FacebookLinkedInXInstagram

Client Pathway Standards

Client Pathway Standards

The standards that apply across every section of the client pathway.

StandardsJuly 2026

Client Pathway Standards

Standards applying across every client pathway section

About this section

  1. These standards apply across all client pathway sections.
  2. They apply to referral, onboarding, waiting-list management, allocation, first contact, foundation support, ongoing support, review, closure, bounce-back and long-term follow-up unless a section states a more specific requirement.
  3. Each client pathway section may include additional requirements specific to that stage.

CS.1 Clear, kind, relational and boundaried practice

  1. Every person moving through the Restitute pathway must be treated in a way that is clear, kind, consistent, safe, recorded and boundaried.
  2. Communication should help the client understand where they are in the pathway, what will happen next, what Restitute can do, and what Restitute cannot promise.
  3. Practice should be warm and relational without becoming uncontained, informal or dependent on one worker’s personal style.

CS.2 Emotional and practical support

  1. Restitute support must hold emotional support and practical action together.
  2. Listening is essential, but support must not become only emotional processing with no plan.
  3. Practical action is essential, but support must not become task completion with no warmth, empathy or relationship.
  4. Workers should keep asking what can safely and usefully be done, while protecting client choice and agency.

CS.3 Working within the Restitute Model

  1. Work delivered under Client Pathway Standards and Practice must stay within the Restitute Model.
  2. Workers must not allow support to drift into a general victim service, crisis service, counselling service, statutory safeguarding role or open-ended informal support.
  3. Where a client’s need sits outside the model, the worker must use the relevant eligibility, warm handover, signposting, safeguarding, supervision or closure route.

CS.4 Functional responsibilities

  1. Client Pathway Standards and Practice uses functional responsibilities rather than fixed job titles.
  2. Delivery Sites must make sure that each required function has a named person or team responsible for carrying it out.
  3. A smaller team may combine functions. Required functions must still be covered.

CS.5 Lamplight as the controlled record

  1. Lamplight is the case management system used for the Restitute Model and is the controlled client record.
  2. Key pathway information must not be held only in emails, WhatsApp messages, texts, paper notes, spreadsheets, informal trackers, client planning tools or worker memory.
  3. If a client asks to see, receive or copy information held about them in Lamplight, the worker must treat this as a possible information-rights request and route it through the agreed data-protection process.
  4. Workers must not download, print, screenshot, copy, redact or send Lamplight records informally in response to a client request.
  5. Records must be clear, factual, dated and proportionate.
  6. Records must show what happened, what was agreed, what action is required next and who is responsible.
  7. Local trackers or spreadsheets may support operational oversight, but they must not replace Lamplight.

CS.6 Safeguarding and local procedures

  1. The Restitute Model does not replace local safeguarding procedures.
  2. If there is immediate risk of harm, the worker must call 999.
  3. If there is a safeguarding concern but no immediate risk, the worker must not act alone.
  4. The worker must consult the supervisor, line manager, safeguarding lead or agreed safeguarding function.
  5. Organisations and practitioners delivering the model must follow the safeguarding thresholds, referral routes, consultation arrangements and statutory partnership procedures in their own delivery area.
  6. Safeguarding decisions, advice and actions must be recorded in line with safeguarding and Lamplight requirements.

CS.7 Risk assessment as a live record

  1. Risk assessment is not completed once and then left.
  2. Workers must update the Lamplight risk assessment where risk changes at any stage of the client pathway.
  3. Risk may change because of new information, family conflict, safeguarding concerns, criminal justice developments, court dates, housing issues, financial pressure, mental health, substance use, self-harm, attempts to complete suicide, threats, professional decisions, perpetrator activity or changes in the survivor’s circumstances.
  4. Where risk changes, the worker must record the change, update the Lamplight risk assessment, follow the relevant safeguarding or escalation route, and discuss the case in supervision where required.
  5. Closure, reduced support or step-down must not be progressed where safeguarding, risk or vulnerability makes this unsafe.
  1. Consent must be sought before contacting another professional or organisation on the client’s behalf unless seeking consent would increase risk, prevent urgent safeguarding action, or one of the information-sharing grounds below applies.
  2. Consent and any contact made must be recorded.
  3. Information may be shared without consent where safeguarding, serious harm, crime prevention, coercion, court order, statutory duty or overriding public interest requires it.
  4. The reason for sharing without consent must be recorded.

CS.9 Planned contact, crisis contact and boundaries

  1. Planned appointments are where most Restitute support work takes place.
  2. The Restitute Model is built around the acceptance that crises do occur.
  3. Clients must know the agreed contact route, working-hours boundaries and what to do if something urgent or unsafe happens between appointments.
  4. Crisis contact should be responded to safely, but contact outside appointments must not become a replacement for planned support.
  5. As the worker and the client build a relationship, it is likely that these arrangements will change.
  6. High levels of contact outside appointments should not be treated as nuisance behaviour.
  7. Frequent contact, repeated crisis contact or difficulty holding appointment boundaries should be handled warmly, consistently and with clear boundaries, using supervision where needed.
  8. As the worker and client build a relationship, contact arrangements may need to change. Any change to the contact pattern, working-hours boundary, crisis-contact response or communication plan must remain within the Restitute Model, be agreed with the client where possible, recorded in Lamplight and discussed in supervision where the change reflects risk, crisis contact, high contact or boundary pressure.

CS.10 Supervision

  1. Planned, regular supervision is an essential part of the Restitute Model.
  2. Supervision supports safe practice, worker wellbeing, workload management, reflective thinking, professional development, training needs, challenge and consistent delivery of the model.
  3. Workers must have regular 1:1 supervision. Frequency depends on experience, confidence and caseload complexity, with a minimum of monthly 1:1 supervision.
  4. The supervisor and worker should agree how contact between supervision sessions will work.
  5. Additional supervision must be used where there is risk, safeguarding concern, uncertainty, complexity, boundary pressure, worker impact, repeated non-engagement, high contact outside appointments, possible closure, or concern that work is drifting outside the model.
  6. Agreed client actions from supervision must be recorded in Lamplight where they affect the client pathway or support plan.

CS.11 Assessment, review and evidence

  1. Required assessments and review points must be completed, prompted or followed up in line with the relevant client pathway section.
  2. Assessment and review information must be recorded in Lamplight.
  3. Workers must not prioritise assessment completion over safe and effective client support.
  4. Where an assessment is delayed, the reason must be recorded.
  5. Assessment information should be used alongside client discussion, worker judgement and supervision.

CS.12 Practical support and material transactions

  1. Practical support, thoughtful help, items, services and material transactions must follow the agreed approval, purchasing and recording route.
  2. Workers may identify the need and help shape the support, but should not purchase or arrange material support alone.
  3. At least two people should be involved in any material transaction.
  4. The reason, approval route, cost where relevant, intended outcome and action taken must be recorded.

CS.13 Standard communications

  1. Appendix C provides example wording and templates for common pathway communications.
  2. Workers may adapt wording to fit the client’s circumstances, accessibility needs, language needs, safeguarding position or digital safety risks.
  3. Adapted wording should keep the same purpose and should not change the pathway decision, offer, boundary or timescale being communicated.
  4. Any communication must be recorded in Lamplight.

CS.14 Case transfer, worker absence and handover

  1. Clients must not be left unclear about who is holding the case when a worker is absent, leaving, unavailable for a sustained period or the case is transferred.
  2. A planned handover must be used where a client moves from one worker to another, where a worker absence affects continuity, or where another function is temporarily holding the case.
  3. The handover must cover enough information for safe continuity, including support rhythm, next contact, active priorities, key deadlines, assessment position, risk and safeguarding, professional involvement, contact boundaries, practical support, therapeutic referral-route status, peer group support status, and any supervision decisions that affect the pathway.
  4. Where absence is unplanned, the supervision, management or agreed cover function must decide who is holding the case, whether the client needs contact, whether risk or safeguarding has changed, and what must happen before the usual worker returns or the case is reallocated.
  5. The client should be told who is holding the case, when they will next be contacted, and what to do if something urgent or unsafe happens before then.
  6. A new or covering worker must review Lamplight before contacting the client so the client is not asked to repeat information unnecessarily.
  7. Handover, cover and transfer decisions must be recorded in Lamplight where they affect the client pathway, support plan, risk, safeguarding, contact arrangements or continuity of support.

CS.15 Lead carer model, child-centred practice and wider family impact

  1. The Restitute Model usually works through the lead carer or loved one, but practice must remain alert to the survivor, siblings and other children or adults affected by what has happened.
  2. Support through the lead carer should help them understand family impact, strengthen family functioning and make sure other children in the household are not forgotten.
  3. Where the survivor or siblings are children, the worker should consider safety, wellbeing, school or college context, professional plans, contact arrangements, risk, safeguarding, unmet support needs and what the lead carer understands about the child’s wishes or needs.
  4. The worker should not interview, assess or undertake direct work with a child unless this is explicitly part of the local delivery arrangement, within the worker’s training and consistent with safeguarding and consent requirements.
  5. Where the child’s wishes, needs or safety are unclear, the worker should support the lead carer to raise this with the right professional route, such as school, social care, health, therapeutic support, ISVA or another involved service. The worker must not investigate or ask leading questions.
  6. Relevant family impact, child-related concerns, professional involvement, safeguarding action and agreed next steps must be recorded in Lamplight.

CS.16 Keeping the model consistent

  1. The Restitute Model must be transferable without becoming diluted.
  2. Local Delivery Sites may adapt staffing, approved communication routes, local safeguarding routes, supervision arrangements, purchasing routes and local administrative arrangements where this does not change the model.
  3. Local adaptation must not remove core safeguards, weaken eligibility, reduce recording requirements, bypass safeguarding, remove supervision, or allow unstructured drift.
  4. The Client Pathway Standards and Practice Audit and Spot-Check Pack may be used for supervision, Lamplight record review, pilot-site review, quality assurance or learning after a concern, complaint, safeguarding issue or pathway breakdown.
  5. Audit and spot-check tools are not completed for every client.
Toggle Sliding Bar Area
Go to Top