Loud Voices group
- Within the LAC service we really value participation with our Looked After children and we have invested in this area of Service
- The LAC service has a group of existing young people in care whom act as a voice to other Looked After Children hence the title ‘’LOUD VOICES’’ group
Complex Housing Panel
One of the key achievements this year has been the establishment of the Complex needs Housing Panel. [Read more…]
Connected Persons
As a permanent option for Looked After Children we are promoting children remaining within their family or with those adults they are connected with. [Read more…]
When I am Ready (WIR) scheme
Under the WIR scheme, it is proposed that the responsible local authority will have an ongoing duty to support ”eligible” children to remain with their foster carer/s beyond the age of 18, where the young person has requested this support. It recognises that not all young people are ready for the move to independent living at 18 and the new arrangements will offer a more gradual approach to planning the transition to adulthood, within a supportive family and household environment. [Read more…]
Corporate Parenting strategy
Conwy has a three year Corporate Parenting strategy to ensure that the whole Local Authority are engaged in their Corporate Parenting duty to Looked After Children. The strategy has five themes: Home, Education, Health, Leisure and Leaving care. [Read more…]
LAC Permanency
A range of developments during 2014-15 have helped to improve our position with regard to providing and maintaining permanency and stable placements for Looked After Children. [Read more…]
Preventing residential admissions and re-settling people in to appropriate housing
Preventing admission to residential care by using existing CCBC properties as temporary accommodation has made it possible to resettle complex individuals into appropriate housing. [Read more…]
Fit Steps
Active and Creative Lifestyles (within the Community Development Service), has a history of providing positive support to enabling access to leisure services, work experience and employment opportunities for vulnerable people. Establishing a pilot project with Social Services has built on this success and enable us to explore new opportunities through volunteer and work experience within leisure facilities enabling individuals to gain confidence to move on to other things.
Fit Steps was developed in June 2014. It is a programme for adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and sensory impairment, and allows individuals to find out about and attend activities at local Leisure Centres throughout Conwy.
Support is provided for up to 16 weeks and this can be extended if needed to enable individuals to eventually get to the leisure centre by themselves, use the facilities in the leisure centre and go to the activity fully independently.
Whilst the person is learning how to do this, they are fully supported by a member of staff from Disability Services who will teach them the skills needed to get there and take part in the activity.
People that have attended the programme so far have benefited in the following ways:
- Learnt new skills and become fully independent in travelling to activities
- Made new friends and become involved in other activities as a result of these new friendships
- Learnt time management skills
- Increased motivation and choosing to attend additional activities unprompted
- Improved mental wellbeing – sleeping, reduction in anxieties, choosing to eat healthier foods
- Losing weight
- Improvement in health conditions such as diabetes
- Improvement in social skills
- Increased contact with the general public, improving integration into the wider community
- Improved confidence in family members encouraging further independence in the individual
- Reduction in support hours required from traditional service models
Let’s Get Working Programme made sustainable
The Let’s Get Working Programme was developed to provide a “one stop shop” to support people in Conwy to overcome barriers that prevented them progressing into education, training, volunteering, work experience and employment. [Read more…]
Locality Health & Wellbeing Hubs
Early in 2014 all six North Wales Local Authorities and the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board agreed the future framework for the delivery of integrated Health and Social Care for Older People with Complex Needs. A Statement of Intent was issued emphasising the need to take a robust and immediate approach to the Integration of Services for Older People. [Read more…]
Preventative and Early Intervention (Adults)
De-escalation from PLO (Public Law Outline)
The Family Justice Review (2011) was informed by extensive research on the effects of abuse and neglect on children, particularly those under 5. It found that average duration of cases through the Court system was 50 weeks, with some cases taking up to 61 weeks. The review concluded that this was unacceptable and the system required redesigning in order to reduce the time children were waiting for decisions about permanency. [Read more…]
Edge of Care Panel
The Edge of Care panel includes representatives from Fieldwork, Fostering and the Family Intervention Team, and takes a holistic approach to planning and decision making in respect of children and young people most at risk of coming into care.
The Edge of Care panel will focus on:
- Cases on the child protection register for more than six months, where the social worker feels that the case is heading towards the PLO process
- Cases where the social worker has identified the need for viability assessments
- CIN cases where the young person is considered at risk of coming into care
Functions of the panel
- Provide an opportunity to present and discuss complex CP cases open over six months where progress is not being made under the pre-proceedings protocol.
- To discuss cases where family members are being considered as alternative carers.
- To track progress around the completion of the full connected persons document
- To empower the worker, strengthen the decisions of social workers.
- To take shared ownership between Fieldwork and Fostering in joint decision making.
- To ensure clearer accountability and identification of outcomes for families.
Panel members have sufficient authority to commit resources in addition to signposting social workers to appropriate services. Where necessary, panel members will fast-track the delivery of services identified in relation to their respective disciplines. The panel will quality assure and review the cases with the Team Manager and social worker where a decision not to accommodate has been made, but ongoing monitoring is required.
Panel referral criteria
- Open Child in Need case/ Child on the Child protections register/ Child’s wider family members subject to a connected persons assessment
- Completed Core assessment in respect of the child
The Panel will:
- meet initially once a month/ or as required if the section leaders feel this is required
- consider cases based on an assessment of need
- have the delegated authority to allocate resources from their service area
- If assessed support is not available, provide interim support
Four Edge of Care panels have taken place since they began in October 2014. We are in the initial stages regarding the impact.
Child Sexual Exploitation and Missing Children
During 2014-15, the Conwy and Denbighshire CSE and Missing Children Task Group met quarterly. Barnardos also attend. The work of this group will be strengthened by a 3 year CSE Practitioner Project to raise awareness about Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and to improve the outcomes for young people identified as being at risk. [Read more…]