Useful Links

Partnership Working - Children's Services Integrated Practice

Early Intervention Services

Step2

Step2 is an 0-19 Early Intervention service consisting of a small team of professionals with a wide range of experiences and skills in child mental health emotional wellbeing. The Step2 Team will work with you to improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing outcomes for young people in Hertfordshire.

If you are concern about a young person's mental health contact the Step2 advice line for an initial discussion with a mental health professional. You may be either;

• signposted to an appropriate service
• offered further face to face consultation or training
• advised to refer to a more specialist service
• offered a direct intervention

When you call, have the following details available: Your name and contact details, the area of the county in which you work, brief outline of the issue, a description of what has already been tried and who has been involved, a description of what you would like from Step2, and if a CAF has been completed.

Step2 Training: Full day, half-day and bite-size training programmes available.

Contact Details:

Please note This service is for professionals only
3 North Road, Stevenage, Herts. SG1 4AT
Tel: 01438 730570
Email: Step2@hchs.nhs.uk

Step2  - Early Intervention Service for Improving Children’s Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing

• Adobe pdf, 76kb/4 pages, 18/05/2010, early_intervention_children_mentalhealth.pdf

Step 2 Leaflet

• Adobe pdf, 1.88mb/2 pages, 13/09/2011, step2_leaflet.pdf

Protective Behaviours - Action for Children

Protective Behaviours is an empowering and practical approach that helps people develop skills to recognize and trust their feelings, make choices that are safe for themselves and increase resilience by developing their networks of support. Action for Children (AfC) will be working in partnership with HCHS and will deliver protective Behaviours (PBs) course and practitioner workshops to key staff, particularly for the under 5's. AfC will also deliver parent groups and workshops based on PBs through the network of Children's Centres across Hertfordshire.

Contact details:

Fiona Benjamin
Project Coordinator
Action for Children
Protective Behaviours Project
3 North Road
Stevenage
Herts SG1 4AT
Tel: 01438 728653/Mobile 0774 8332606

Early Support

Early Support was developed by parents, carers and practitioners. It's a national programme that is being introduced and used in LAs, hospitals and community-based health services across England to ensure families and carers with disabled children are kept at the heart of discussion and deciison-making about their child. The Early Support programme is managed by the DCSF (now Department for Education), and was developed in response to the Government guidance 'Together from the Start'.

Early Support is now part of the wider Aiming High for Disabled Children Programme which is transforming services for disabled children across England.

• Early Years Foundation Stage - Early Support

Aiming High

In 2007 the government carried out a review of services for disabled children and young people and produced a report called ‘Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better support for families’. Information on how Hertfordshire meets the requirements of Aiming High is available on Herts Direct:

• http://www.hertsdirect.org/services/healthsoc/childfam/
  specialneeds/projects/aiminghighfordisbabledchildren/

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