Glossary
Child protection
Work carried out to help keep children safe when there are concerns they may be at risk of significant harm.
Earliest Support Pathway (ESP)
A way for families and staff to work together to spot what help a child or family needs early. It helps bring the right support together in the community.
Earliest Support Plan
A simple plan that helps families and professionals work together to identify needs early and agree support. It replaces My Plan and My Plan+.
Earliest Support Plan (ESP plan)
A written plan made with your family. It sets out what is going well, what help you need and what everyone will do. You and the staff helping you check the plan together to see what has changed.
Early Intervention and Community Teams
Local teams that help families get support early. They also help young children learn and grow, and children who need extra help with learning or have a disability.
Family group conference
A meeting where family members and trusted people come together to make a plan to help a child or family.
Family Help
A joined-up approach that helps children, young people and families get the right support at the right time.
Family Help Assessment
A way to find out what is going well for your family and where you need help. It replaces the Child and Family Assessment
Family Help assessment form and plan
Replaces children and families assessment and plan.
Family Help Lead/Family Help Social Worker
A family support worker or social worker who works with your family. They find out what help you need and bring support together. They also help children who need protection or whose care is being decided by a court.
Family Help Team Leader
A person who helps run a Family Help Team. They work with the Team Manager to guide staff and support their work with families.
Family Help Team Manager
A trained social worker who manages a Family Help Team.
Family Help Teams
Teams of social workers and other trained staff who help children and families. They give extra support, help keep children safe and work with families when a court is involved.
Family network
The people who know and care about a child, such as parents, grandparents, other relatives, friends and trusted adults.
Front Door for Children
Gloucestershire's main service for requests for support, safeguarding concerns and child protection concerns.
Intensive Intervention Team
A local team that gives families extra help alongside their Family Help Lead. This can include support with parenting, family meetings and help to keep children living safely at home. The team uses ways of helping that research has shown can work.
Lead Child Protection Practitioner
An experienced social worker in the Multi-agency Child Protection Team. They help make sure the right steps are taken to keep children safe.
Lead practitioner
The main professional who coordinates support and is the family's main point of contact. In Family Help this is often the Family Help lead or Family Help social worker.
Multi-Agency
Different organisations working together to support children and families. This can include schools, health services, police, children's services and community organisations.
Multi-agency Child Protection Team (MACPT)
A team of staff from different services who work together to keep children safe. They give advice, help decide when checks and meetings are needed, and check plans to protect children.
Practice and Quality Lead
A person who checks how well local teams work and helps them improve. They do not work directly with their own set of families.
Senior Child Protection Practitioner
An experienced social worker in the Multi-agency Child Protection Team. They work with children and families and guide Lead Child Protection Practitioners in their local area.
Stability and Reunification Team
A team that gives extra support to children in care. They help children have a settled place to live and keep links with their family.