The legislation and guidance is used to guide parents and carers to drive the support for children and young people with SEN.  The mechanisms used to achieve this are EHC Plans, Early Help Plans & Team around the child meetings.  

Early Healthcare Plans (EHCP):

Within the 0-25 SEND Code of Practice, an ethical foundation is defined for professionals working with children and young people who have SEN or disabilities.  The local authority must perform a needs assessment to decide if a plan for identifying and managing SEN is required.  This includes the child/young person and parents/carers.  Our workbook can be used for initial assessments.  This is detailed below in the section “Children and Families Act 2014 – SEND Code of Practice” and “The 0-25 SEND Code of Practice”.  The holistic approach of EHCPs detail the support required which encourages better partnership-working between all parties.  Our workbook will provide evidence to support EHC Plans.  It can be included in additional requirements to help achieve the outcomes agreed. 

Early Help Assessment (EHA) Plans:

Roxy’s interactive workbook can be promoted as an early intervention for the well-being of the children.  Future plans to support the child or young person can use information in EHA assessments and/or plans.  The results of this workbook can be used as a record of emotional needs, strengths, goals and views, a history which can provide valuable input to support the child.

The Team Around the Child (TAC) and Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings:

The workbook gives insight to all agencies connected at these meetings who are involved with the child and family.  They can use this information to discuss and share the mental and emotional needs of the child and family.  This can help to identify and establish the agreed actions and support.  The family and agencies can share information and synchronise efforts to produce an early help plan and promote early intervention.  The goal is to provide the right support for the child with the family and all agencies input.  There is not a legal requirement to meet but this “tool” allow everyone to focus on this single goal of supporting the child and is an opportunity for everyone to disclose their cards so they can play a collective hand.

Details of the special educational provision for children in the “SEND Code of Practice” state how institutions should fulfil this duty. It defines the role of the SENCo and requirements around SEN reports, policy and arrangements ensuring children and young people are not at a substantial disadvantage.  This workbook activity supports the SENCo of a setting and through its activity, provides an opportunity for the SENCo working with children and the child to discover their level of empathy, discover and disclose their feelings and emotions in an unobtrusive way to help develop support strategies.  6The action plans provide space to further support an evidence the interaction for reflection and show commitment to the mental and emotional development of the child.

It will be a useful tool to start a process of discovery, helps to establish a relationship and ensure the support outlined is implemented.  This workbook can also be promoted by the SENCo, used as support in a family setting where the child has primary care.

We are looking towards enhancing parent and child relationships.  Roxy’s interactive workbook can also be used by professionals working with children to support their work, provide more evidence or opportunity, and support an already overstretched team.  This can be achieved by helping parents/carers to engage with the children and provide the workbook as evidence of achievement.

12In response to the governments “Every Child Matters - Green Paper” our workbook addresses and supports progress in the main areas of  “supporting parents and carers”, “early intervention and effective protection” and “accountability and integration – locally, regionally and nationally”.

This workbook is intended to provide long-term support for parents/carers and families.  It engages parents to support their child’s mental and emotional development.  This work is intended for all children at pre-transition age, not solely for children with challenging behaviour or other issues.  This is a general education requirement, included in the national curriculum in schools, which can be serviced partly within the family unit, taking the stress off school resources while still maintaining their responsibilities, and evidencing the interaction.

To promote loving and secure family units, the workbook can strengthen bonds and support the retention challenges in foster care.  Roxy’s interactive workbook supports skills to care for vulnerable children, the results of deeper human interaction is enhanced relationships.  This contributes to and promotes the benefits of foster caring, encouraging people to become foster carers.

This is an early intervention to ensure children receive services at the first onset of problems which can prevent any children from slipping through the net.  This workbook can be shared between agencies as evidence into the emotional depth of the relationship between the adult and child.  Analysis of the actions documented in the workbook by the parent/child can present a unique insight, supporting decisions relating to safeguarding children and promoting their wellbeing.

There are many factors that shape children’s life chances and their wellbeing (Mental & Physical) can have a hugely detrimental effect.  Mental health, being less visible, requires interventions to help the child disclose the workings of their minds, making it visible.  This workbook leads the readers through a process of interaction which can allow the child to flex their mental muscles to have greater resilience, boosting confidence, achievement and potential as well as reducing the number of children, and young people, who could suffer in silence.  These tools help children to develop the ability to look after themselves, they can grow up with confidence to achieve their goals and reach their full potential.  A benefit society can realise in the long-term.  

The green paper states “Society as a whole benefit through reduced spending……For instance, a child with a conduct disorder at age 10 will cost the public purse around £70,000 by age 28 – up to ten times more than a child with no behavioural problems.  The overall cost of providing foster and residential care placements for 60,000 children is £2.2 billion per year.”

We encourage the use of this workbook as an effective tool to avoid poor parenting, a significant risk factor associated with poor outcomes for the child, they are more likely to experience further negative outcomes.  The green paper states, “Research suggests that parenting appears to be the most important factor associated with educational attainment at age 10, which in turn is strongly associated with achievement later in life. Parental involvement in education seems to be a more important influence than poverty, school environment and the influence of peers.”

Roxy’s interactive workbook protects and promotes strong relationships with parents.  It looks to engage parental interest and involvement giving them the opportunity, through the interaction, to be promoted as a positive role model.  These are factors that can help them feel valued in improve the relationship.  This is a critical relationship Roxy’s workbook supports which was written into the foundation when originally scoping the needs of this work.

The workbook was designed for transition year children as they move from primary to secondary school before the onset of puberty.  This workbook is a short-term intervention providing evidence to help support workers in agencies during the assessment.  It is a creative approach, helping to develop better knowledge of users’ needs and overlaps organisational boundaries between services.  In the climate of overstretched services, this workbook can act as a buffer in the time taken to obtain support for children with parents/carers allowing them to work through exercises while gathering information to present to a case handler.

It is an activity which can be used as part of a family learning programme, bringing family members together to work and learn on a planned activity.  This allows the parents to engage in their children’s development and offer opportunities to increase involvement in interactive learning.  20The statistics published regarding adult mental health show the highest suicide rates with men between the ages of 45-49.  Roxy’s workbook is an excellent opportunity for fathers to talk and read with children, raising awareness, reducing stigma and by sharing experiences, providing resilience, helping to develop positive relationships, even if they are living apart from their children.  This can help fathers be more involved in their children’s lives, sharing time and knowledge at an emotional level.

12As stated in Every Child Matters, “30 per cent of prisoners’ children suffer significant mental health problems, compared with 10 per cent of the general child population”. Where fathers are absent, Roxy’s workbook can help to open a human connection by facilitating discussion and disclosure of feelings and emotions.  Roxy’s interactive workbook can be used as a tool in the child’s learning plan to support their mental and emotional health.  Professionals can use this to identify strengths and opportunities as well as needs and risks.  It is a subtle non-intrusive activity to engage children and families to build trust.

Our workbook supports various aspects of children’s services.  Educational attainment is closely linked to children’s mental health, special educational needs, children’s social services providing assessments and family support, foster and residential care, adoption services, childcare, advocacy services and child protection and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

A primary intention of Roxy’s interactive workbook is to strengthen the bond between the child and parent, carer reading with them.  We understand this relationship impacts the child’s educational development, behaviour, and mental health.   In addition to the many various legislations, guides and advice this workbook is suited for, we support primary care national standards developed through the 19National Service Framework for Children (NSF), for the delivery of services to meet the needs of children and young people with mental health problems.  Specifically, “Promoting Health and Well-being, Identifying Needs and Intervening Early“, “Supporting Parenting”, “Child, Young Person and Family-centred Services” and “The Mental Health and Psychological Well-being of Children and Young People”.

This workbook’s approach, it’s goals and the guided process it facilitates, help to promote the NCF’s vision:

“We want to see: 

> An improvement in the mental health of all children and young people. 

> That multi-agency services, working in partnership, promote the mental health of all children and young people, provide early intervention and also meet the needs of children and young people with established or complex problems.”

Our interactive workbook supports needs in the borough, addressing specific elements of the 15“0-19 Children's Needs Assessment” on “social and emotional wellbeing” and “mental health”.  The information here also refers to the “key themes and recommendations” using statistics presented under “estimated prevalence”.

The importance of supporting parents, children, young people, and communities is stated in Harrow Council’s 15JSNA, under the “Start well” aspect.  Objectives like “emotional wellbeing” and the “capacity to form and maintain positive relationships with others”, defined in “Start Well: Giving every child the best start in life” are outcomes our workbook can support.  We support the human interaction and relationships between adults/carers/professionals and children, facilitating discussion about feelings and emotions to build stable, loving relationships based on trust and confidence, to support the child.

Roxy’s interactive workbook can offer schools a means to encourage children's social and emotional wellbeing.   Whether it is used in a home setting with parents, SEN resource or school counsellors’ tool, normalising a space where children can disclose their emotions and feelings.  Being able to talk is the one single most accessible way to relieve symptoms of mental ill-health.  We are not targeting specifically children in need but for all children using this workbook to benefit by realising greater awareness of mental health, reduce stigma and increased resilience.  Also, the book provides an effective way to measure activity and changes/improvement.

Used as a tool for school nurses, the workbook gives as an opportunity to subtly counter challenging behaviour.  Combining the exercises and experiences of the characters to empathise, helps to support the child’s emotional wellbeing.  The talking exercises, at the end of every chapter, provide the means to explore empathy and guided questions provide openings in the interaction, for the adult and/or child to disclose their experiences and coping strategies.  Further support for emotional literacy is provided with an emotional glossary, useful for children with SEN or language difficulties.  They can look up the meanings of the emotional and feeling words utilised throughout the chapters. 

21This workbook supports the NICE guidance and children’s needs assessment under “11.10.1 SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING”.  i.e.

• The empathic understanding gained by the child can support positive behaviours for learning and successful relationships.  

• Providing an emotionally secure and safe environment that prevents any form of bullying or violence.

• Supporting all pupils and, where appropriate, their parents or carers (including adults with responsibility for looked after children).

• Providing specific help for those children most at risk (or already showing signs) of social, emotional, and behavioural problems.

• Offering teachers and practitioners in schools training and support on how to develop children's social, emotional, and psychological wellbeing.

To support of the 15“12.1KEY THEMES AND RECOMMENDATIONS”, the action plan space, after the questions at the end of each chapter, allow adults or children to create and document follow-up tasks if any information is disclosed in the exercises.  This work is an early intervention which can be used as evidence and shared between professionals.  

“Key themes from the consultations”

The workbook provides a documented snapshot of a child’s emotional wellbeing and visibility of interaction.  16This is an opportunity to contribute to the safeguarding of children in need, a growing trend in Harrow.  The workbook can be used at an assessment allowing the parent/carer to evidence the case and can act as a buffer when there is a low capacity from the local authority.  There is a direct relationship between mental and physical health, both are equally important.  The workbook has a nine-question survey to identify a baseline regarding mental health awareness, stigma and resilience.  We have the same survey at the end, in the book, so we can score the surveys, understanding where our baseline is and measure improvement or change.  This is PSHE education taught away from school using the experience of the adult/parent/carer to support the child.

“Key health concerns” 

Roxy’s interactive workbook addresses the key health concern, 21“Mental health especially bullying shifted to digital, support to special educational needs and disabilities”.  Whilst not specifically targeting disabilities, disability is a strong risk factor for mental health difficulties.

CAMHS are invaluable and have established support from existing services.  CAMHS will continue to be overstretched because mental health is part of everyone’s lives and education is an uphill battle.  This is due to the stigma still having a strong influence on society.  What we put into our minds will influence and determine our life path.  This is especially important for children who need protecting from dangers not previously experienced by today’s adults.  There are existing services provided to manage the increase in mental health referrals, “putting out the fire” created by social media and other influences.  This workbook is designed for children 7-11yrs but can be used as low as 5yrs old, depending on the age and stage of development.  It is targeting pre-transition children before they are influenced by the grip of peers and social media.

In my experience and understanding of mental health, education regarding mental health must be at an early stage where children are still “pliable”, so we can engage and share tools to support them later in life.  We can provide strategies but most importantly, we create a space where they can talk about their feelings and emotions.  This is a safe psychological space the child can return to when they need to talk, instead of acting out with bad coping strategies like self-harm.  This education is not only for children in need but for all children.  We do not need to wait for illness, this is early prevention that supports and complements the local authority’s existing strategy.  

Key health promotion messages:

Emotional wellbeing is a key promotion message.  Diagnosing mental or emotional health is unfortunately as simple as taking a temperature reading, it is time-consuming.  With growing concern regarding the capacity of health visitors and school nurses, the undeniable increasing trend of mental and emotional wellbeing in children will be harder to maintain.  This workbook is a tool which allows us to establish markers relating to mental health awareness, stigma and resilience for children for education at home.  It is not a quick fix but an evidenced snapshot, worked on at home (for most children) to identify their need for support.  It will not fit all scenarios but the majority to promote emotional wellbeing for children and parenting skills protecting families.

21In response to “7.7 MENTAL HEALTH” the report states, “Good mental health starts in infancy and research shows that a baby who doesn't get to feel a healthy bond with a parent is at much higher risk of developing mental health problems than a child with a strong connection to the person who cares for them”.

Rises in child and adolescent mental health disorders are common. 24The NHS Digital Report, “Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2017” indicates, “9.5% of 5-10 year olds had at least one mental health disorder.”

Apart from instances of depression and anxiety, the most significant problems faced by children and society, there is a concerning growing trend of self-harm.  Regarding self-harm, the Harrow 150-19 Children's Needs Assessment states, “This is a very common problem among young people. Some people find it helps them manage intense emotional pain if they harm themselves, through cutting or burning, for example. They may not wish to take their own life.”  The long-term damage that can be caused by unpredictable results of self-harm can be life changing.  This is effectively a bad coping strategy which is becoming a norm due to poor communication about the child’s feelings of inferiority.

To quote the report: “Self-harming in young people is not uncommon (10–13% of 15–16-year-olds have self-harmed) but only a fraction of cases are seen in hospital settings.”

For us, this is the greatest danger, for children to suffer secretly and in silence.  It’s a common poor coping strategy.  This workbook is designed to avoid secrecy and silence when it comes to emotions and feelings.  Mental health awareness, reduced stigma and resilience are the keys and why we produced the workbook.  It is the single most effective means to alleviate the longer-term symptoms of poor mental health in society.

Education is provided through disclosures of the child and adult we can prevent or support conditions which could otherwise have a detrimental effect on children as they get older.  

The growing trend of ill mental health in children is documented in the report.  “One in ten children aged between 5 and 16 years has a clinically diagnosable mental health problem. About half of these (5.8%) have a conduct disorder, 3.7% an emotional disorder (anxiety, depression) and 1–2% severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)15. “

The impact is unmistakable and shows future problems with health, education, social outcomes, suicide, and crime.  The workbook is aimed at children to prevent them from falling foul of challenging issues later in life.

The estimated prevalence of mental health disorders in children and young people in harrow, carried out in 2004 into mental health prevalence show 3,171 children and young people aged 5-16 who have any mental health problem.

Using Roxy’s Interactive Workbook, we can support the responsibility of local authorities as ‘corporate parents’ to ensure looked after children grow up in the best way possible.  Our workbook allows the carer and children to share, in a personal space, their needs so we can take their wishes and feelings fully into account. Using the exercises, we can promote empathy to take account of the needs of other family members and support the family unit.  The psychological space created enriches the child’s relationship with their foster carer and supports the role of the foster carer.

The workbook helps to establish the views, wishes and feelings of the child.  The exercises provide a platform to listen and action plans are an opportunity to act upon to improve aspects of their care.  This is particularly important when identifying the needs of children and young people with disabilities, special educational needs, or complex needs.  Roxy’s workbook opens a door, creating a safe space for children to disclose (and adults to establish) their feelings. 

7More information regarding how we help to satisfy components of The Children’s Act 1989 (Fostering Services) can be found below.

Roxy’s interactive workbook can facilitate the formation of relationships with their new adoptive parents, allowing them to form new attachments.  This can be a personal activity to support the human connection, helping adoptive parents and adopted children.

This workbook can be used by the local authority to maintain visibility at an early stage to avoid or highlight issues which might not become apparent until some time after the adoption had taken place.  Used to compliment the post-adoption service to avoid the risk of family breakdown and the possible return into care for an already damaged child.

This is a low-cost intervention which can be funded by “The Adoption Support Fund” and can give an early indication of satisfactory placements to avoid the significant cost of failed adoptions.  9Giving the family another tool to support the local authority’s process and evidence a successful placement.  This is a targeted support service which has the potential to ensure placement stability, preventing adoption breakdown and associated costs.

10This is a unique workbook to use as a post-adoption support tool, giving the family an even better chance of being successful.  We encourage investing in time to form emotional connections.  They are guided by the exercises to share perspectives about feelings and emotions about the characters and the story and complete action plans to establish support for the mental and emotional wellbeing of the child.