Leith Early Intervention Team (LEIT)

“I really enjoyed my time at the Leith Early Intervention Team, especially the wide variety of cases that I was given. It was a challenging, eye-opening experience and the rest of the team and other students were very supportive. It gave me the opportunity to develop my own style as a social worker and identify learning needs to take forward to my final placement.” - Social Work Student

MCFB currently works in partnership with the Early Intervention Team in Leith. The early intervention teams are embedded within the social work children and families' teams throughout Edinburgh, and have a specialised remit to provide an early intervention service to vulnerable children and their families. The Early Intervention Team is inter-disciplinary, being comprised of staff from social work, community education and teaching backgrounds. The focus of the work is on providing a service to children who are looked after at home, at risk of being excluded from school or accommodated by the local authority, or at risk of becoming involved in anti-social behaviour. Often this will require undertaking assessment reports that have been requested by the Reporter to the Children's Hearing. Other areas of work may include supporting kinship care placements and families with no recourse to public funds. The Early Intervention Team has close links with local schools and the workers attend the regular pupil support group meetings to discuss and offer advice on the needs of vulnerable children; this will often involve consideration of the support needs of children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Currently, MCFB continues to provide this service to Drummond Community High School on behalf of the Early Intervention Team.

The partnership involves the provision of a part-time post to undertake the early intervention worker role, close working between both agencies to meet the needs of vulnerable children within the Leith area, and the facilitation of social work student placements within the Early Intervention Team. This has provided excellent learning opportunities for the students, giving them invaluable experience of working on behalf of the Children and Families Department to protect and promote the wellbeing of children and young people by undertaking a variety of tasks and a range of work. Previous students have been very positive about their time on placement at the Early Intervention Team. The partnership has also assisted the local authority to increase its level of support to both looked after children and children in need in Edinburgh.

Young Person

“It helps with everything you need support with”


Guidance Teacher

“It was a pleasure to work with [the social work student], a positive experience for the school and the family involved”