Children, Families and Education Directorate - Children's Social Services Index of Social Work Tasks and Responsibilities
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Children, Families and
Education Directorate
Children’s Social Services
Index of Social Work Tasks and
Responsibilities
PJ ASD 01622 694658
Photos on following pages courtesy of www.johnbirdsall.co.uk: Cover top
left, top centre, top right and bottom far right. Page 2: Top centre, top right.
Page 3: Top centre. Page 33: far right. Page 39: Top right.
March 2007
Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil ities
Children, Families and Education Directorate
Children’s Social Services
Index of Social Work Tasks
and Responsibilities
Contents Page
Introduction 2
Chapter 1 - Introduction to Social Work 3
Chapter 2 - Introduction to Children's Social Work Services in Kent 9
Chapter 3 - Kent Policy Framework 15
Chapter 4 - Assessment and Intervention services 22
Chapter 5 - County and Specialist Services 27
Chapter 6 - Externally commissioned statutory services 33
Chapter 7 - Ancillary services for Children in Need 36
Chapter 8 - Strategy, Policy and Performance 39
Appendix 1 - Glossary of frequently used terms and acronyms 46
Appendix 2 - Legislative and national policy framework 49
Appendix 3 - Kent policy framework 50
Appendix 4 CSS - organisation, staffing & core activity 51
1
Introduction
The Children Act 2004 requires major changes in the way agencies work
together. While the legislation does not change the core tasks of
Children’s Social Services, this document, which describes the tasks and
responsibilities of Children’s Social Services and how these are organised
in Kent, has been developed to contribute to improving partnership working
by promoting a better understanding of the social work role.
Every effort has been made to avoid jargon in this document and to clarify
acronyms. In addition, a Glossary of terms is attached as Appendix 1.
2 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil ities
Chapter 1
Introduction to Social Work
Legislative and national policy framework
Children’s Social Services is very heavily regulated and a table setting
out the legislative and national policy framework is attached as Appendix
2. However, a synopsis of key legislation is set out below:
The Local Authorities Social Services Act 1970 provides the
framework for accountability and responsibility for social work services.
It states that every local authority with social services responsibilities has
a statutory responsibility to designate an individual to be accountable and
responsible for ensuring:
m The quality of services that are in place for supporting and
protecting children;
m That there are management and accountability structures in place
that deliver safe and effective services.
The Children Act 2004 vests these responsibilities in the Director of
Children’s Services (DCS). In Kent the Managing Director of Children,
Families and Education Directorate is the Director of Children’s Services
for the purposes of this Act.
The Children Act 1989 and its supporting regulations and guidance
provide the main legal framework for children’s social work. The Act
introduced the following terminology:
Children, Families and Education Directorate 3
Children in need (CIN) - the Children Act 1989 introduced the
term Children in Need and the Act states that ‘a child shall be
taken to be in need if:
‘he is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of
achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or
development with the provision to him of services by a local
authority;his health or development is likely to be significantly
impaired, or further impaired without the provision for him of such
services or he is disabled’.
Children within the child protection and looked after children’s systems
are Children in Need.
m Child Protection (CP) – a primary task for Children’s Social
Services is to protect children who are at risk of significant harm
(legal definition) through abuse or neglect. Effective child
protection services require collaboration across a number of
organisations. Social Services practitioners engaged in child
protection work link closely with the police.
Children’s Social Services are currently responsible for
maintaining a child protection register of children whom a child
protection conference has agreed are at continuing risk of abuse
or neglect and require a child protection plan. The register may
not be necessary once information sharing indexes are in place
across the country.
The child protection plan must be reviewed at regular intervals set
by statutory regulations. The % of reviews held on time is
monitored by government under the Performance Assessment
Framework and contributes towards the authority’s star rating.
m Looked after Children (LAC) – children may be subject to a care
order made by a court or accommodated at the request of their
parent(s). Children normally come into care because they have
been abused or neglected. If a child is subject to a care order this
means that his/her parental responsibilities are shared between
the parents and the local authority through its social services. This
means that to all intents and purposes the rights and
responsibilities of a parent are held by Social Services on behalf
4 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil ities
of the local authority and operated through the child’s social worker.
If the child is accommodated parental responsibility remains with
the parents.
Plans for looked after children are set out in Care plans, which must
be reviewed at regular intervals as set out in statutory regulations.
Local authorities are assessed on the % of reviews conducted on
time.
m Disabled Children - the Children Act 1989 Act sets out that a child
is disabled if he is ‘blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from mental
disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently
handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity or such other
disability as may be prescribed’. In this context ‘development’
means physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural
development. ‘Health’ means physical or mental health. The Act
emphasised the need to recognise disabled children as children first
even though they may have specific needs.
m Working in partnership - the Children Act 1989 also requires
Children’s Social Services to work in partnership with parents,
carers and other agencies in the best interests of children.
Partners include a whole range of colleagues from other parts of
the local authority, health agencies, police, and schools, Youth
Offending Service, Probation, Asylum service, District Councils and
the voluntary sector.
Inevitably the form of partnership with other agencies will be different from
that entered into with parents/family or children. Partnership can mean
many things and does not necessarily mean equality in terms of decision
making and it is important to be clear which it is in any given
circumstances.
The role of the social worker requires them particularly to be expert in
developing successful partnerships with children and their families, often in
circumstances where they are protecting children and promoting their
welfare while the family are in conflict with each other and the authority.
Achieving a successful partnership on a long-term basis is therefore a
challenging task that goes through various stages that require patience,
time and commitment to maintain.
Children, Families and Education Directorate 5
The Framework for Assessment of Children in Need and their
Families (DOH 2000) is statutory guidance that is fundamental to social
work as it sets out the way social workers must collect, record,
understand and analyse information against 3 key dimensions often
referred to as the ‘assessment triangle’:
m Child’s individual needs
m Parenting capacity
m Family and environmental factors
The framework comprises:
m An initial assessment that must be completed within 7 days. Initial
assessments undertaken by professionals from other agencies
can be accepted by Social Services as long as they provide
sufficient information across the dimensions and this is used to
inform an analysis of the problems. The Common Assessment
Framework (CAF) is similar to a social work initial assessment.
The initial assessment determines whether a case is eligible for a
social work service;
m If the initial assessment confirms that the case is eligible then a
core assessment, which is a specialist social work assessment, is
pursued in order to determine the level of the child’s needs and
how these might be met. This process must be completed within
35 days. Core Assessments often run in parallel with child
protection investigations and care proceedings. Social workers
rely on contributions from colleagues in health and education to
provide a holistic view of the child and their family. The framework
timescales are monitored by DfES as part of the Performance
Assessment Framework that applies to Social Services activities;
m Other specialist assessments might also be required. These are
separate from and additional to core assessments and not subject
to the same timescales.
The NHS & Community Care Act 1990 introduced the
purchaser/provider concept and provides the framework for Children’s
Social Services commissioning function. Funding of services
commissioned through voluntary organisations is made in accordance
with powers under S.65 of the Health Services and Public Health Act
1968.
6 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil ities
The social work practitioner
Title - the title of ‘social worker’ is reserved to those with specific
qualifications and social workers now have to register with the Social
Care Council in order to work as a social worker. To retain their
registration social workers have to demonstrate that they have engaged
in required levels of relevant training and development.
Statutory tasks - there are certain tasks that only a registered social
worker employed by a local authority may undertake. These include:
m Undertaking child protection investigations;
m Undertaking initial, core, foster and adoption assessments;
m Developing and driving the Child Protection (or CIN) plan;
m Initiating legal proceedings to apply for a range of orders including
admitting children to the care system and placing them for
adoption;
m Developing and driving the LAC care plan, which covers all the
needs of the child including rehabilitation, his/her health, education
and after care arrangements;
m Undertaking key worker (Lead Professional) function for LAC and
discharging the parental responsibilities in partnership with parents
depending upon the legal status of the child. This includes
primary responsibility for promoting the health, education and
welfare of the child;
m Leaving care functions;
m Independent Reviewing Officer functions;
Qualification - social workers become qualified through a 3 or 4 year
degree course or by studying for a post graduate degree. They are
trained to use a range of theoretical and conceptual models to inform
their work including:
m Child development
m Child psychology
m Psychodynamic theory
m Attachment theory
m Learning theory
Training and development – social workers are required to complete
post qualifying training leading to the Child Care Award.
Children, Families and Education Directorate 7
Core tasks and skills - social work tasks may be described as:
m Direct - which include assessment, surveillance and control,
counseling, mediation, work with families to change their
behaviour;
m Indirect – which include case management, purchasing services
for individual children, commissioning services for cohorts of
children, monitoring performance, supervising and developing
staff.
Social workers seldom occupy only one of these roles with a client or
family or group. There are also additional tasks associated with social
work specialisms.
Supervision – regular ‘clinical’ supervision by a qualified Practice
Supervisor or line manager is necessary to ensure that social work prac-
tice is safe and effective. This supervision not only monitors performance,
workload management and promotes personal development but also sup-
ports the social worker in managing the often traumatic events that they
witness and helps them make difficult decisions relating to the lives and
welfare of children.
Standards and Inspection
The Commission for Social Care Inspectorate (CSCI) is currently
responsible for ensuring that standards within children’s Social Services
are met. CSCI is due to become integrated with OfSTED. The key CSCI
Standard that sums up social services responsibilities is:
‘Children and their families receive responsive services which avoid
family breakdown wherever possible, prevent harm and promote
children’s life chances’.
Children’s Social Services performance is assessed annually under the
Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) as part of the Annual
Performance Assessment (APA) process. For the first time in 2005 this
assessment was undertaken jointly with Local Education Authority
services.
The Integrated Inspection programme that is currently being piloted will
also involve a Joint Area Review (JAR) which will cover all services for
children.
8 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesChapter Two
Introduction to Children’s Social Work
Services in Kent
Introduction
The purpose of the Children’s Social Services Division is to plan, deliver,
commission and develop services that provide protection for children at
risk of abuse or neglect, that comprehensively meet the needs of children
who are in public care, and that provide support to Children in Need.
Children’s Social Services, often in partnership with other statutory
agencies and the independent sector, also has an important leadership
role in the community to provide guidance and services that prevent the
need for interventions in families.
Kent’s Children’s Social Services Division, one of the largest in England,
consists of 1,300 staff and 75 staff teams. The service has a net budget
of £75m.
Following the Children Act 2004, Children’s Social Services Division was
separated from Adults Social Services and combined with education
services to establish a new entity: the Children, Families and Education
Directorate.
The period 2006/7 is the first operational year for the new Children’s
Social Services Division, and has been marked by significant change.
Children, Families and Education Directorate 9Performance
Children’s Social Services had achieved 3 stars before re-organisation
and the Division has sustained its performance with a classification of
excellent through the Government’s Comprehensive Performance
Assessment in November 2006 with 15 PAF Indicators in the top
performing Bands. Particular achievements were improving stability of
Looked after Children and the timeliness of reviews for looked after
children and children on the CP register. All CP reviews were held within
timescales and 96% of LAC reviews were held on time.
Organisation
Children’s Social Services Division (CSS) is part of the Children, Families
and Education Directorate and its work is organised as follows:
m Assessment (and intervention services) – Duty, Long Term teams,
Family Support teams and Private Fostering
m County and Specialist Services – Asylum, Family Group
Conferencing, Disabled Children’s, Fostering and Adoption
Services and Residential & Respite units
m Commissioned services and collaborative working
m Business support - Planning, performance monitoring, contracting
The assessment and intervention services are organised into 12 Districts
that have the same boundaries as Kent’s 12 District Councils. These in
turn are linked in groups line managed by a Head of Service:
m East Kent group – Swale, Thanet and Canterbury
m Mid Kent group – Dover, Folkestone, Ashford, Maidstone
m West Kent group – Gravesend, Dartford, Swanley, Tonbridge &
Malling, Tunbridge Wells
Services are delivered from 75 teams and the deployment of these teams
can be found in Appendix 4.
The organisation of Children’s Social Services is kept under review to
ensure that it is as efficient, flexible and cost effective as possible.
10 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesStaffing
Management - the CSS senior management team comprises:
m Director of Children’s Social Services Division
m 3 operational Heads of Service (Assessment and intervention
services)
m Head of Specialist Services Unit
m Head of Asylum Unit
m Head of CSS Business Unit
The wider management team includes the 12 District Managers and
Service Managers for Disabled Children, Asylum, Fostering, Adoption,
Family Group Conferencing and Residential/respite services.
All managers of children’s social work operational must be qualified social
workers and experienced in children and families social work.
Social Workers – Kent Children’s Social Services employs approximate-
ly 300 qualified social workers in front line and fostering and adoption
services at any one time. The detail of how these practitioners are
deployed can be found in Appendix 4.
Recruitment & retention of social workers – there is a national
shortage of social workers and Kent has been proactive in developing a
range of recruitment and retention practices known as the Staff Care
Package that include:
m Ready for Practice scheme (Kent growing its own)
m Competitive salaries
m Range of roles that extend practice – Practice Supervisor, Senior
Practitioner
m Skill mix approach
m Exchange programme
m Sabbaticals
Professional training and development – Kent has a dedicated
Children’s Professional Training Manager and Training Consultants who
together co-ordinate the provision of a range of professional training that
supports the Post Qualifying Framework and includes mandatory courses
Children, Families and Education Directorate 11that are intended to equip newly qualified practitioners for the complexity
of their tasks. Increasingly, training is multi-agency in nature. Kent also
provides a range of development opportunities that include coaching,
mentoring, shadowing, secondments and topic based workshops.
Supervision and support – Kent Children’s Social Services has a spe-
cific supervision policy that sets out the requirements and commitments in
relation to the supervision of social work practitioners. Specialist dedicat-
ed Practice Supervisor posts were created in 2003/4 in recognition of the
importance of this task.
Para professionals – as part of the skill mix approach Children’s Social
Services has gone through a process of identifying core tasks that only
social workers may undertake and have delegated others either to skilled
support staff or para professionals.
Most teams now have assistant practitioners whose role it is to support
social workers in undertaking their core tasks. These staff have their own
training and development path and there is no expectation or guarantee
that they will qualify as social workers.
Core activity
Every year Children’s Social Services receives in the region of 14,000
referrals, undertakes around 2,500 child protection investigations and is
working with:
m 700 children on the Child Protection Register
m 1,250 Looked after Children
m 900 disabled children
m 200 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people
A table setting out greater detail of CSS core activity is provided in
Appendix 4.
Commissioning services
Kent Children’s Social Services commissioning role is located at various
levels within the organisation depending upon the size, level and cost.
12 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesThe services it commissions fall into two categories:
m Statutory
m Non statutory
Commissioned statutory services may be located in-house or externally.
Examples of services that are commissioned in-house are:
m Fostering, including specialist fostering schemes
m Adoption Support Service
m Residential Respite for disabled children
m Specialist residential provision for children with severe attachment
disorders (Alderden House)
These are part of Specialist Services.
The following statutory services are commissioned through external
agencies:
m 16 Plus Leaving Care Service - Rainer
m Complaints and Representation Service for CIN - NCH
m Independent Support for Adopted Adults and their families - NCH
m Upfront Advocacy Service for Kent LAC – Church in Society
Children’s Social Services also commissions non-statutory services
externally jointly with other agencies. These may be categorised as
treatment or early intervention. For example:
m The Cherry Tree, Oak Tree (both NCH) and Chilston (Barnardos)
services were jointly commissioned with Health to provide
treatment for children who have been sexually abused;
m Homestart has been commissioned in some Districts to provide an
early intervention service for vulnerable families.
Children’s Social Services spends approximately £12m on services
commissioned from voluntary organisations and a further £5m+ on
placements and other services for individual children.
Children, Families and Education Directorate 13Business and Performance
Management Unit
The Business and Performance Unit provides a range of business
support services to assist the districts and the other children’s social
service units to plan, commission and deliver the pattern of social work
services required to meet identified needs.
Services provided include:
m A small planning section that assists with service developments
m Contracts support team that oversees 150 contracts and service
agreements
m Management Support team that oversees the CSS property
portfolio of 45 buildings, some office facilities and a customer care
team
m A Performance Monitoring section that produces management and
performance monitoring information and maintains data quality to
monitor the effectiveness of CSS
14 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesChapter Three
Kent Policy Framework
In addition to the national policy and legislative framework, Kent has
developed a range of local policy to reflect its priorities. Set out below are
the key policies that shape the way Kent’s Children’s Social Services
operate. A table setting out further detail of the local policy framework is
set out in Appendix 3.
Permanence and Stability Policy
It is well evidenced and documented that being in the looked after
children system does not benefit children in terms of their health,
education, family and social relationships or success in adult life despite
the efforts of dedicated foster carers and professionals. Looked after
Children are over-represented in prison populations and amongst the
homeless. Their experiences and the instability of their lives means that
their health and educational opportunity and attainment is generally poor.
Therefore, it is Kent’s policy to achieve permanence by:
m Preventing children becoming looked after wherever possible.
Social workers are expected to make every effort where it is safe
to do so to maintain a child in his/her home or within their
extended family or community;
m Considering adoption for all children 10 and under where it is not
possible for them to remain within their extended family. Long
Children, Families and Education Directorate 15term care is a last resort for younger children but may provide stability for
older children.
Kent’s Permanence and Stability policy is supported by 2 further policies:
m Family Group Conferencing (FGC) - Family Group Conferencing
is a process that engages families in decision-making when a
child from the family is at risk of being taken into care and where
the Social Services agrees to enter into a partnership with the
family network and the parents to plan and make decisions that
will keep children safe.
The FGC model works on the principle that parents and their
family network have a right to be involved in decisions that affect
them, that given good information, families can make effective and
safe plans, and that the clients and their families know themselves
best. It is an effective tool for devolving power to families that
has traditionally been held by professionals. Research shows
overwhelmingly that when families are given an opportunity to
enter into this method of planning and decision making they are
more likely to have ownership of plans and decisions than when
professionals make them on their behalf.
It is now mandatory that all children in Kent who are 10 and under
must be offered a FGC if they are at risk of being taken into care
or have been taken into care in an emergency. However, it is
important to recognise that the process cannot deliver a solution in
every case.
There is also a FGC service being piloted in West Kent targeting
children with poor school attendance and a FGC service for
adult’s services.
m Kinship care policy – this policy emphasises a commitment to
retain children within their extended families or communities
wherever possible if they cannot continue to live with their parents.
It also reinforces Kent’s commitment to the ‘no order’ principle set
out in the Children Act 1989. In essence this means that a court
order should only be used to protect a child where it can be
demonstrated that such an order is necessary. Therefore,
wherever possible Kent tries to facilitate kinship arrangements that
are based on agreement rather than legal directives, so
16 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesnormalising a child’s living arrangements without the need for the
child to be formally ‘looked after’.
Eligibility and Threshold Criteria
Following the publication of Messages from Research (DoH) HMSO 1994
Kent was one of the few local authorities to attempt to embrace the prin-
ciple of prevention and early intervention and to extend its services to all
children in need rather than restricting eligibility to those at risk.
However, the Safeguards Inspection in 2000 identified that this aspiration
was being pursued at the cost of protecting children.
Therefore, Kent Children’s Social Services reviewed its Eligibility Criteria
and came to the following conclusions:
m Social workers are not the best people to provide early
preventative or intervention services as they have statutory
powers and their involvement can be stigmatising and raise
anxieties and hostility;
m Preventative and early intervention services are best
commissioned on a multi-agency rather than a single agency
basis;
m Voluntary sector providers have particular expertise in this area of
work and are more likely to be seen as user friendly;
m Social Workers are in short supply and their skills and experience
are required for statutory work;
m Children’s Social Services could not manage the high number of
referrals and retain its focus upon its primary tasks – child
protection and Looked after Children;
m Children’s Social Services was not funded to provide services to
this wider group of children.
A CIN Matrix was, therefore, developed to guide and help Duty managers
when evaluating referrals in order to focus scarce CSS resources where
these are most needed, namely children who are experiencing a high
level of need, which is likely to result in them being at risk of significant
harm if there is no intervention or they are disabled children with
profound and complex needs who might be at risk of family breakdown.
The CIN Matrix headings are deliberately designed to use both the
language of social work and definitions that are common to other
Children, Families and Education Directorate 17services and identifies children/families under the following headings:
m Children in need of protection (statutory intervention, tier 4 or 5)
m CIN with high priority needs (statutory services, tier 3)
m CIN with moderate needs (early intervention, tier 2)
m Vulnerable children (primary prevention, tier 1)
While Kent Social Services had no choice but to restrict eligibility to its
direct services to ensure that it could respond appropriately to child protec-
tion referrals it continues to be committed to prevention and early interven-
tion and strengthened its commissioning role to ensure that a range of
services designed to reduce the incidence of risk and avoid harm or family
breakdown are developed.
Commissioning policy
Kent Children’s Social Services distinguishes purchasing a service to
meet the specific needs of a particular child from commissioning services
for groups or cohorts of children and their families with similar needs.
Children’s Social Services does both but became a major commissioner of
services for vulnerable children and their families following the NHS and
Community Care Act 1990. Kent took a decision that wherever possible
and appropriate it should apply commissioning principles to children’s
provider services. The following criteria were developed to help deter-
mine whether a service should be purchased or commissioned in-house or
externally:
m Where there is a statutory duty to provide service directly (for
example, it is not possible to commission others to undertake child
protection investigations or to instigate care proceedings);
m The authority needs to provide them because the external market is
unable or unwilling to provide them to the standards determined
and at a price the authority is willing to pay;
m The authority elects to provide a proportion of the service to avoid
over-reliance on external providers;
m Where customer choice and/or public expectation of public
provision in the mixed economy is an essential ingredient;
m The services are preventative or early intervention – because it was
recognised that the statutory nature of children’s social work
18 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesservices is seen as stigmatising and may deter those who need
them from seeking help voluntarily at an early stage.
To facilitate the commissioning process Children’s Social Services use a
language that it has in common with Health to define levels or tiers of
service or interventions. An integrated table of definitions (Levels of
Service and Need) has been developed to try to extend this common lan-
guage across mainstream agencies. CSS commissions:
m Statutory services that are specialist and support the core activity of
CSS (Tier 3 or 4) such as Fostering and the 16Plus Service. The
former is commissioned internally and the latter externally in
accordance with the rules set out above.
m Non statutory services that are always commissioned externally
may be:
m Specialist (tier 3) services, e.g. NCH Cherry Tree treatment
centre
m Early intervention services (tier 2) that are designed to
prevent family breakdown and support CSS Permanence
and Stability and Eligibility and Threshold Criteria policies.
Increasingly common interests have enabled the joint commissioning of
both statutory and non statutory services with other agencies (e.g. Thanet
multi-agency service and Adolescent Resource Centre in West Kent and
the Primary Intervention Project).
The concept of collaborative commissioning was born following the
development of Kent’s Preventative Strategy and the Children’s Consortia.
This is distinguished from joint commissioning which is where two or more
agencies jointly fund a service. Collaborative commissioning is where
agencies pool resources other than money (such as staff) to provide a
service. Examples of collaborative services are:
m WAVE in Dover
m Causeway in Folkestone
Children’s Social Services is not funded to provide preventative or early
intervention services and investment in early intervention services is
always fragile. One of the major challenges facing all children’s social
services is developing the capacity to provide preventative and early
intervention services in the face of continuing pressures to resource Child
Protection, Looked after Children services and services for high level
Children, Families and Education Directorate 19Children in Need and disabled children. Many recent initiatives (such as
WAVE and Causeway) were part financed by savings within Social
Services as a result of reducing the number of Kent LAC under PSA1, and
by PSA1 reward money. The hope is that the services will impact and
reduce referrals into Children’s Social Services so enabling it to invest
further in early intervention.
Looked after Children policy
Kent is taking a holistic approach to achieving the 5 Every Child Matters
outcomes for Looked after Children as set out in the Healthy Care
programme which reflects the fact that outcomes for Looked after Children
depend upon a variety of factors and that the term ‘health’ should be seen
as a broad concept. Healthy Care has identified the following 6 key
standards, which broadly correspond to the developmental needs set out
in the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their
Families, that local authorities should aspire to. Looked after Children
should:
m Feel safe, protected and valued. They should be able to develop a
sustained committed relationship to at least one carer;
m Live in a caring, healthy and learning environment;
m Feel respected and supported in their cultural beliefs and personal
identity;
m Have priority access to excellent and effective health care;
m Have opportunities to develop personal and social skills and talents
and abilities and to have free time to spend as they choose on play,
culture or leisure;
m Be prepared for leaving care by being supported to live, care and
provide for him/herself in the future.
To achieve these standards Children’s Social Services must address the 4
Ps:
m Policy – identify services that meet the needs of Looked after
Children;
m Partnership – work with appropriate multi-agency partners at a
strategic level to plan and commission those services;
m Practice – ensure that both practitioners and carers are committed
to promoting the well being of Looked after Children and are well
20 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiestrained and supported to do so;
m Participation – respect for the rights and responsibilities of Looked
after Children and their carers and involve them in all aspects of
service delivery.
Kent’s policy also emphasises the importance of Corporate Parenting.
This concept of Corporate Parenting has existed for many years but was
re-introduced and clarified under the Quality Protects initiative in 1998 to
raise the profile of Looked after Children with Elected Members and other
professionals within the local authority as a way of improving outcomes,
particularly educational outcomes, for LAC. The message behind it was
that the local authority as an entity should take responsibility for promoting
the well being of their LAC.
The principle of corporate responsibility remains important despite the fact
that the Children Act 2004 placed a duty on all statutory agencies to pro-
mote the education of LAC and DoH has published Healthy Care
Standards, which provide the framework for health authorities and local
authorities to promote the best interests of LAC.
Corporate parenting must be distinguished from parental responsibilities.
The latter are the parental rights that are vested in Children’s Social
Services when a child is in care. Corporate parenting does not confer any
rights upon individuals or departments or schools. Rather it is a philosophi-
cal commitment to prioritising the interests of these vulnerable children.
Recording and file management
Recording requirements for Children’s Social Services are very detailed
and currently comprise a combination of physical files that have 9 sections
and a computerised record of key actions.
Children’s Services is required to adopt the Integrated Children’s System
(ICS) which is a computer-based client record system that integrates the
Framework for Assessment and Looked after Children paperwork and
which will partially replace paper files. ICS will save practitioner time as it
is programmed to cascade information to other documents within the
system thus avoiding duplication.
Children, Families and Education Directorate 21Chapter Four
Assessment and Intervention Services
County Duty Service (CDS) – is a dedicated call centre set up to
manage, screen and filter the high number of referrals received by
Children’s and Adult’s Social Services. CDS ensures that the information
received is adequate, that the appropriate referral form is completed,
checks whether the child/family is already known, logs the referral on the
Children’s database and acknowledges receipt of the referral and then
routes it through to the appropriate team – usually the Duty and Initial
Assessment Team (DIAT).
Duty and Initial Assessment Teams (DIATs) - these are small teams
that operate a ‘triage’ system to manage the 13,000 plus referrals that
are received annually. They determine the nature of the referral/case and
take any urgent action required. DIATs also provide a consultation
service for professional colleagues who need advice about whether a
child is at risk of harm. Cases only remain the responsibility of DIATs for
a short period.
DIATs have primary responsibility for initiating whatever action is neces-
sary to protect children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant
harm from sexual, physical or emotional abuse or neglect or because of
the absence of someone to care for them. Social Services DIATs have
primary responsibility for:
m Providing consultation about child protection
m Initial Assessments – analysis of information gathered to inform
decision making (Assessment framework – prescribed timescales
22 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesfor completion are measured as part of PAF)
m Forensic interviews with the police
m Undertaking S. 47 enquiries (S.47 of Children Act 1989 sets out the
duty of Social Services and the Police to investigate/make
enquiries) into allegations or suspicions of abuse
m Listening to children and taking their views into account where
appropriate
m Triggering Legal Planning meetings to determine whether
evidence is sufficient to remove child from family or institute care
qproceedings
m Triggering initial child protection conferences
m Initiating urgent court action to protect children
m Co-ordinating the initial child protection plan for children at risk of
harm
m Initiating a Family Group Conference
m Working with the family to try to establish a safe environment for the
child
m Promoting and maintaining contact with parents wherever possible
Fundamental to this work is considerable collaboration with police,
hospitals, community paediatricians, health visitors and schools.
Wherever possible, decisions must be shared with and agreed with par-
ents, and the wishes and feelings of children should be taken into account.
Initiating court proceedings to remove a child from their family is normally
the last resort. The threshold for compulsory intervention is:
‘that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and that the
harm is attributable to lack of parental care or control and that the efforts
of Social Services to co-ordinate a range of services to resolve parenting
difficulties have failed to raise the standard to an acceptable level’.
Kent has introduced Family Group Conferencing as a key decision-making
mechanism for children 10 and under on the cusp of care.
Out of Hours Service (OOH) - Social Services are also required by law to
provide child protection services 24 hours a day and Kent has an OOH
service that provides an emergency service for both children’s and adult’s
services including mental health, which has the same priority for adult’s
services as child protection within children’s services. This Service
Children, Families and Education Directorate 23responds to new referrals and also pursues outstanding urgent concerns
on open cases that could not be concluded during the day. There is an
‘alert’ system in place to facilitate this. It has a core of dedicated social
work staff and employs others on a sessional basis (often those already
operating during the day).
Long Term teams - DIATs transfer cases to these teams when longer-
term involvement is required. They carry high level Children in Need,
Child Protection and Looked After Children cases and their role is to drive
the child’s plan to achieve the desired outcome, whatever that may be.
Long term teams may need to trigger new protective actions during the
time they hold a case; this may be a child protection investigation, initial
case conferences or care proceedings through the courts. Key tasks
include specialist ongoing direct work, for example:
m Core Assessments – analysis of information informs planning
process (Assessment framework – prescribed timescales measured
as part of PAF)
m Review CP Case Conferences
m Determining whether evidence is sufficient to remove a
child/children from family or institute care proceedings
m CHIN planning meetings (where social workers are working with
families on a voluntary basis to prevent harm)
m Collecting evidence for care proceedings
m Court reports
m CHIN,CP and Care plans (planned interventions to promote change
in family functioning/dynamics to enable a child to remain or return
home)
m Rehabilitation (return home to parents)
m Statutory home visiting requirements
m Listening to children and taking their views into account
m Pursuing contingency plans in line with permanence policy (i.e.
adoption plan for all LAC aged 10 and under) completion of Form E
etc.
m Looked After Children system (materials that record how
practitioners carry out their responsibilities)
m Statutory reviews (CP & LAC) (timescales reported to DfES as part
of PAF)
m Assessments of young carers
m Assessments of privately fostered children
m Assessments of kinship carers
24 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesm Supporting LAC in foster placements – contact, health, education
etc.
m Supporting/supervising LAC placed at home and preparing case for
discharge of care order
With the exception of the CIN planning meetings all the activities listed
above are statutory.
When placing a child in a foster or residential placement social workers
have up to 36 actions to complete depending upon whether the placement
is planned, emergency or a placement change.
Social workers in long-term teams work closely with colleagues from
health and education to achieve the plans for children.
Family Support Teams (FSTs) - each District has a family support team
(FST) offering a range of ‘change promoting’ intervention services that
have developed in response to local priorities. Each team will have a mix,
of social workers and para-professionals. FSTs’ primary function is to
support front line social workers in achieving their plans for high level
CHIN/CP and LAC. To this end they provide a range of specialist
assessments or ‘change promoting’ interventions to parents and children
including:
m Intensive assessment (group or individual) for courts
m Specialist assessments of parents with learning difficulties or mental
health problems
m Parenting programmes (including domiciliary support)
m Brief solution focus therapy
m Intensive mediation
m Parenting order service
m Crisis intervention with adolescents
Specific counseling/direct work services for adolescent CIN and Looked
after Children are also provided (in some Districts through dedicated
Adolescent Resource Centres (ARCs) to promote resilience and address
trauma such as:
m Counseling for loss, depression, anger management and self-
harming behaviour
m Life story work to help make sense of what has happened
Children, Families and Education Directorate 25m Promoting self esteem
m Working with young person to help develop life skills, self protection
skills, improve concentration
m Preparation of child for adoption
m Advice regarding sexual health, drugs/alcohol misuse
FSTs are also, increasingly, providing packages of support to foster carers
to help prevent placement breakdown where children have behavioural dif-
ficulties or are not in school.
Some FSTs are also involved in collaborative work with other agencies to
provide early intervention projects. They may provide supervision, line
management, para-professional support and very occasionally social work
support (see below).
Private Fostering – this is a small service located in 3 Districts that has
the responsibility to identify and promote the well being of privately fos-
tered children. The team is required to work with colleagues in health
and schools to locate, identify and assess the needs of these children.
26 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesChapter 5
County and Specialist Services
Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking
Children (UASC)
These young people are managed through the County Asylum Service
(CAS) that has 2 teams based around functionality rather than
geographical area. One team is responsible for reception & assessment
and the other is responsible for ongoing care & transitions arrangements.
In addition CAS has a HQ policy, finance and information function. The Unit
also operates its own Reception & Assessment Centre, the ‘Appledore
Project’.
The Service employs some social workers who undertake direct work with
young people. However, the majority of young people are supported by
para professional Young Persons Community Support Workers.
Definitions afforded to ‘unaccompanied asylum seeking children are not
recognised within social care legislation but it was eventually confirmed
that UASC are subject to the provisions of the Children Act 1989 and that
there is a clear presumption that they should be considered to be looked
after. As a result, an increasing proportion of UASC become
eligible for services under the Children (Leaving Care ) Act. For those
failing to gain such eligibility, variation in S24A through the 2002 Children &
Adoption Act extends responsibilities for ‘qualifying children’.
Children, Families and Education Directorate 27Because of the very specific nature of these young people and the hazards
they are exposed to such as trafficking, the Asylum Service has had to
develop a very robust assessment process that includes the challenging
task of age assessment. Other complexities include:
m The variation of client numbers, and emergency nature of
admission to care makes strategic planning extremely
problematic
m The Unit continues to respond to adults & families who arrived
pre-April 2000 and who are still awaiting a decision. Although
reducing in number these arrangements are likely to remain in
place until at least April 2006.
m No aetiology at point of arrival make undertaking assessments
difficulty
m Mobility of population results in additional demands upon service
that may end up supporting UASC across the UK.
The variation of immigration rules, minimal commitment to voluntary
returns and limited enforcement measures result in unclear
outcomes for majority of UASC (often resulting in destitution and
homelessness)
m The difficulties around interpretation of after-care duties, made
further complicated in a two-tier authority and insufficient legal
advice to officers, make planning after-care difficulty.
m Exclusion of Immigration Service from duty to safeguard children
(and to work in partnership to do so).
CAS’s functions extend beyond the provision of front line teams and the
scope of involvement requires national and trans-national co-operation. In
addition to the provision and management of the reception, assessment
and care of UASC, the Unit is also responsible for provision (and monitor-
ing of) accommodation, financial maintenance and the full-range of leaving
care/after care duties
The unit does not have primary responsibility for investigations and inter-
ventions related to safeguarding children under s47, these are retained by
relevant Duty Teams.
CAS works closely with education and health colleagues. It also links with
outside agencies at a local, national and international level such as the
Immigration Service and Special Branch in relation to concerns around
people smuggling, and less frequently trafficking. There is a KSCB
protocol regarding responding to trafficking concerns. There are also
28 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesspecial arrangements in placed for the assessment at port with the
Immigration Service. Kent also takes a lead role nationally and is
engaged in a variety of multi-agency forums, including the development of
the National Register for Unaccompanied Children.
CAS has developed close links with the University of Kent for research,
training and consultancy. There is a Certificate Course for para-profession-
al social care staff and the University has undertaken evaluation of areas of
service intervention.
CAS is working with the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities in
the development of the Safe Case Transfer project that will see the on-
going care and support for a number of UASC be taken on by authorities in
Manchester
Family Group conferencing service (FGC)
This team is managed on a county basis to provide the decision-making
mechanism required by Kent’s Permanence and Stability policy. It
provides this service to Children’s Social Services, some schools and
Adult’s Social Care. The service has 14 FGC Co-ordinators across the
county whose job it is to facilitate the FGCs. In its first year the FGC
service facilitated 103 FGCs.
Disabled Children Service
This specialist service comprises 3 Disabled Children’s Teams, the Deaf
Children’s Team and 3 residential respite/resource centres. Together they
provide services for children whose disability is complex or profound. Kent
children who do not meet these criteria may meet the criteria as a Child in
Need for mainstream services. Teams work to the same regulations/stan-
dards as other frontline teams and have similar tasks as well as having
some additional distinct functions:
m Carer assessments (for parents of disabled children)
m Assessments for Direct Payments
m Transition planning
Children, Families and Education Directorate 29Social workers in this service also face a number of dilemmas in balancing
the needs of the child and family. There is a particular challenge in ensur-
ing that the child’s views are represented. In addition, some parents may
be very protective of their children and reluctant to let them take risks that
would increase their capacity for independence. Others may require such
high levels of respite care to the extent that the child appears excluded
from the family. Transition to adult’s services can be particularly problemat-
ic for these families. In addition, disabled children’s teams may need to
trigger new protective actions during the time they hold a case, this may be
a child protection investigation, initial case conferences or care proceed-
ings through the courts.
The 3 specialist residential units provide respite for children with profound
and complex disabilities. Many of the children accessing the units are not
formally looked after but the units have to be managed and run to the
same standards and rules as if the children were looked after. These units
are in the process of being transformed into multi-agency Resource
Centres.
Fostering Service
Kent’s policy is to place as many children as possible in family placements
unless there are clear reasons why a residential placement would better
meet their need. Kent has invested in and developed a comprehensive
in-house fostering service and it is its policy not to place in the private
sector.
Social workers in this service are required to have previous experience in
front line C&F services to ensure that the Service is child-focused and safe.
The key tasks of this service are to recruit, assess (form F), prepare,
approve, train, match children to carers, supervise carer practice, support
and review sufficient foster carers to meet the needs of LAC in Kent.
The tasks are highly regulated and subject to annual inspection by CSCI.
N.B. responsibility for the Looked after Children in placement remains with
the child’s social worker within the fieldwork teams
The Kent Fostering Service has a Gateway Team, which undertakes the
recruitment tasks and provides a one-stop-shop for prospective carers.
Social Workers are required to complete assessments within prescribed
timescales. The Service has 5 Fostering Panels (membership prescribed
by Regulations). 4 of the Panels are required to approve foster carers and
30 Index of Social Wo r k Tasks and Responsibil itiesthe 5th approves long term and specialist placements. The service
provides a mainstream service as well as a range of specialist schemes
which all have their own terms and conditions:
m Emergency placements
m Remand placements
m Single placements
m Kinship carers
m Treatment foster care
m Therapeutic foster care
m Respite care for disabled children
m Day care
The Fostering Service shares a Training Manager with Adoption who
provides specific training to foster carers and adopters. Foster carers are
also offered training to NVQ 3. The Fostering Service provides its carers
with Out of Hours support by linking in with the County Out of Hours
Service. Support packages can be designed to help carers manage
children with complex needs. Placement stability is reported as part of the
PAF process.
Retention of foster carers is also a key element of the Service’s role as it
has to compete with 35+ Independent Fostering Agencies in Kent at any
time.
Children, Families and Education Directorate are funding 4 Education
Support Workers who are based with Fostering Teams to work with foster
carers to help them support and promote the learning of looked after
children in placement.
Adoption Service
Adoption is another very specialist service that is highly regulated and
requires social worker skills and competencies. The Gateway team recruits
adopters, and social workers undertake assessment (to prescribed
timescales), preparation, approval (Form F), matching (including
assessment for adoption support needs) and support to adoption order.
Service has 7 Adoption Panels (membership prescribed by Regulations)
who make recommendations in relation to children, prospective adopters
and the match. Area Heads of Children’s Services are the Decision-maker
in all cases.
Children, Families and Education Directorate 31The Adoption Service’s key task is to find adopters for Looked after
Children who have an adoption plan. The % of Looked after Children
adopted is a PAF indicator and Kent has been very successful in increas-
ing the number of children adopted, including older children or those with
complex needs. Kent is a member of the S.E. Adoption Consortium.
The Adoption Service also undertakes the following statutory functions:
m Counseling of birth parents who are considering relinquishing their
babies for adoption. Adoption Service takes on responsibility for
placing any babies.
m Step-parent adoptions
m International adoptions by Kent residents.
Concurrency project – this project was set up in Thanet in response to
the number of babies being placed for adoption. It enables prospective
adopters to be approved both as foster carers and adopters so that if the
rehabilitation plan for the child is not successful the child does not have to
go through a further move. The project only takes children where the
prognosis for rehabilitation is poor. Parental consent is also mandatory for
involvement in the project. Project workers work very closely with
Children’s Guardians and Courts.
Adoption Support Service – this new team came into being as a result of
the Adoption and Children Act 2002. It not only has a responsibility to sup-
port Kent children, foster carers and adopters but also those children
placed for adoption in Kent by other authorities.
Residential care
Kent has one specialist residential unit (in addition to Appledore at
Swattenden already mentioned). Alderden House which provides care for
up to 7 children with severe attachment disorders that have resulted from
abuse or neglect. The unit operates on a theoretical model developed in
Forest Heights, USA and its purpose is to help children trust adults so that
they can attach to carers and live with families in the community. The unit
employs its own Clinical Psychologist on a sessional basis. Admission to
the unit is via a specialist Panel. Every effort is made to ensure that these
children attend mainstream school.
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