Family Support

Family Support

Who do we support?

Children’s Social Services plays a vital role in the community by providing support to children and families who are at risk, or who may be experiencing a range of problems at home.

The children and families service offers a range of social work support ranging from family support through to children in public care and joint investigations with the police into child protection concerns.

We aim to protect and promote the welfare of children by:

• Offering information, advice, practical support and counselling to families
• Providing support for children with disabilities to allow them to lead lives that are as normal as possible
• Helping unaccompanied young people
• Helping families seeking asylum
• Protecting children at risk of abuse or neglect
• Providing foster care, adoption services and residential accommodation for children who cannot live at home
• Providing support to young people leaving care to help them live independently in the community
• Working with young people in trouble with the law

How do I get support?

Families can approach us directly to ask for support. Referrals are also taken from members of the public and other professionals.

When a referral is received a social worker will visit your family and complete an assessment with you. This will focus on what your family’s needs are and how we can best offer support to meet these needs. The social worker will need to speak to all family members to get an understanding of how best to help. The social worker will then discuss with your family what support you feel would be useful and what is available to you and agree a way forward.

How long will it take?

An initial assessment takes 7 days to complete. If after this we agree that more time is needed to understand your family’s difficulties a core assessment will be completed with you and this will take 35 days to complete.

Who is involved in the assessment?

The social worker will include all family members in the assessment and will need to speak to each family member individually.

The social worker will also ask your permission to talk to other people who work with you and your family e.g. teacher, G.P., health visitor. Including these people in the assessment helps to build a picture of your family’s needs and enables these professionals to understand the difficulties you are having and offer support where possible.

What happens next?

If your family need further services these will be identified and a family support plan compiled and agreed by you, the social worker and other professionals involved. To ensure that this support is actually provided and that it improves your family situation the support plan will be reviewed on a six monthly basis.

Wherever possible we aim to provide support to children and families within their own homes however this is sometimes not possible.

If there is a risk of harm to your child then we will need to work with you under child protection guidelines. For further information follow the link to the child protection page.

In some cases it might be necessary for children to be placed in foster care in order to protect them. For further information follow the link to the looked after children page.

If your child has a disability we will pass the initial assessment on to the Children with Disabilities Team. For further information on services offered follow the link to the Children with Disabilities page.

If you think that you need an assessment or if you are concerned about a child’s welfare and wish to make a referral to the assessment team please contact:

The Children and Families Assessment Team
4 Frampton Street
NW8 8LF
0207 641 7560