Team around the School – Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

About this project

In a bid to provide better, earlier support to children in Stockport, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council offers the Team Around the School (TAS) model. Originally developed in 2016, the model follows restorative practice principles and embeds partnership working between the key agencies and people in a child’s life, including parents/carers, schools, local authorities and other agencies. It acknowledges the unique day-to-day insight into children afforded to school staff and includes the school safeguarding team, social workers, school nurses and a school age plus worker. By convening this multi-agency team regularly and providing a broader picture of a family’s circumstances, the model facilitates timely information sharing to the relevant professionals to ensure any issues can be raised and dealt with at an early stage for a child before the situation escalates. It also supports better engagement with families by involving them in a child’s care plan and social care by the daily support and advice offered by the social worker. This reduces demand on MASH services by mitigating the need for social care referrals and dealing with issues locally; in one year, Stockport saw 650 less contacts to their MASH team from schools.

https://www.stockport.gov.uk/team-around-the-school

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