Horizons Harm Outside The Home (HOTH) Team
The Horizons Harm Outside the Home Team operates to reduce risk for children and young people who experience harm beyond the family home, including exploitation, serious violence, peer-on-peer abuse, and other forms of extra-familial harm. The team works collaboratively across Children’s Services and with partner agencies to support effective safeguarding responses.
About the Service
The team model promotes improvement in practice by providing a consistent and contextual approach to working with children and young people affected by harm outside the home. As a case-holding team, Horizons undertakes direct work, assessment, planning, and intervention alongside partner agencies, ensuring clear oversight and accountability in safeguarding responses.
Information gathered through direct work with children, families, and professionals enables the mapping of locations, peer groups, and community-based risks. This intelligence-informed approach supports effective risk management, disruption planning, and place-based responses. Partnership information sharing strengthens analysis and ensures responses are meaningful, proportionate, and coordinated.
Practice within the team is relationship-based, ensuring children and young people are supported by a consistent worker wherever possible. This continuity enables trust to develop and allows the team to work alongside the child over time until positive change is achieved and risks are reduced to a sustainable level. Where appropriate, Horizons workers co-work with allocated Social Workers to ensure joined-up planning and decision-making.
Multi-agency working
The Horizons Harm Outside the Home Team is committed to improving safety outcomes for Sandwell’s children and young people by addressing harm within peer groups, schools, neighbourhoods, and community spaces, while strengthening partnership working and promoting long-term resilience.
Return Home Interviews
All Return Home Interviews will be completed by a consistent worker wherever possible, allowing themes, risks, and protective factors to be identified and responded to effectively at both individual and contextual levels.
Outcomes and impact
The Horizons HOTH Team aims to achieve:
- Reduced exposure to harmful contexts
- Fewer missing episodes
- Reduced exploitation and risk of serious violence
- Improved safety in communities and environments
- Stronger relationships and increased resilience
- Children remaining safely within families and communities
The service focuses on prevention, measurable impact and sustained reduction of risk.
Contact Horizons HOTH Team
Email: CE_team@sandwellchildrenstrust.org
Telephone: 0121 569 2524 / 8391