Early Help Practitioner Forum (Mid & East)

We will be joined by Heather Neale from the REACH team: The REACH Team are Devon Social Care’s dedicated team for missing and exploitation. REACH is an acronym - Reducing Exploitation and Absence from Care or Home. The REACH team consists of locality based practitioners who are skilled in working with adolescents. They undertake return home conversations for children and young people who have been missing. The purpose of the conversation is to provide the child with space to talk about their experiences and why they ran away. In addition, REACH family practitioners work in a range of community settings to provide direct interventions with young people and families. This aims to reduce the risk of young people running away or becoming a victim of exploitation. REACH will provide an overview of their work, missing and exploitation and provide an opportunity for questions and comments.

We will also be joined by Tara Bowers who will talk about the Healthy Homes for Wellbeing project which is provided by Exeter Community Energy: The project covers Exeter, Mid Devon, East Devon and Torbay and provides free advice, home energy assessments, and free energy and money saving measures (for example LED light bulbs, draught proofing, insulation) to those who are at risk of fuel poverty, so can make a very positive impact on the wellbeing of vulnerable people. In some cases this can lead to onward referrals for new boilers or assistance with water bills or advice concerning debt management and access to benefits. There is a broad range of eligibility for a free home assessment, including people with a wide range of health conditions, those on low income and anyone in receipt of child benefit.