Team Around Locality Cluster

We recognise that when schools look for advice and support regarding vulnerable children and young people, it is often confusing as to where support can be accessed from.  This is often because emerging behaviours can be complex and can be a combination of unmet school and home needs.

We want to make finding the right support for a child much easier for a school, which is why we have developed new guidance which identifies the agencies that may be able to provide support.  This can be found on the Multi-Agency Ready Reckoner, which can be accessed HERE.

When making decisions about the support needed for a child, you must take in to account the views of parents/carers, children and young people, relevant professionals and support services.  This allows practitioners to make informed and proportionate responses to a child/young person's needs.

It’s important to engage with an Early Help Coordinator  (Early Help Team) or Outcome Coordinator (Education Inclusion Team) before you make a TALC referral. They should be your first point of contact if you haven’t engaged with any other support previously and will help schools explore various early intervention methods.

If following that conversation the school feels that a TALC referral may be the most appropriate next step they should use the TALC Flowchart to confirm that decision. If the flowchart instructs you to, or a child is at imminent risk of exclusion, you should complete a TALC Referral.

Step 1: Review the Ready Reckoner

Step 2: Contact your Early Help/ Outcome Coordinator & follow the TALC Flowchart

Step 3: Submit a TALC referral form, the Metric Guidance Document will help you accurately assess the level of presenting need for the CYP.

* TALC operates under Public Task, referrals can be made without the consent of the child/young person and/ or a parent.  Further information on the applicability of this lawful basis can be found in the Conditions for Public Task leaflet (Appendix 1). Referring organisations must have informed the individuals they wish to discuss them at the TALC meeting. This means they must be informed as to how their information will be used, who it will be shared with and what actions may result. To achieve this, individuals must be provided with the GCC notification of referral & your information leaflet (Appendix 2) and the TALC process overview (Appendix 3).

The TALC forum utilises metrics, alongside other indicators, to provide a baseline for the presenting needs of CYP referred into the forum. These metrics are collected again at the closure point of the TALC involvement to assess distance travelled and progress made in supporting the CYP.

The following metrics are collected at referral and closure point and feature a four-point scale.

• Risk of Non/ Reduced Attendance
• Risk of Permanent Exclusion (PEx)
• Risk of Suspension
• Risk of progressing to an Education Health Care Plan (EHC Plan)
• Parental decision to remove CYP from School roll
• Overall level of concern

In order to ensure consistency in needs assessment a ‘Metric Descriptors Document’ has been created to help professionals determine which point on the scale the CYP’s needs best correlate with.

We encourage professionals to consult this document and to utilise it when assessing the presenting needs of the CYP they are referring or reviewing. This consistency will help bring greater validity to the data collected and to ensure that there is a consistent understanding of what it means when a CYP’s presenting needs are rated at a certain level.

Once your referral is received it will be triaged by the TALC team. The triage process will involve initial research taking place and will result in you being contacted for additional information. The process will also require that we look at what early intervention has taken place prior to your referral and so may result in us making contact with other agencies or the family themselves.

Following the triage process, we will either progress the child/ young person for a conversation at the multi-agency operational group or we will liaise with you in school and signpost you to a more appropriate intervention if that is what’s best for the individual who has been referred – Either way we will communicate with you along the way.

When a young person is to be discussed at multi-agency operational group meeting, there will be a requirement for the schools TALC Operational Lead to attend the virtual meeting and present succinctly the current needs of the child/ young person - Information Governance allows the TALC team to share the full referral with agencies who (through triage) are believed to have a ‘likely agency involvement’, and with all other partners Names, Address and Dates of Birth are shared ahead of the meeting. A link to the schools operational lead prompt sheet that will support with considering what needs to be shared can be found HERE.

By submitting a TALC referral a school is agreeing to the TALC Terms of Reference, which includes adhering to Information Sharing requirements outlined in Conditions for Public Task leaflet (Appendix 1), GCC notification of referral & your information leaflet (Appendix 2) and the TALC process overview (Appendix 3).

Hear the latest updates, including the impact that TALC has been having for children and young people across Gloucestershire: 

" frameborder="0">

Hear all about the latest developments with the Team Around the Locality Cluster (TALC), and the strategic context in which it is rooted, in this webinar hosted by Phil Haslett (Head of Education Strategy and Development), James Saunders (Inclusion Strategy and Relationship Manager and TALC Lead) and Ben Jordan (Head Teacher, Lakeside Primary): 

" frameborder="0">

Paul Smith, a senior leader at a Gloucestershire School, has praised the Team Around Locality Cluster (TALC) intervention and encouraged other schools in the County to use the support: 

" frameborder="0">

This short video will support schools to understand which young people are appropriate for a TALC referral:

"frameborder="0">

This case study highlights the benefits of TALC involvement when an appropriate referral is made:

" frameborder="0">

This video provides an overview of the TALC – Where it is rooted, which agencies are involved, how schools access the pilot and the potential benefits for a young person: 

" frameborder="0">

This short video with Ben Jordan (Head Teacher at Lakeside School in Cheltenham) highlights a school’s perception on the benefits of engaging with TALC: 

" frameborder="0">

This short video provides an update for school and community colleagues on the changes to the TALC as we transition into the new dual locality model post Easter 2021: 

" frameborder="0">

27th September 2021 - Newsletter

8th September 2021 - Newsletter

9th July 2021 - Newsletter

22nd June 2021 - Newsletter

May 2021 - The operating model of TALC will transfer into a dual locality model at the beginning of term 5. This will align with many county council and county wide partners’ working practices and means the TALC operational group will have the benefit of a local agency response to local needs (the Universal model couldn’t offer this).The localities will be Cheltenham & Tewkesbury, Cotswold & Stroud, and Gloucester & The Forest of Dean. 

Please see the new timetable on the left of this page under ‘Downloads’.

You will also find useful short videos to inform your decision about a TALC referral in the external links section on the left of this page. 

31st March 2021 - Newsletter

10th March 2021 - Newsletter

8th March 2021 - Return to School - we recognise this has been a particularly challenging time for schools and families, and we want to reiterate that TALC is here to support schools with the transition of pupils returning.  If you have any children in mind that would benefit from being referred to us we would encourage you to reach out to your Outcome Co-ordinator or Early Help Co-ordinator for a discussion or make direct contact with the TALC team at the earliest opportunity.

November 2020 - As of Monday 30.11.20 TALC referrals will no longer be accepted for Children/ Young People who are in receipt of an EHCP or for whom a school has submitted an EHCP Assessment request. This change to eligibility has been reflected in the TALC/TALC+ Flow Chart and has been amended as part of the TALC’s ‘Test and Learn’ approach.

September 2022, New ‘Metric Descriptors Document’ released to support with consistency of needs assessment. We strongly encourage professionals to utilise this document when completing referral forms. It can be found in the Downloads section on this webpage and hyperlinked into the ‘TALC Referral Form’. Please see ‘Metric Descriptors section’ below for further information

Team Around the Locality Cluster (TALC) Summer 2022 Update:

We would like to thank you for your continued engagement and interaction with the Team Around the Locality Cluster (TALC) multi-agency forum. We are incredibly thankful to have a wide range of agencies who continue to prioritise engagement with TALC multi-agency forums to ensure that educational barriers for the children and young people discussed can be addressed in an effective multi-agency manner.

We are pleased to report that for the 2021-2022 academic year the TALC multi-agency forums across Gloucestershire have been able to support schools to address educational barriers for 76 children and young people. The number of referrals we have received is marginally up on the previous academic year (74) which shows there is still a significant number of children and young people who require the support of the multi-agency group.

The 76 referrals progressing to operational group meeting have been received from schools across Gloucestershire with referrals representing each of the six locality areas (Gloucester, Forest, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Stroud and Cotswolds). We have seen referrals from 51 different school settings with a good variety of primary and secondary age children and young people being supported. Agencies taking the lead following these meetings range from education focused support services such as Advisory Teaching Service and Educational Psychology to health and home focused services such as School Nursing Service and Social Care.

In addition to the 76 children and young people progressing to operational group meetings we have been able to support a further 32 children and young people following referrals by linking their school through signposting to appropriate agencies.

If you feel there is a child or young person who would benefit from a wider multi-agency discussion to help unpick and remove educational barriers at your educational setting, please consult the ‘TALC Flowchart’ and ‘Ready Reckoner’ to explore if it would be an appropriate referral. If you would like to discuss a referral prior to completing the ‘TALC Referral Form’ please don’t hesitate to phone one of our Multi-Agency Forum Coordinators on 01452 427434 to discuss your referral further. Additional information about the TALC can be found in the ‘Downloads’ section of this webpage.

News Update- Public Task

The Team Around the Locality Cluster (TALC) forum has reviewed and changed the mechanism under which it processes data for the Children/ Young People (CYP) and families who are referred. The TALC will be operating under ‘Public Task’ from 27^th February 2023.

The TALC referral process, triage and operational group meeting will operate under ‘Public Task’, which means CYP can be referred and discussed without the explicit consent of a Parent/ CYP under the Public Task lawful basis for processing information. This is a change from the previous model which relied upon explicit consent was required to be gained prior to referring a CYP for TALC support.

Further information on the Public Task rationale and its lawful basis can be found in the video embedded below and in the supporting documents within the downloads section. Families will still have the opportunity to object to their data being processed under the data protection laws, any objections will be signposted to the Information Management Service at Gloucestershire County Council who will review the objections. For more information on how data subjects can use their rights, please visit: Your information rights - Gloucestershire County Council

Families will still be able to choose whether they consent to intervention from any support agencies identified as part of the TALC triage process or at the TALC Operational Group meeting, in line with the individual agencies policies and procedures.