritising the well-being of the children in decision-making.
This guidance aims to help staff, whatever their role, to understand the barriers to engagement and provide strategies to creatively engage children, young people, and their families.
Parental Mental Health Protocol
Read the full document here: LSCP Parental Mental Health Protocol
Safeguarding Children is of paramount importance to the Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP). This protocol is central to this priority to promote the safety and wellbeing of all children in Lewisham. It should be read and implemented by:
- staff who deliver services to children and young people whose parents or carers have mental health problems; and
- staff who deliver services to adults who are parents or carers with mental health problems.
The protocol applies equally to pregnant women and their partners where there are concerns about their mental health. The protocol also applies to adults with mental health problems who have contact with a child or children, even if not a parent or carer, for example, siblings, lodgers, family visitors, babysitters or childminders.
This document was drawn up jointly by Lewisham’s Family Help and Care (previously Children Social Care), South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB) Lewisham, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Lewisham& Greenwich NHS Trust, Education and the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB).
Research and local experience have shown that mental health difficulties in parents/carers or pregnant women can have a significant impact on parenting and increase risk, especially for babies and younger children. This does not mean that parents / carers who experience mental health difficulties are poor parents / carers. However, the impact of mental health difficulties can, on some occasions, lead to children and families needing additional support, or in a small number of cases support multi-disciplinary intervention to prevent significant harm and promote better outcomes for children.
Children are more at risk of experiencing poor outcomes when a parent / carer has significant mental health problems. Therefore, decisive, integrated and timely intervention is essential to safeguard and promote the welfare of these children.
Lewisham’s Safeguarding Children Partnership is committed to ensuring early help is provided to enable and support parents / carers, including those with mental health difficulties to care safely for their children. To achieve this, the protocol promotes good multi-agency working including appropriate information sharing and joint assessment of need through the use of the Continuum of Need Threshold Document Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) Family Help Continuum of Need 2024-2025 for those parents with mental health difficulties who are in need of additional help in caring for children and young people. This work should be underpinned by working in partnership with parents / carers and children LSCP Engaging Families Practice Guidance (May 2025) featured above.
In situations where parents are unable to care safely for their children without the involvement of statutory services, the protocol will ensure that there is effective joint working between adult and children and young people’s services so that risk to children can be assessed and appropriate service responses implemented.
Working with Fathers and Carers Toolkit
The toolkit provides practical strategies for engaging fathers and male carers in early help and social work, recognizing their significant impact on children's development and family outcomes.
Research Insights:
Engaging fathers in early help and social work has been shown to positively impact children in several areas:
- Improved Educational Attainment: Better school performance.
- Enhanced Cognitive Development: Improved thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Better Emotion Regulation: More effective emotional management.
- Positive Behavioural Effects: Overall behavioural improvements.
- Improved Social Competence: Better interactions with peers and adults.
- Higher Self-Esteem: Increased confidence and self-worth.
Tools for Supporting Dads and Male Carers:
- Element 1 - Think About Dads and Male Carers: Consider dads and male carers in inclusive and positive work with families.
- Element 2 - Promote to Dads: Actively promote services and support to fathers.
- Element 3 - Engage with Dads: Develop strategies to effectively engage fathers.
- Element 4 - Work with Dads: Collaborate with fathers in providing support and services.
- Element 5 - Motivate Dads: Encourage and motivate fathers to participate actively.
- Element 6 - Learn More About Working with Dads: Continuously improve understanding and skills for working with fathers.