MAKING A DIFFERENCE. Our impact in Essex and the East 2016/17. Impact Report: Summary. No child should feel alone

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1 MAKING A DIFFERENCE Our impact in Essex and the East 2016/17 No child should feel alone Impact Report: Summary December 2017

2 Welcome At The Children s Society we support children experiencing multiple disadvantage. Matthew Reed Chief Executive The Children s Society Throughout our 136-year history, our practitioners have been at the frontline of supporting young people who are facing multiple disadvantage. A young person is experiencing multiple disadvantage when they are facing issues that are affecting their physical or mental well-being in more than one area of their life. We know that when young people access our services for support with one aspect of their life, they are often having difficulties in other areas too. Our experience has enabled us to identify three key areas in which young people encounter challenges: where they face risks to their safety and well-being; where the resources they need to flourish and thrive may be compromised; and with the resilience they draw on to respond to adverse experiences in life. Our project workers attempt to take into account a range of aspects in a child s life and acknowledge that young people face a cumulative set of issues and experiences. Our practitioners are skilled at supporting young people across many areas to try to ensure sustainable positive outcomes.

3 OUR IMPACT IN ESSEX AND THE EAST 2016/17 There are approximately 300,000 thousand children living in Essex and just over 6,000 of them are classed as Children in Need. At least 20% of children across the region live in poverty. Approximately 1, and 17 year olds present as homeless every year in this region. SERVICE LIST SERVICE LIST SUBSTANCE MISUSE Choices (EYPDAS) in association with Open Road CSE CARE Essex FAMILY SUPPORT Safe in Essex Young People Family Intervention Team YOUNG CARERS CHHAT Dare to Care OUR CAMPAIGNING AND POLICY WORK Through regular participation activities, we ensure that young people s voices and experiences are heard and included in service planning and delivery. For example, in September and October 2016 our local participation workers supported young people to attend our national CSE group, helping our Policy team in their mandatory reporting and SRE in schools consultations. Following that, in March 2017 our Policy team helped to make SRE compulsory in all schools, impacting 394,400 children and young people across England.

4 OUR DIRECT WORK We worked with 1,266 service users through one-to-one and group work in 2016/17 We reached a further 5,637 young people, parents and professionals through our awareness raising and drop-in work 71% of children and young people improved overall after working with our services in Essex (My Wheel) 80% of parents/carers worked with reported an increase in the Family Star She supported me to become drug free and I have now returned to university to continue with my studies. I dropped out of my final year due to my drug use.

5 Sarah and Lucy Sarah (10) and Lucy (9) are siblings who were referred into the CHHAT service in March 2016 by their school due to the impact of their older brother s drug use. At the time of the referral both girls felt angry, upset and very confused about what was happening with their brother and this was having a huge impact on their concentration and behaviour both at school and at home. Support was initially given in joint sessions at their school and on the first meeting with the young people Sarah asked how did you find us? It was clear from this point that the girls were both desperate to talk to someone about how they were feeling. The sisters have had no history of support or any other agencies involved with the family. Sarah and Lucy had joint sessions at the school over a seven month period. These sessions looked at things such as the anger and emotions that they felt, their understanding of drugs and addiction and what they can control in their lives (as both girls felt a huge amount of guilt over their brother s behaviour). Both girls expressed an interest in joining a CHHAT group so that they could meet other young people, as they often said that they felt that they were the only people that had been through this. They then attended an eight week group in place of the joint sessions. Sarah engaged with all of the sessions but Lucy felt unable to attend the last two sessions as she was struggling with school at the time. One to one support was then offered to Lucy in school again and despite not attending the final group sessions she spoke about the strength that meeting other young people had given her. She also spoke about how her sister and she had spoken on the phone to one of the young people since and how she hoped for this to continue. Lucy chose to draw a picture of her worker in her final session and said thank you for helping me to talk.

6 SPOTLIGHT: OUR LONDON AND ESSEX CSE SERVICES Based on 145 children and young people (CYP) across five services: We ran five services that supported young people who have experienced, or are at risk of, sexual exploitation and abuse. We aim to create positive change in a young person s life by offering them one-to-one support to help them with the trauma they have experienced. We work to make sure young people experiencing or at risk of CSE are safer and live in healthy environments, and enjoy better relationships and improved mental and emotional health. The most commonly identified type of CSE (36%) was older adult perpetrator followed by peer (23%). Of the children linked to the Peer model of CSE, 39% had mental health issues and 39% had learning difficulties. 66% of CYP were likely to have experienced two or more models of CSE. 96% of CYP we worked with were protected from harm. 63% of YP we worked with identified mental and emotional well-being issues. 43% of YP reported an overall improvement in their mental and emotional well-being. 54% of YP reported or demonstrated an increase in their knowledge of CSE. CONTACT DETAILS Tim Cooper Business Development Lead, South of England t: e: tim.cooper@childrenssociety.org.uk Kerry Clancy-Horner Area Manager, East of England t: e: kerry.horner@childrenssociety.org.uk For more information, visit childrenssociety.org.uk/impact

7 Right now in Britain there are children and young people who feel scared, unloved and unable to cope. The Children s Society works with these young people, step by step, for as long as it takes. We listen. We support. We act. There are no simple answers so we work with others to tackle complex problems. Only together can we make a difference to the lives of children now and in the future. Because no child should feel alone. If you would like to know more about The Children s Society and our work with children and young people, please visit childrenssociety.org.uk/impact or call our Supporter Care team on You can read an online version of this report or download a PDF at childrenssociety.org.uk/impact If you would like to make a donation to The Children s Society, please visit childrenssociety.org.uk/donate The Children s Society The copyright of all material appearing in this publication belongs to The Children s Society. It may not be reproduced, duplicated or copied by any means without our prior written consent. Charity Registration No BDD031a/1217