Worried about a child?

Intensive Support - Level 3

Intensive support can be offered to children, young people and families where they have complex or multiple needs requiring local authority services to work together with universal services to assess, plan and work with the family to bring about positive change. Includes intensive family support, early help and child in need services.

Below are examples of the indicators that suggest a child or young person would be in Level 3.

Children and young people

  • I have persistent unauthorised absence from school / NEET
  • I am at risk of, or I have been permanently excluded from school
  • there is serious delay in me achieving my developmental milestone, creating significant concerns
  • I regularly go missing from home or school with no explanation
  • I am a pregnant teenager and there are serious concerns about me and my unborn baby
  • I am vulnerable to being sexually abuse of exploited
  • I am vulnerable due to my drug and/or alcohol use
  • I have significant disabilities and require professional support
  • I am a homeless child in need, including 16-17 years old
  • I am a young carer whose caring duties are affecting my outcomes
  • I have significant dental decay that has not been treated
  • I am a child subject of a Court Ordered Report under Section 7 or Section 37, being completed by the Local Authority Children's Services - read more about Cafcass
  • I am a child placed under an Education Supervision Order under Section 36 of the Children's Act - read more about PRU Inclusion and Attendance Service (PIAS) the Kent support service that manages Education Officers, Penalty Notices and Prosecutions.
  • I am home educated and there are significant concerns for my welfare

Parents and carers

  • I am unborn, where the level of concern for me requires a pre-birth risk assessment to be completed
  • I am being chronically neglected. Food, warmth and other basics are often not available. I live in very poor home conditions- View KMSAB Clutter Rating Tool
  • I am at risk due to the levels of domestic abuse in my family home
  • I am at risk due to me parents/carers inability to parent consistently, and this is impacting negatively on my development
  • I am at risk due to inappropriate childcare arrangements
  • I am at risk due to my parents/carers health of disability, or learning difficulty, or substance misuse, or their offending behaviour, having a direct negative impact on me
  • I am at risk due to my parents/carers own emotional or mental health difficulties, impacting on my health or development
  • my family needs support to meet my disability needs
  • I am privately fostered - read more about private fostering
  • my family are being evicted despite professional / agency support
  • I am at serious risk because my family may breakdown and I will be homeless, or I may have to be looked after outside my family network
  • I am at risk due to contact with a person or persons who are known to pose a risk of physical or sexual harm to children

Risk to me outside my home

This is when my experiences of harm are beyond my home, my family or carers. It's when the different relationships that I form, in the places or spaces I spend time (like my neighbourhood), my peer group, my school and online may feature violence  and/or abuse. It often means that I am experiencing a level of coercive control that I don't recognise or accept as abusive relationships. Furthermore, my parents or carers have little or no influence over me or these contexts, and my experiences of abuse outside the home are likely to undermine the parent-child relationship.

  • I am being encouraged to become involved in a gang - read more about gangs
  • I am being encouraged to carry drugs / weapons
  • I am at risk due to having contact with people who pose a risk of physical or sexual harm to children
  • I am in a peer group that regularly goes missing
  • I am at risk due to improper content, contact or conduct online - read more about Online Safety
  • I am vulnerable to criminal or sexual exploitation
  • I am vulnerable to radicalisation through technology or inappropriate relationships

View short video explaining Contextual Safeguarding

Support and next steps

To support a child, young person or family at Level 3:

  • check your concern(s) meets this support level by checking the indicators against your concern(s) - if you are unsure discuss your concerns with you agency safeguarding lead
  • get the families agreement to engage
  • if or when you have the family's agreement to engage complete the Request for Support form
  • if you haven't discussed your concerns with the family, it is necessary and good practice to do so to gain their agreement to engage with support services then complete the Request for Support form
  • if you are unsure, speak with the family about your concerns and the support required and gain their agreement, prior to completing the Request for Support form
  • check if any previous support has helped, it is helpful to know what has worked well previously (please include this in the information you provide)
  • if you need to speak with your agency safeguarding lead in the first instance
  • Kent Children and Young People's Mental Health Service (CAMHS) provide emotional wellbeing and mental health advice and support for young people and their families - read more about this service
  • Early Help do not work with families who do not agree to engage with them - read more about Early Help and Refusal to Engage

Please note it is recognised that some families are difficult to, or reluctant to engage.  If your concerns are at Level 3 and the family state they do not want support and they will not agree to engage, but your instinct is that the problem will worsen without intervention, please complete a Request for Support form (including your concerns within it).

Please ensure that you include the family's response in your Request for Support form so the Front Door Service can consider this when making a decision on what needs to happen next. It may be that when the Front Door Service completes system / background checks they find that other requests for support or information has been received, which clearly indicates the family require support to lower the risks and the impact upon the child(ren).

If you require some support in knowing how to have a 'difficult' conversation with a family, please talk to your agency safeguarding lead who should be able to help you in your approach, or point you in the direction of where you can get the right advice.

If you think the child needs specialist support read about level 4 - specialist support.