CHILDREN FIRST AND AT THE HEART OF ALL WE DO
DUDLEY CHILDREN'S SOCIAL CARE
Children's social care services
The service areas
Children’s social care services are provided through four service areas. Social care staff may choose to work in any of these areas.
Family solutions
Family Solutions encompasses a broad range of services including:
Early Help delivered through 5 Family Hubs and Start for Life, Youth Justice Service, Youth Service and Integrated Early Years,
The primary function of Family Solutions is the delivery of Early Help in Dudley. This aims to support children, young people and families at an early stage so that the escalation of any possible or potential problems can be avoided. We have made excellent progress over the last three years in delivering a robust Early Help Offer which is built around a solid foundation of five family centres that act as local, community-based hubs that serve to coordinate the effective and timely delivery of Early Help support in Dudley. The Early Help Strategy 2021-2024 will build on these successes with an even stronger emphasis on building family resilience and enabling a more “self-serve” approach which families had told us that they want.
Although there are many specialisms that make up Family Solutions, the team share a common goal of being able to offer the right support at the right time for all families that require help in Dudley. Our teamwork is second to none and partnership working is our forte. As a team we are constantly evolving and we are about to embark on a new phase of our journey. We have recently been working closely with the Early Intervention Foundation through the Early Years Transformation Academy to develop our approach to children’s first 1001 days and have a newly formed Integrated Early Years team to support in driving this work forward.
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Front door and partnerships
Family safeguarding
Adolescent safeguarding
Dudley Children’s Front Door is a multi-agency team of staff providing a single point of contact for professionals and members of the public requesting support or raising concerns about a child. Our Front Door Advisors and Social Workers use restorative principals to understand concerns and explore what help has already been provided to children and families. Understanding the experiences of parents and carers helps us to understand which services will help to meet their needs and by working closely with our partners across Dudley, we strive to ensure that children and families receive the right kind of help at the right time.
The Children’s Front Door and Partnership's service achieves this by providing information and advice or signposting families to our Early Help services. This service also includes our MASH/EDT, Family Group Conferencing and our Targeted Early Help Teams as well as our SEND Designated Social Care Officer (DCSO)
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For children in need of support, or in need of protection or in need of becoming looked after we work directly alongside families utilising the Family Safeguarding Model .
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Our new structure separates Family Safeguarding, where most concerns are intra familial, from Adolescent Safeguarding, where the concerns are more likely
to be external and as a result of exploitation. It reduces the changes of social workers for children and their families; assessments will not be completed in a separate service but will take place within Family Safeguarding or Adolescent Safeguarding as part of the intervention alongside the family.
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The Family Safeguarding and Adolescent Safeguarding approach connects with our framework of Restorative Practice, which is a value-based relational way of being, that is needs-led and strengths focused. It embodies a set of core beliefs, principles and behaviours that promote a way of being with people that actively and explicitly promotes change by working WITH people on a high challenge, high support basis.
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Through care
This service is responsible for discharging the council’s corporate parenting duty. It also manages the following services:
CHILDREN IN CARE TEAM
Responsible for those children who have a plan for permanence. These children reside with foster carers, connected persons or in residential placements. For a small number of children there are specific arrangements for them to reside at home with their parents.
CARE EXPERIENCED
The team provides advice, guidance and support to young people leaving care to maximise their life opportunities as they move into independence. This service also manages our Family Time service (Contact Centre)
FOSTERING TEAM
The fostering team is responsible for the recruitment, assessment, support and training of both mainstream and family and friends carers.
ADOPTION TEAM
Our adoption team works closely with the regional adoption agency (RAA) , Where children are unable to remain at home and where alternative permanency arrangements are best for the child, our partners in Adoption@ Heart (our regional adoption agency) work hand in hand with us finding families and supporting the move.to match and place children with a plan of adoption. The service also provides adoption and special guardianship order support.
LOOKED AFTER & ADOPTED CHILDREN’S PSYCHOLOGY
We support specialist psychological and therapeutic support for the borough’s looked after and adopted children, young people, families, carers and other professionals involved in their care.
SEND & children with disabilities
CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES TEAM
The Children with Disabilities Team supports children and young people, aged from birth to 18 with,
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severe and profound learning disabilities
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physical and sensory disabilities
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a combination of disabilities.
Understanding an individual’s needs is the first step to getting the right decision about the care and support a child and their family may need. Members of the Children with Disabilities Team work with an extensive range of specialist partners and a child’s personal network to understand the child’s needs and the support required to meet these needs. We will talk to the child and their family about their situation and find out what they are worried about or what changes they would like to make in their life.
After the assessment, we'll agree what kind of care and support a child and their family needs. This could include:
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services that can offer you or your child support
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direct payments
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parenting programmes
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local support groups so you have people to talk to
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short breaks, including specialised social activities, play schemes and overnight residential short breaks.
If a child is in receipt of services following an assessment, this will be managed via a child in need plan, child protection plan or a child in care plan. Working in the CDT Team means you will develop skills across the breadth of statutory social work.
If we can't offer any support because the assessment shows a child is not eligible for our specialist disability services, we will tell families about other organisations that could help.
We promote and maximise opportunities for young people to be as independent as possible and to be part of local communities. This is achieved via a range of appropriate pathways that support individuals to have choice, control and to achieve their individual aspirations. Our goal is to promote independence and choice for children with disabilities.
As part of the Children with Disabilities team workforce you will work closely with our community partners to develop our existing Dudley SEN Local Offer. Our aim is to embed co-production into every aspect of the work we do, whether this is writing an individual plan for a child using their words, or commissioning resources in partnership with our Parent Carer Forum or community partners.
Our team has a range of social work level roles and an opportunity to develop a specialist skill set and build longer term relationships with the children and families we work with.
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The service also includes
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SEND team(s)
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Communication, Interaction, Physical and Sensory (CIPS) Advisory Service
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Care Home
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Learning Support Service (Traded service, providing support to schools for pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN), particularly in the areas of learning difficulties (literacy and numeracy) and specific learning difficulties / Dyslexia.
Safeguarding & Quality Assurance
The Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Service is responsible for the quality assurance and safeguarding arrangements for children in Dudley across the Children’s Service Directorate. The Head of Service for Safeguarding and Quality Assurance is also the Principal Social Worker for Children’s Services. Within the service there are the following service areas:
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SAFEGUARDING AND REVIEW
Independent Reviewing Officers are allocated to children who are in care, with the responsibility for chairing the Child in Care Reviews, scrutinising and ratifying the Care Plan, supporting children and young people to participate in their Reviews, alongside providing quality assurance of the Local Authority’s Care Plan and support provided to the child.
Child Protection Conference Chairs are independent chairs of multi-agency Child Protection Conferences with the responsibility to facilitate and co-ordinate initial and review Conferences to ensure there is a multi-agency plan that will reduce the risks to the child.
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Foster Home Reviewing Officers chair annual reviews of the Local Authority Foster Carers to ensure all statutory requirements are being adhered to within placements, and support and training needs are reviewed for the Carers.
The LADO is responsible for advising on and managing allegations against people who work with children in a voluntary or paid employment; where necessary the LADO will chair Position of Trust meetings to coordinate any investigation.
CENTRE FOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
The Team consists of a Service Manager, 2 Team Managers and 4 Advanced Social Work Practitioners who support the Principal Social Work function. CPP is supported by a Support Lead and an Apprentice and 3 Participation Officers who work to the Directorate Wide participation strategy.
The Team are responsible for managing the audit and quality assurance processes and driving implementation of the Practice Framework within Children’s Services. The Service coordinates the training and development needs of practitioners within Children’s Services. The Team manage Student Social Work placements and the Assessed and Supported First Year in Social Work arrangements.
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SAFEGUARDING IN EDUCATION
The Team consists of a Safeguarding In Education Lead and a Safeguarding in Education Trainer who are responsible for the compliance and development of schools’ safeguarding arrangements, legislative requirements/statutory duties, policies, procedures and training, ensuring they are implemented in schools so children/young people are safe and protected from harm.
This is an exciting time to join the children’s services team in Dudley as our new approach takes shape. We are looking for people to share their experiences and bring new ideas and energy to the team.