Our Social Work Model

Interventions should be ‘right first time’; achieve permanence; timely and cost effective help to families.

Children and families should experience the fewest number of workers and ‘handoffs’ as possible.

Decisions about the best service should be based on the best outcomes for children, young people and families.

Interventions should be timely, help families become resilient and find their own solutions within the community.

Children should be listened to, their views heard and what difference interventions have made to them. Workers should consistently seek creative ways of gathering children’s views through direct work, consultation tools and questionnaires.

Appropriate professionals should be involved in working with the child.

At the end of an assessment, where there is no need for social work involvement and the child’s plan can be delivered by another agency, the child and family should know which agency will provide services, and when and how the plan will be carried out.

The graphic (above right) shows the make-up of a general teams. Other roles are included in different teams, depending on the focus and acute need. The service areas cover the following functions. There is more than one team in each service area:

• Referral and Assessment Service
• Safeguarding and Family Support Service
• Children Looked After and Support Service

The Referral and Assessment Service is the first port of call for all initial enquiries from anyone concerned about a child or for any emergencies and is where the referrals and key decisions take place.

The team works with both the children and families with ‘early’ needs and, in doing so, helps prevent escalation to more in-depth social care involvement.

In addition, the team provides information and signposts to the right services, including child protection enquiries.

More details on how to contact the team, especially in an emergency, can be found here.

The Safeguarding and Family Support Service responds to urgent Priority 1 and 2 child protection referrals. Everything they do is geared towards keeping children and young people safe from the risk of significant harm. They gather information and assess and prioritise all decisions about the most appropriate response under S47 of the Children Act.

They work with children and their families subject to a child protection plan and in PLO, permanency planning and adoption. They also carry out assessments on children and young people who have been sexually abused, as well as those who use sexually abusive behaviour. The hubs work closely with the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board and all of their work is carried out within the appropriate legislation procedures and timescales.

Members of the team carry out community pre-birth assessments on parents without current childcare responsibilities but who have previously had children taken into care, or who have other issues identified during pregnancy, such as mental health, cognitive or learning disabilities, drug and/or alcohol dependency or domestic abuse.

The teams work to secure permanency within the family, either in the community or through court processes. The most vital aspect of their work is to help make the child’s journey as smoothly and safely as possible, whether that’s through PLO, court, adoption and post adoption and to prevent a ‘cycle’ of being in and out of care.

The Children Looked After and Support Service works with children who are in permanent care or on care orders, placed with parents, and young people aged 16 to 25 who have left care or are in the process of leaving.

Members of the service make child protection enquiries for any child or young person who makes an allegation against their carers, as well as enquiries into sexual exploitation and serious self-harm.

The teams respond to S20 requests for all children, as well as homeless 16 and 17-year-olds, as well as carrying out assessments on unaccompanied juvenile asylum seekers and looks after children remanded into care.

They help young people approaching adulthood develop the life skills they need to go on to further education, into training or work and to learn to live independently, if that’s what they choose to do.

Throughout, the teams actively listens to the child’s voice and promotes children and young people’s choices, safety and fulfilment.

The teams also process access to records requests on all closed cases, conduct unaccompanied asylum seeking assessments and support all Staying Put arrangements for young people who want to continue to live with their foster carers after the age of 18.

The Children With Disabilities element of the team is a specialist section helping children and young people with disabilities, including mental health and learning difficulties which also need a social care service.

It offers a ‘whole journey’ response, and a ‘whole family’ approach, including siblings of children with disabilities, assessments for parents/carers, links with transition to adult services, understanding of Capacity Act assessments and support and guidance through a child’s journey through any legal proceedings, plus adoption and post adoption.