Create a team around the worker
About
The Children’s Society’s Checkpoint service provides advice and support to children and young people aged 8–17 around issues such as mental health, sexual exploitation and drug and alcohol misuse.
In Devon, the Checkpoint team reduces the number of staff a child has to interact with by taking a ‘team around the worker’ approach.
This means the child can avoid retelling their story to multiple people and form a temporary therapeutic relationship with one member of staff.
That staff member can get advice and support from multi-disciplinary peer supervision groups, for example, about substance misuse. This reduces the need to refer children on to others.
Key guidance
Prioritise the relationship with the young person over specialisms.
Give staff opportunities to collaborate with a variety of skill sets to solve problems.
Creating shared training for all staff establishes a baseline.
Risks
Make sure there is a comprehensive relationship-based handover plan in place if a member of staff is off sick or decides to leave.