Families
Family support work consists of skilled observations, practical help around the home, encouraging positive household routines, parenting advice, boundary setting, recording interactions with the child/ren, liaising with other professionals and linking in with relevant community services. We liaise with family social worker and directly with the family to establish a family support plan. We set smart goals and timelines for the work to be completed.
To us safeguarding is paramount; the focus of our work is the safety and the well being of the child/ren within the family. We aim to give parents the necessary knowledge and understanding to enable them to improve their parenting skills and where possible to prevent the need for children to be placed by the local authority.
We understand social workers often do not have the time to undertake face to face visits with every individual family on a regular or daily basis. We provide up to 24 hours support and skilled observations in a timely manner. We also understand our recorded evidence is often crucial to help safeguard children if/when a court order is required.
We have vast experience of working with families where either the parents or child/ren (or both) have a diagnosed learning disability. We support families with specific learning needs to develop new skills with the aim of achieving a sustainable family unit which functions to best of their ability.
We require the local authority social worker to clearly outline in writing what exactly is required from the support service before the work commences along with completed referral form and risk assessment so that we can deliver quantifiable, targeted cost effective work.
Reports with observations and progress will be written after each session and will be forwarded to social services within 48 hours of the session taking place. These reports can be used as evidence for court.
We provide skilled and experienced support workers to attend any meetings relating to the family, i.e. TAC, CIN, CPC, and CGM meetings, as well as any other review meetings on request of the social worker.
We provide contact supervisors for session in the community, at home or at a contact centre. We can provide transport to and from contact if needed.
We aim to provide a neutral, safe and controlled environment for a children to see his/her non-resident parent. We are completely impartial and non-judgemental in our dealings with parents. Our workers are totally child-focused and all decisions and actions are made entirely with the well-being and best interests of the child at the forefront.
We encourage regular communication between us and the referring body to ensure they are able to easily continually monitor the progress of arrangements. This is done by automatically sending contact notes onto the referring body within 48 hours of the session and regular contact between all parties involved. Again the contact notes can be used within the court arena.
We provide a respite service for parents / carers who find it difficult to cope at times and need a break for a few hours or an entire day. We do not at present provide residential respite.
Our support workers will take the children out and access local community resources to enable the children to engage in activities they will enjoy, and expand the range of activities they would take part in. The support worker can also act as a mentor for the child, and work towards set goals as agreed with the social worker and family.
We aim to access free activities, however this is not always possible and therefore request that the Local Authority agrees a budget for activities if required.
We are a registered AQA training centre and are able to create AQA plans for children and young people who don’t engage well in mainstream education.
Escort / Chaperone service
We provide an escort service to take young people to and from school, to contact sessions, back to placements, etc. All our support workers are appropriately insured and child seats can be provided if needed.