Presenting Factors and Unmet Needs

Understanding Presenting Factors and Unmet Needs in Early Help Plans

Presenting Factors are factors that have had an impact in the past or could have an impact in the future but are not currently being included in the plan as no support is required at this time.

Examples of Presenting Factors

the family have a history of domestic violence
Parent has mental Health diagnosis, has all support in place, parent doesn’t want this reviewed as part of the current plan as it’s not currently impacting their parenting. Parent who has not consented to be part of the family plan but is involved with the children and has significant needs but is not willing to engage in a family support plan at this time
Child has an ADHD diagnosis, takes medication and is under a paediatrician for medication reviews

Unmet Needs

Unmet needs are identified at the point of assessment and throughout the family plan. They must:

be clear in terms of the identified support required
include actions/tasks/signposting
actioned to a named individual or agency
have clear realistic timescales for outcomes to be achieved that do not allow for drift.

These needs will have corresponding goal/s with actions to be reviewed and discussed throughout the family’s plan. Therefore, the plan goals must be clearly documented and correspond to an identified unmet net.

Individuals or agencies must provide regular updates on progress to the Lead Worker.

Examples of Unmet Needs

assessment or whilst working with the family it is identified that historic domestic violence is currently impacting the family. Family will be referred to paragon, ELSA support etc as part of the current family plan
assessment or whilst working with the family it is identified that the Parent has poor mental health which is currently impacting their parenting and the children’s emotional wellbeing and will be supported as part of the current family plan
assessment or whilst working with the family it is identified that a child may have neurodiversity or is presenting with neurodiversity traits at school and or at home. Family will be referred to the Neurodiversity Multi-Disciplinary Team for support and a referral to Psicon/Owl centre may be considered
assessment or whilst working with the family it is identified that a child has an EHCP plan, this is new and needs to be in bedded within school until the outcome is achieved

Please note: Presenting Factors and Unmet Needs can be updated at any point after an assessment has been accepted. To do this please update within the families Tier 2 or Tier 3 tab. This will then pull though to all family plans/closures and the Multi Agency Early Help and Prevention request.