Every Child Matters is the Government's change programme for children's services rooted in the Children Act 2004.  As part of this, children and young people have told the government that five outcomes are key to well being in childhood and later life.

These are:

• being healthy

• staying safe

• enjoying and achieving

• making a positive contribution

• achieving economic well-being

In order to achieve these outcomes, there will be some new ways of working:

• Multi-agency services

• Common Assessment Framework

• Information sharing

• Lead professional

• Workforce reform

• Integrated working

• Targeted youth support

You can read more about these at http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/ 

There are a number of national projects to help practitioners share information and support multi-agency working, nationally coordinated by the DCSF’s “Improving Information Sharing and Management” (IISaM) Programme.  In Hillingdon, the Improving Information Sharing Team is responsible for local implementation of:

Information Sharing: Information Sharing is the way in which we share information about children and young people between different agencies.

CAF (Common Assessment Framework): A CAF is used to assess what help a child or young person needs on top of the normal levels of support provided by their school and health authority.

e-CAF: The electronic enablement of CAF. Hillingdon does not have an e-CAF system. The DCSF will be implementing a national e-CAF which we are considering.

Lead Professional: Lead professionals are appointed for children and young people who have complex or additional needs. They work with children and young people who receive support from more than one person following a common assessment to co-ordinate the delivery of the actions agreed.

If you have any queries regarding any of the above or would like further information about these projects please contact caf@hillingdon.gov.uk

Related Projects:

ICS (Integrated Children’s System): The Integrated Children's System (ICS) is a framework for working with children in need and their families. The practice and case record keeping is supported by information technology that is designed to handle a large amount of information on individual children.

CCIS (Client Caseload Information System): The Client Caseload Information System holds a range of information on young people aged 13-19 in order to assess progress in local areas on a range of measures, including cutting the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).