Early Help Needs Analysis : Understanding Service User Need using Family Clusters

About This Report:

In order to identify and understand the key service users groups for Early Help services provided by the Children and Family Services department, Leicestershire County Council, Services in Leicestershire, cluster analysis was undertaken using data derived from Locality Panel Forms. Cluster analysis or clustering is a statistical technique used to create groupings of a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more similar (in some sense or another) to each other than to those in other groups (clusters). Clusters of families have been created based on the needs identified for each family on the Locality Panel Form. As a result of this analysis 8 distinct clusters which represent distinct groups of potential service users of Children's Social Care Services, based on the needs identified for each family on the Locality Panel Form. factors identified on the assessment. This has allowed greater understanding of the families that are referred to Early Help Services and the needs that they present with. It will help to inform any future Commissioning Strategy and the resulting service delivery.