Child Concern Model

The Child Concern Model is an important development in inter-agency working: Herefordshire will be one of the few counties in the country that has an agreed approach, by all agencies, to having a framework for concern for vulnerable children. Partner agencies include Health, Education, Social Care, the Police, Probation and representatives of the voluntary sector.

Working Together for Children and Families

All participating agencies in Herefordshire’s Area Child Protection Committee are identifying practitioners (known as consultants) to offer guidance to staff working with children and young people who they may have a concern about. The concern may not be serious but talking to someone who has more experience about a particular concern can be very helpful. This new approach is aimed at giving support at an early stage to the people who work with children and families so that the best support possible locally can be offered to those families and children.

The way in which the Model has been developed by all the main agencies in the County shows their commitment to working together for vulnerable children.

The Herefordshire Child Concern Model is a practical tool for identifying levels of vulnerability for children and working out a way to improve individual situations.

The Model is based on three main levels of vulnerability from moderate/low (level 3) where a single agency can help through to level 1 where a full child protection assessment may be undertaken by relevant agencies under the ACPC child protection guidelines.

The Model fits into the “early prevention and protection” aspect of the Green Paper for children published in October 2003, “Every Child Matters”, a copy/summary of which can be found on the DfES website.

To view the professional materials of the Child Concern Model, please see Full Documentation page.