The document provides information on assessing the social presentation needs of children and young people. It outlines universal needs that all children have, such as interacting with others and having good hygiene. Additional needs are identified that may require more support services. Specialist needs require collaboration with specialist agencies and may be due to family/environmental factors or events. The common assessment process is recommended to fully understand a child's needs and coordinate appropriate services.

1. Child/Young Person's Developmental Needs
Social Presentation
The following information is intended as a guide to support individuals to make
professional judgements, using their knowledge and experience, to determine the
needs of children and young people. It is not intended to be a “needs tick list”. All
practitioners should consider consulting with line managers, well informed multi­
agency colleagues and nominated specialists within agencies to support good
assessments of need.
Each level of need builds on the previous levels. It is important therefore to consider
what access to service responses children and young people have had at each level.
Sometimes a requirement for specialist provision is assumed without considering
how better access to universal and targeted services may help to address needs.
Universal Social Presentation Needs
All children and young people need to receive appropriate care and support to
ensure that they reach their full potential in terms of developing interpersonal skills.
All children and young people need the following:
· To have skills which enable them to interact affectively with a range of peers and
adults, across a range of contexts
· confidence in social situations, but sufficiently discriminating between ‘safe’ and
‘unsafe’ contacts
· appropriate dress for different settings
· good level of hygiene
· respect and consideration for their gender, culture, race, sexuality and ability or
disability
· to be treated as an individual and to have their rights to privacy and confidentiality
respected.
Universal social presentation needs may be met through access to the
following:
· Appropriate advice and information on general and/or specific related issues
· access to appropriate targeted responses embedded within universal provision
· opportunities through family and universal settings, such as children’s centres,
schools, community settings, youth service settings, etc., to develop relationships
with a range of peers and adults and to develop social skills to enable them to
interact socially across different settings
· opportunities with family, friends, community and staff in universal services,
through positive encouragement and feedback to develop self­confidence,
resilience and an ability to adapt to change
· opportunities with family, friends, community and staff in universal services,
through positive encouragement and feedback, to identify, manage and
communicate emotions and needs appropriately
· advice and information on general and/or specific related issues, as appropriate
· universal screening to identify potential difficulties.

2. Additional social presentation needs which may create a barrier to meeting
universal needs
When considering any child/young person’s additional needs it is important to
recognise and take account of the following:
· Additional needs may be as a result of individual, family or environmental factors
· additional needs may require more universal services or different targeted
services to help bring about change
· additional needs exist along a continuum and may require a stepped approach to
increased support and intervention to ensure that such support is experienced as
empowering and not disempowering
· additional needs experienced in one aspect of life may also impact on another
aspect of life, for example death of a parent may cause additional needs to be
displayed through aspects of social presentation, health, education or personal
development
· interventions in one aspect of life may positively or negatively affect other aspects
of life, for example an intervention addressing bereavement may impact on social
presentation, health, education or personal development
· additional needs may be short term or long term in their impact
· causes of additional needs may be different for children/young people and
therefore require different interventions. For example a child/young person may
be losing weight as a consequence of a gluten allergy or anorexia
· some additional needs may be addressed by the child/young person or family
themselves without requiring targeted services
· a common assessment may be required to clarify the causes, nature, extent of
additional needs and identify activity to meet the need.
Additional social presentation needs may present in the following ways:
· Inappropriate clothing
· child/young person may not always be clean – may suffer from teasing
· child/young person can be either over friendly or withdrawn
· child/young person may be provocative in behaviour/appearance
· clothing is frequently inappropriate
· child/young person’s poor hygiene leads to alienation from peers
· may not discriminate between ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ contacts
· child’s presentation significantly impacts on all relationships with peers and adults
· services uncoordinated information sharing, fragmented service delivery is
compounding problems
· inability to ask for help and to know where to go for information advice and
support
· discomfort with aspects of their own gender/culture/ability
· managing/resolving/understanding difficulties with family relationships
· managing/resolving/understanding difficulties with peer group relationships by
developing necessary skills
· difficulties with skills and confidence in dealing with a range of different social
situations

3. · difficulties with understanding emotions and developing age and context
appropriate responses
· difficulties with considering how own emotions and behaviours impact on others
· managing/resolving/understanding difficulties relating to change
· managing/resolving/understanding difficulties with withdrawal/unwillingness to
engage with others
· managing/resolving/understanding difficulties relating to speech, language and
communication skills.
Additional needs, depending on their cause, may be addressed by access to
the following activities if universal provision has been unable to bring about
necessary change:
· Identify the effectiveness of universal provision in terms of access, delivery and
impact
· common assessment to identify need in a holistic way
· specific assessment type, for example, language skills to ensure any other
intervention is appropriately targeted
· more opportunity, including small group situations, to develop social interaction
skills and relationships with peers and adults
· more opportunity, including within small group situations, through positive
encouragement and feedback, to develop self­confidence, resilience and an
ability to adapt to change
· additional guidance, for child/young person and parents/carers as appropriate, on
developing socially appropriate behaviours and skills with peers and adults
· reducing isolation by access to peers, adults, mentors and other positive role
models
· additional positive reinforcement of socially acceptable behaviours
· reinforced links between parents/carers and universal services
· possible need for referral to specialist agency
· access to a clear pathway of support should needs escalate.
· Building self esteem and aspiration through befriending, mentoring activity
Providing development opportunities through access to some of the following:
· Self help groups, Parenting classes and Workshops
· personalised planning and delivery of one to one activities at home
· role modelling by a volunteer or worker
· production of an agreed plan that will be monitored and reviewed
Seeking solutions
· Undertaking single agency assessments for specific purposes
· undertaking the common assessment to provide a clear picture of the current
strengths and needs
Targeting services appropriately to improve access for specific groups
Women’s refuge work Women in prison
Teenage parents Disabled parents
Parents of children with disabilities Parents in difficulty e.g mental health

4. Multiple additional needs
Any child/young person may at times experience one or a number of these additional
needs. When multiple additional needs occur, the services required by the
child/young person should be delivered in a coordinated way. The common
assessment is the mechanism promoted in Leeds for ensuring service delivery is
well informed, planned, recorded and reviewed. This should ensure the minimum
disruption to the child/young person and family’s lives and that the services
themselves are complimentary to each other and allow the most positive impact
being accrued over time e.g. removing a child/young person to receive targeted
intervention in relation to language skills from a positive, small group session
focused on developing interpersonal skills.
Undertaking a common assessment will help to identify the causes of additional
needs e.g. mental health issues, drug dependency, domestic violence. This may in
turn inform the delivery of services, including, where appropriate, escalation to
specialist agencies for assessment which will build on the common assessment. For
more information on common assessment click here.
Specialist social presentation needs
Specialist needs can only be confirmed in collaboration with the relevant specialist
agency. This collaboration is often initiated when a common assessment is
undertaken and shared with the specialist agency. This may result in the agency
undertaking a specialist assessment and appropriate planning, monitoring and
reviewing processes being put in place. Alternatively it may result in a parallel but not
duplicating process where relevant focussed specialist assessment information
informs the CAF process but does not replace it. EG cognitive learning assessment
is undertaken and informs interventions around behaviour at home and school which
are the focus of a common assessment.
Individual/family/environmental factors may all contribute to the emergence of
specialist needs. Any child/young person may at specific times, due to either
unpredictable events or ongoing issues, require specialist services e.g. as a result of
an accident or event, or a significant or chronic illness or condition.
There may be occasions where the need for specialist services is experienced as a
consequence of other needs in other areas of a child/young person’s life such as
bereavement or being a carer of a disabled parent or sibling.
Specialist ‘social presentation’ needs may present in some of the following
ways:
Despite universal and targeted intervention child/young person:
· Shows appearance that continually reflects poor care – poor hygiene, dirty
clothes, ill fitting shoes, lack of appropriate hair and skin care
· alienates and/or isolates self continually
· actions and behaviours of carers/people
· is unable to discriminate and often puts self at risk

5. · cannot maintain peer relationships, for example, is socially isolated, bullied, or
bullies others despite targeted intervention
· has continuing deterioration of peer group relationships and is unable to acquire
skills necessary for example, rejection, taunting by peers, or being bullied
· has continuing difficulties with family relationships
· is unable to differentially respond to adults taking into account issues such as
relationship and context, potentially placing them at risk of harm, e.g. risk of
sexual exploitation
· is unable to display empathy
· has an inability to understand emotions and develop age and context appropriate
responses
· has continuing speech, language and communication difficulties
· shows continuing signs of anxiety, depression or other mental ill health indicators
· is at serious risk of self harm, serious assault (self/others), homicide or suicide.
Specialist social presentation needs, depending on their cause, may be
addressed by access to the following where universal and targeted provision
has failed to bring about necessary change:
· A specialist assessment, screening or diagnosis is to be undertaken to gain
further understanding of the difficulties or the elements of risk experienced
· appropriate universal and targeted support is galvanised around the child/family
· appropriate help, support, treatment, therapy, identified through the assessment
is delivered by the specialist agency
· a specialist agency designs a plan with agreed monitoring and review processes
· an agreed plan is coordinated, monitored and reviewed
· access to intensive family support services to safeguard the emotional wellbeing
of the child are agreed linked to clear delivery criteria
· a range of appropriate services are engaged, possibly including children and
young people’s social care, child and adolescent mental health services, disability
and complex needs services
· possible initiation of statutory processes, e.g. court orders for attendance, child
protection investigation or anti social behaviour contracts
· possible referral to secure accommodation
· support from specialist including therapeutic social work input
· fostering/adoption, counselling and therapeutic respite
· participation of parents in service development
· workers to co­ordinate activity and where necessary accompany parents to
appointments with specialists.
For a fuller list of available services consult the family hub.