Area Based Services

This division is comprised of various teams and services who provide advice, support and social work to families - parents, children and other carers. They can provide access to a range of services designed to support families under pressure and to assist parents to care for their own children. The services are:

Family Assessment & Support Services (Prevention)

The vision of our team is to work with vulnerable children and their families to reduce the risks of significant harm and family breakdown. This will be achieved by providing targeted interventions and services based on assessed needs.

The key areas of activity in the service are:

Completion of Initial and Core Assessments of children in need;
Provision of services to meet identified needs which will prevent children entering care and/or the child protection system (including Family Conference/Family Group Conferencing);
Provision of intensive Service Plans which may include short term/respite care provision and joint working with other professionals through Community & Learning Partnerships;
Children and Adolescents Mental Health service (CAMHS) services in each locality;
Provision of a First Response Service to act as a central point for all referrals to Vulnerable Children's services;
Development of specific, targeted community based preventative services in partnership with other agencies;
Provision of a Private Fostering service;
Provision of Family Group Conferences.

Safeguarding Social Work Service

The Vision of this service is to provide a safeguarding service that ensures that vulnerable children are safe and protected from the risk of significant harm.

The key areas of activity in the new service are:

Taking appropriate referrals from the First Response Service
Responsibility for new Section 47 investigations;
Taking immediate action to safeguard children who have suffered significant harm;
Completion of core assessments on child protection cases;
Management of cases on the Child Protection Register and the development of multi-agency Child Protection Plans;
Initiation and early management of care proceedings.

Short Term Breaks Service

Family support workers are available to assist families in their own homes at times of exceptional stress or crisis; they will work with the parents or other carers to help them improve their parenting and other coping skills. Four teams make up the Family Support Service across Staffordshire. They provide short-term (6-week), intensive support during difficult times to:

Prevent a child or young person being accommodated by Social Services
Enable a child or young person to be reunited with their family as soon as possible following their accommodation

Emergency Duty Service

This service exists to deal with urgent situations arising out of office hours for the Directorates of Children and Lifelong Learning and Social Care and Health (including mental health services). It provides a Duty Manager on duty throughout periods of office closure who takes initial calls and a decision on whether immediate action is required. There is a small team of social workers who work from their own homes who are deployed throughout the County as necessary. Most of the work is concerned with Child Protection issues, Mental Health Act assessments and acting as appropriate adults for young people and vulnerable adults detained at Police stations

First Response Team

The First Response Team provides a central point of contact for anyone wishing to share a concern, ask advice, or make a referral about children (including unborn babies) and young people who reside in Staffordshire.

First Response Workers come from an array of work-place backgrounds. They undertake extensive, mainly work-based, training which includes intensive Child Protection guidance. Additionally, they gather and collect data from guest speakers who are invited to the team to share information about the agency they are connected to and they make links with various outside agencies such as Connexions, Police, Children's Centres, Drugs Agencies, Housing Providers - to name but a few. It is crucial for them to keep abreast of new developments and services within Staffordshire.

Last Modified: 11/03/2008 15:05:47
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