Criteria and Threshold Guidance - Meeting the Needs of Children and Families

Intensive Family Support Teams (previously known as Thriving Families Teams) work with families with multiple and complex needs who would benefit from intensive support, The help provided depends on each family's situation, however, some examples of support that's available include parenting skills, improving school attendance, training to help find a job, help with housing problems and managing money and debt.

Most children in Hertfordshire have a number of needs which can be met through universal services. These services include education, early years, health, housing, youth services and services provided by the voluntary community and charitable sector.

There are, however, some children who have additional and more complex needs and may need the provision of specialist services, such as Children's Safeguarding and Specialist Services to support them.

The Children Act 2004 places a responsibility on professionals across different settings to assess children in need earlier and intervene with support to help stop children's needs escalating. The Hertfordshire Continuum of Need Document provides guidance on the levels of need and service response and about how the thresholds affect the type of referrals accepted by Children's Safeguarding & Specialist Services, which is positioned at level 3/4 and statutory duties.

Should a child be thought to be at risk of immediate harm this should be responded to in line with the Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures.