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Children, Families andEducation Directorate

Children’s Social ServicesIndex of Social Work Tasks and

Responsibilities

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Photos on following pages courtesy of www.johnbirdsall.co.uk: Cover topleft, top centre, top right and bottom far right. : Top centre, top right.

Page 3: Top centre. Page 33: far right. Page 39: Top right.

March 2007

Children, Families and Education Directorate

Children’s Social ServicesIndex of Social Work Tasks

and Responsibilities

1

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

Contents Page

Introduction

The Children Act 2004 requires major changes in the way agencies worktogether. While the legislation does not change the core tasks ofChildren’s Social Services, this document, which describes the tasks andresponsibilities of Children’s Social Services and how these are organisedin Kent, has been developed to contribute to improving partnership workingby promoting a better understanding of the social work role.

Every effort has been made to avoid jargon in this document and to clarifyacronyms. In addition, a Glossary of terms is attached as Appendix 1.

IInnddeexx ooff SSoocciiaall WWoorrkk TTaasskkss aanndd RReessppoonnssiibbiilliittiieess 2

Legislative and national policy framework

Children’s Social Services is very heavily regulated and a table settingout the legislative and national policy framework is attached as Appendix2. 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 hasa statutory responsibility to designate an individual to be accountable andresponsible 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 ofChildren’s Services (DCS). In Kent the Managing Director of Children,Families and Education Directorate is the Director of Children’s Servicesfor 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 Actintroduced the following terminology:

Children, Families and Education Directorate 3

Chapter 1Introduction to Social Work

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 ofachieving 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 systemsare 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. Thismeans that to all intents and purposes the rights and responsibilities of a parent are held by Social Services on behalf


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 mustbe 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 childis 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 firsteven 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 fromthat entered into with parents/family or children. Partnership can meanmany things and does not necessarily mean equality in terms of decisionmaking 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 indeveloping successful partnerships with children and their families, often incircumstances 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.


The Framework for Assessment of Children in Need and theirFamilies (DOH 2000) is statutory guidance that is fundamental to socialwork as it sets out the way social workers must collect, record, understand and analyse information against 3 key dimensions oftenreferred to as the ‘assessment triangle’:

m Child’s individual needsm Parenting capacitym 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 subjectto the same timescales.

The NHS & Community Care Act 1990 introduced thepurchaser/provider concept and provides the framework for Children’sSocial Services commissioning function. Funding of services commissioned through voluntary organisations is made in accordancewith powers under S.65 of the Health Services and Public Health Act1968.



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 SocialCare Council in order to work as a social worker. To retain their registration social workers have to demonstrate that they have engagedin 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, educationand after care arrangements;

m Undertaking key worker (Lead Professional) function for LAC and discharging the parental responsibilities in partnership with parentsdepending 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 yeardegree course or by studying for a post graduate degree. They aretrained to use a range of theoretical and conceptual models to informtheir work including:

m Child developmentm Child psychologym Psychodynamic theorym Attachment theorym Learning theory

Training and development – social workers are required to completepost qualifying training leading to the Child Care Award.


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 orfamily or group. There are also additional tasks associated with socialwork specialisms.

Supervision – regular ‘clinical’ supervision by a qualified PracticeSupervisor 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 theywitness and helps them make difficult decisions relating to the lives andwelfare of children.

Standards and InspectionThe Commission for Social Care Inspectorate (CSCI) is currently responsible for ensuring that standards within children’s Social Servicesare met. CSCI is due to become integrated with OfSTED. The key CSCIStandard 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 thePerformance Assessment Framework (PAF) as part of the AnnualPerformance Assessment (APA) process. For the first time in 2005 thisassessment was undertaken jointly with Local Education Authority services.

The Integrated Inspection programme that is currently being piloted willalso involve a Joint Area Review (JAR) which will cover all services forchildren.

Chapter TwoIntroduction to Children’s Social Work

Services in Kent

IntroductionThe purpose of the Children’s Social Services Division is to plan, deliver,commission and develop services that provide protection for children atrisk of abuse or neglect, that comprehensively meet the needs of childrenwho 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 leadershiprole in the community to provide guidance and services that prevent theneed 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 budgetof £75m.

Following the Children Act 2004, Children’s Social Services Division wasseparated from Adults Social Services and combined with education services to establish a new entity: the Children, Families and EducationDirectorate.

The period 2006/7 is the first operational year for the new Children’sSocial Services Division, and has been marked by significant change.


Performance

Children’s Social Services had achieved 3 stars before re-organisationand the Division has sustained its performance with a classification ofexcellent through the Government’s Comprehensive PerformanceAssessment in November 2006 with 15 PAF Indicators in the top performing Bands. Particular achievements were improving stability ofLooked after Children and the timeliness of reviews for looked after children and children on the CP register. All CP reviews were held withintimescales and 96% of LAC reviews were held on time.

Organisation

Children’s Social Services Division (CSS) is part of the Children, Familiesand 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 workingm Business support - Planning, performance monitoring, contracting

The assessment and intervention services are organised into 12 Districtsthat have the same boundaries as Kent’s 12 District Councils. These inturn are linked in groups line managed by a Head of Service:

m East Kent group – Swale, Thanet and Canterburym Mid Kent group – Dover, Folkestone, Ashford, Maidstonem West Kent group – Gravesend, Dartford, Swanley, Tonbridge &

Malling, Tunbridge Wells

Services are delivered from 75 teams and the deployment of these teamscan be found in Appendix 4.

The organisation of Children’s Social Services is kept under review toensure that it is as efficient, flexible and cost effective as possible.


Staffing

Management - the CSS senior management team comprises:

m Director of Children’s Social Services Divisionm 3 operational Heads of Service (Assessment and intervention

services)m Head of Specialist Services Unitm Head of Asylum Unitm Head of CSS Business Unit

The wider management team includes the 12 District Managers andService 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 socialworkers 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 aredeployed 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 arange of recruitment and retention practices known as the Staff CarePackage that include:

m Ready for Practice scheme (Kent growing its own)m Competitive salariesm Range of roles that extend practice – Practice Supervisor, Senior

Practitionerm Skill mix approachm Exchange programmem Sabbaticals

Professional training and development – Kent has a dedicatedChildren’s Professional Training Manager and Training Consultants whotogether co-ordinate the provision of a range of professional training thatsupports the Post Qualifying Framework and includes mandatory courses


that are intended to equip newly qualified practitioners for the complexityof their tasks. Increasingly, training is multi-agency in nature. Kent alsoprovides 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 inrelation to the supervision of social work practitioners. Specialist dedicat-ed Practice Supervisor posts were created in 2003/4 in recognition of theimportance of this task.

Para professionals – as part of the skill mix approach Children’s SocialServices has gone through a process of identifying core tasks that onlysocial workers may undertake and have delegated others either to skilledsupport staff or para professionals.

Most teams now have assistant practitioners whose role it is to supportsocial workers in undertaking their core tasks. These staff have their owntraining and development path and there is no expectation or guaranteethat they will qualify as social workers.

Core activity

Every year Children’s Social Services receives in the region of 14,000referrals, undertakes around 2,500 child protection investigations and isworking with:

m 700 children on the Child Protection Register m 1,250 Looked after Childrenm 900 disabled childrenm 200 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people

A table setting out greater detail of CSS core activity is provided inAppendix 4.

Commissioning services

Kent Children’s Social Services commissioning role is located at variouslevels within the organisation depending upon the size, level and cost.


The 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 schemesm Adoption Support Servicem 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 - Rainerm Complaints and Representation Service for CIN - NCHm Independent Support for Adopted Adults and their families - NCHm 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 anearly 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.


Business 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 socialservice units to plan, commission and deliver the pattern of social workservices required to meet identified needs.

Services provided include:

m A small planning section that assists with service developmentsm Contracts support team that oversees 150 contracts and service

agreementsm Management Support team that oversees the CSS property

portfolio of 45 buildings, some office facilities and a customer careteam

m A Performance Monitoring section that produces management andperformance monitoring information and maintains data quality to monitor the effectiveness of CSS



Chapter ThreeKent Policy Framework

In addition to the national policy and legislative framework, Kent hasdeveloped a range of local policy to reflect its priorities. Set out below arethe key policies that shape the way Kent’s Children’s Social Servicesoperate. A table setting out further detail of the local policy framework isset 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 despitethe efforts of dedicated foster carers and professionals. Looked afterChildren are over-represented in prison populations and amongst thehomeless. Their experiences and the instability of their lives means thattheir 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

term care is a last resort for younger children but may provide stability forolder children.

Kent’s Permanence and Stability policy is supported by 2 further policies:

m Family Group Conferencing (FGC) - Family Group Conferencingis 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 andsafe plans, and that the clients and their families know themselvesbest. 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 undermust 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 inevery 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 setout 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 thatare based on agreement rather than legal directives, so


normalising 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 1994Kent 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 allchildren in need rather than restricting eligibility to those at risk.However, the Safeguards Inspection in 2000 identified that this aspirationwas being pursued at the cost of protecting children.

Therefore, Kent Children’s Social Services reviewed its Eligibility Criteriaand 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 managerswhen evaluating referrals in order to focus scarce CSS resources wherethese are most needed, namely children who are experiencing a highlevel of need, which is likely to result in them being at risk of significantharm 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


services 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 itsdirect 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 ofservices designed to reduce the incidence of risk and avoid harm or familybreakdown are developed.

Commissioning policy

Kent Children’s Social Services distinguishes purchasing a service tomeet the specific needs of a particular child from commissioning servicesfor groups or cohorts of children and their families with similar needs.Children’s Social Services does both but became a major commissioner ofservices for vulnerable children and their families following the NHS andCommunity Care Act 1990. Kent took a decision that wherever possibleand appropriate it should apply commissioning principles to children’sprovider services. The following criteria were developed to help deter-mine whether a service should be purchased or commissioned in-house orexternally:

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 isunable 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 wasrecognised that the statutory nature of children’s social work


services 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 alanguage that it has in common with Health to define levels or tiers ofservice or interventions. An integrated table of definitions (Levels ofService 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 ofCSS (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

centrem 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 ofboth statutory and non statutory services with other agencies (e.g. Thanetmulti-agency service and Adolescent Resource Centre in West Kent andthe 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 moreagencies jointly fund a service. Collaborative commissioning is whereagencies pool resources other than money (such as staff) to provide aservice. Examples of collaborative services are:

m WAVE in Doverm Causeway in Folkestone

Children’s Social Services is not funded to provide preventative or earlyintervention services and investment in early intervention services isalways fragile. One of the major challenges facing all children’s socialservices is developing the capacity to provide preventative and early intervention services in the face of continuing pressures to resource ChildProtection, Looked after Children services and services for high level


Children in Need and disabled children. Many recent initiatives (such asWAVE and Causeway) were part financed by savings within SocialServices as a result of reducing the number of Kent LAC under PSA1, andby PSA1 reward money. The hope is that the services will impact andreduce 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 Mattersoutcomes for Looked after Children as set out in the Healthy Care programme which reflects the fact that outcomes for Looked after Childrendepend upon a variety of factors and that the term ‘health’ should be seenas a broad concept. Healthy Care has identified the following 6 key standards, which broadly correspond to the developmental needs set outin the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and theirFamilies, that local authorities should aspire to. Looked after Childrenshould:

m Feel safe, protected and valued. They should be able to develop asustained 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 4Ps:

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


trained 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 wasre-introduced and clarified under the Quality Protects initiative in 1998 toraise the profile of Looked after Children with Elected Members and otherprofessionals within the local authority as a way of improving outcomes,particularly educational outcomes, for LAC. The message behind it wasthat the local authority as an entity should take responsibility for promotingthe well being of their LAC.

The principle of corporate responsibility remains important despite the factthat the Children Act 2004 placed a duty on all statutory agencies to pro-mote the education of LAC and DoH has published Healthy CareStandards, which provide the framework for health authorities and localauthorities 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 SocialServices when a child is in care. Corporate parenting does not confer anyrights 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 detailedand currently comprise a combination of physical files that have 9 sectionsand 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 theFramework for Assessment and Looked after Children paperwork andwhich will partially replace paper files. ICS will save practitioner time as itis programmed to cascade information to other documents within the system thus avoiding duplication.



Chapter FourAssessment 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 byChildren’s and Adult’s Social Services. CDS ensures that the informationreceived is adequate, that the appropriate referral form is completed,checks whether the child/family is already known, logs the referral on theChildren’s database and acknowledges receipt of the referral and thenroutes it through to the appropriate team – usually the Duty and InitialAssessment Team (DIAT).

Duty and Initial Assessment Teams (DIATs) - these are small teamsthat operate a ‘triage’ system to manage the 13,000 plus referrals thatare received annually. They determine the nature of the referral/case andtake any urgent action required. DIATs also provide a consultation service for professional colleagues who need advice about whether achild is at risk of harm. Cases only remain the responsibility of DIATs fora short period.

DIATs have primary responsibility for initiating whatever action is neces-sary to protect children who are suffering or likely to suffer significantharm from sexual, physical or emotional abuse or neglect or because ofthe absence of someone to care for them. Social Services DIATs haveprimary responsibility for:

m Providing consultation about child protectionm Initial Assessments – analysis of information gathered to inform

decision making (Assessment framework – prescribed timescales


for completion are measured as part of PAF)m Forensic interviews with the policem 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 conferencesm Initiating urgent court action to protect childrenm Co-ordinating the initial child protection plan for children at risk of

harmm Initiating a Family Group Conferencem Working with the family to try to establish a safe environment for the

childm 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 normallythe last resort. The threshold for compulsory intervention is:

‘that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and that theharm is attributable to lack of parental care or control and that the effortsof 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-makingmechanism for children 10 and under on the cusp of care.

Out of Hours Service (OOH) - Social Services are also required by law toprovide child protection services 24 hours a day and Kent has an OOHservice that provides an emergency service for both children’s and adult’sservices including mental health, which has the same priority for adult’sservices as child protection within children’s services. This Service


responds to new referrals and also pursues outstanding urgent concernson 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 socialwork staff and employs others on a sessional basis (often those alreadyoperating 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 drivethe child’s plan to achieve the desired outcome, whatever that may be.Long term teams may need to trigger new protective actions during thetime they hold a case; this may be a child protection investigation, initialcase conferences or care proceedings through the courts. Key tasksinclude specialist ongoing direct work, for example:

m Core Assessments – analysis of information informs planning process (Assessment framework – prescribed timescales measuredas part of PAF)

m Review CP Case Conferencesm Determining whether evidence is sufficient to remove a

child/children from family or institute care proceedingsm CHIN planning meetings (where social workers are working with

families on a voluntary basis to prevent harm)m Collecting evidence for care proceedingsm Court reportsm 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 requirementsm Listening to children and taking their views into accountm Pursuing contingency plans in line with permanence policy (i.e.

adoption plan for all LAC aged 10 and under) completion of Form Eetc.

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 carersm Assessments of privately fostered childrenm Assessments of kinship carers


m 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 listedabove are statutory.

When placing a child in a foster or residential placement social workershave up to 36 actions to complete depending upon whether the placementis planned, emergency or a placement change.

Social workers in long-term teams work closely with colleagues fromhealth 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 thathave 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 levelCHIN/CP and LAC. To this end they provide a range of specialist assessments or ‘change promoting’ interventions to parents and childrenincluding:

m Intensive assessment (group or individual) for courtsm Specialist assessments of parents with learning difficulties or mental

health problemsm Parenting programmes (including domiciliary support)m Brief solution focus therapym Intensive mediationm Parenting order servicem Crisis intervention with adolescents

Specific counseling/direct work services for adolescent CIN and Lookedafter Children are also provided (in some Districts through dedicatedAdolescent Resource Centres (ARCs) to promote resilience and addresstrauma 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


m Promoting self esteemm Working with young person to help develop life skills, self protection

skills, improve concentrationm Preparation of child for adoptionm Advice regarding sexual health, drugs/alcohol misuse

FSTs are also, increasingly, providing packages of support to foster carersto 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 toprovide early intervention projects. They may provide supervision, linemanagement, para-professional support and very occasionally social worksupport (see below).

Private Fostering – this is a small service located in 3 Districts that hasthe responsibility to identify and promote the well being of privately fos-tered children. The team is required to work with colleagues in healthand schools to locate, identify and assess the needs of these children.


Chapter 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 & assessmentand the other is responsible for ongoing care & transitions arrangements.In addition CAS has a HQ policy, finance and information function. The Unitalso operates its own Reception & Assessment Centre, the ‘AppledoreProject’.

The Service employs some social workers who undertake direct work withyoung people. However, the majority of young people are supported bypara professional Young Persons Community Support Workers.

Definitions afforded to ‘unaccompanied asylum seeking children are notrecognised within social care legislation but it was eventually confirmedthat UASC are subject to the provisions of the Children Act 1989 and thatthere is a clear presumption that they should be considered to be lookedafter. 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’.


Because of the very specific nature of these young people and the hazardsthey are exposed to such as trafficking, the Asylum Service has had todevelop a very robust assessment process that includes the challengingtask 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 voluntaryreturns 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 thescope of involvement requires national and trans-national co-operation. Inaddition to the provision and management of the reception, assessmentand care of UASC, the Unit is also responsible for provision (and monitor-ing of) accommodation, financial maintenance and the full-range of leavingcare/after care duties

The unit does not have primary responsibility for investigations and inter-ventions related to safeguarding children under s47, these are retained byrelevant 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 theImmigration Service and Special Branch in relation to concerns aroundpeople smuggling, and less frequently trafficking. There is a KSCB protocol regarding responding to trafficking concerns. There are also


special arrangements in placed for the assessment at port with theImmigration Service. Kent also takes a lead role nationally and isengaged in a variety of multi-agency forums, including the development ofthe 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 ofservice intervention.

CAS is working with the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities inthe 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 inManchester

Family Group conferencing service (FGC)

This team is managed on a county basis to provide the decision-makingmechanism required by Kent’s Permanence and Stability policy. It provides this service to Children’s Social Services, some schools andAdult’s Social Care. The service has 14 FGC Co-ordinators across thecounty whose job it is to facilitate the FGCs. In its first year the FGCservice facilitated 103 FGCs.

Disabled Children Service

This specialist service comprises 3 Disabled Children’s Teams, the DeafChildren’s Team and 3 residential respite/resource centres. Together theyprovide services for children whose disability is complex or profound. Kentchildren who do not meet these criteria may meet the criteria as a Child inNeed for mainstream services. Teams work to the same regulations/stan-dards as other frontline teams and have similar tasks as well as havingsome additional distinct functions:

m Carer assessments (for parents of disabled children)m Assessments for Direct Paymentsm Transition planning


Social workers in this service also face a number of dilemmas in balancingthe 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 maybe very protective of their children and reluctant to let them take risks thatwould increase their capacity for independence. Others may require suchhigh levels of respite care to the extent that the child appears excludedfrom the family. Transition to adult’s services can be particularly problemat-ic for these families. In addition, disabled children’s teams may need totrigger new protective actions during the time they hold a case, this may bea child protection investigation, initial case conferences or care proceed-ings through the courts.

The 3 specialist residential units provide respite for children with profoundand complex disabilities. Many of the children accessing the units are notformally looked after but the units have to be managed and run to thesame standards and rules as if the children were looked after. These unitsare in the process of being transformed into multi-agency ResourceCentres.

Fostering Service

Kent’s policy is to place as many children as possible in family placementsunless there are clear reasons why a residential placement would bettermeet their need. Kent has invested in and developed a comprehensivein-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 infront 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, supportand 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 withthe child’s social worker within the fieldwork teams

The Kent Fostering Service has a Gateway Team, which undertakes therecruitment tasks and provides a one-stop-shop for prospective carers.Social Workers are required to complete assessments within prescribedtimescales. The Service has 5 Fostering Panels (membership prescribedby Regulations). 4 of the Panels are required to approve foster carers and


the 5th approves long term and specialist placements. The service provides a mainstream service as well as a range of specialist schemeswhich all have their own terms and conditions:

m Emergency placementsm Remand placementsm Single placementsm Kinship carersm Treatment foster carem Therapeutic foster carem Respite care for disabled childrenm Day care

The Fostering Service shares a Training Manager with Adoption who provides specific training to foster carers and adopters. Foster carers arealso offered training to NVQ 3. The Fostering Service provides its carerswith Out of Hours support by linking in with the County Out of HoursService. Support packages can be designed to help carers manage children with complex needs. Placement stability is reported as part of thePAF process.

Retention of foster carers is also a key element of the Service’s role as ithas to compete with 35+ Independent Fostering Agencies in Kent at anytime.

Children, Families and Education Directorate are funding 4 EducationSupport Workers who are based with Fostering Teams to work with fostercarers to help them support and promote the learning of looked after children in placement.

Adoption ServiceAdoption is another very specialist service that is highly regulated andrequires social worker skills and competencies. The Gateway team recruitsadopters, and social workers undertake assessment (to prescribedtimescales), 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 adoptersand the match. Area Heads of Children’s Services are the Decision-makerin all cases.


The Adoption Service’s key task is to find adopters for Looked afterChildren who have an adoption plan. The % of Looked after Childrenadopted is a PAF indicator and Kent has been very successful in increas-ing the number of children adopted, including older children or those withcomplex 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 adoptionsm International adoptions by Kent residents.

Concurrency project – this project was set up in Thanet in response tothe number of babies being placed for adoption. It enables prospectiveadopters to be approved both as foster carers and adopters so that if therehabilitation plan for the child is not successful the child does not have togo through a further move. The project only takes children where theprognosis for rehabilitation is poor. Parental consent is also mandatory forinvolvement in the project. Project workers work very closely withChildren’s Guardians and Courts.

Adoption Support Service – this new team came into being as a result ofthe Adoption and Children Act 2002. It not only has a responsibility to sup-port Kent children, foster carers and adopters but also those childrenplaced for adoption in Kent by other authorities.

Residential care

Kent has one specialist residential unit (in addition to Appledore atSwattenden already mentioned). Alderden House which provides care forup to 7 children with severe attachment disorders that have resulted fromabuse or neglect. The unit operates on a theoretical model developed inForest Heights, USA and its purpose is to help children trust adults so thatthey can attach to carers and live with families in the community. The unitemploys its own Clinical Psychologist on a sessional basis. Admission tothe unit is via a specialist Panel. Every effort is made to ensure that thesechildren attend mainstream school.


Chapter 6Externally Commisioned Statutory Services

These services are subject to formal contract:

16Plus

The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 reinforced and strengthened localauthorities’ duties and responsibilities towards young people in the processof leaving care or having left care. It made post-care support a statutoryresponsibility for young people up to the age of 21 or 24 if they continue ineducation or training.

Kent’s 16Plus service provides the primary services to Kent’s care leaversand looked after children aged 16 years plus. The service is providedthrough a partnership between Kent County Council (social services andyouth and community) and Rainer whereby resources and budgets areshared and an integrated service is provided by staff employed by bothorganisations, including social worlkers and para professionals workingtogether and in close partnership with other agencies.

User involvement in planning and evaluating services is a key theme of thephilosophy behind 16Plus. The 16Plus service is organised into 4 teams(West Kent Area; Mid Kent Area and two teams in East Kent) and each isexpected to provide a comprehensive service:

m Assessment of needm Personal Advisor


m Pathway planningm Accommodationm Education Training and employmentm Personal supportm Life skillsm Financial supportm Keeping in touch

Kent Independent Support Service for Kinship and Adoption

This service is contracted out to NCH and provides the following:

m Counselling/tracking service for adults adopted as childrenm Counselling/tracking for parents/relatives of adults adopted as

childrenm Counselling for parents whose children are being adopted without

their consentm Contact service for all Kent’s adopted childrenm Support service for Kinship carers

All but the last service are required by statute. The kinship service is beingdeveloped to support Kent’s Permanence, Kinship and FGC policies.

Advocacy

The Children Act 1989 also requires local authorities to provide advocacyservices for Looked after Children and in Kent this service is called Upfrontand is commissioned through the Council for Social Responsibility. Upfrontruns groups and activities for looked after children and also a newsletter. Italso organises opportunities for children to be consulted or feedback eithergenerally or in relation to specific issues.

Independent Visitors

The Children Act 1989 required authorities to provide an independent person to support and befriend Looked After Children and young people

who do not have support from a parent or other adult. The role of theIndependent Visitors is to ensure that the child’s wishes and feelings aretaken into account in the services that are provided for them. Kent hascommissioned the Council for Social Responsibility to provide this serviceon its behalf.

Complaints and Representations

The Children Act 1989 required local authorities to provide an independentperson to investigate any complaints that a child or young person in needmight wish to make about services. The Children Act 2004 obliges localauthorities to provide an independent complaints/representations servicefor Children in Need. Kent has had this in place for some years commissioned through NCH.

Child witness service

This service is commissioned through Victim Support Ltd and provides asupport service for children who have made allegations of abuse and haveto appear before a court in either criminal or care proceedings.



Chapter 7

Ancillary Services for Children in Need

Criminal injuries compensation

Specialist co-ordinators are employed in each Area to claim compensationon behalf of individual children within the CP or LAC systems for anyabuse they may have suffered. Trust funds are then set up and managedon their behalf by the Policy and Performance section at Headquarters.Kent’s policy enables children to access their Trust fund during their childhood rather than waiting until they reach 18.

Access to records

Children and their carers are encouraged to contribute to and look at theirfiles as part of the work with the family. However, at any time a child orperson who was in care as a child may seek access to their file and theDirectorate has to facilitate this within the timescale required by the legislation. This process has to be carefully managed because the natureof the material in the file could be distressing to the young person. In addition, the files always contain 3rd party information where agreement toshare it has not been obtained. Facilitation, therefore, involves detailedwork on identifying and removing information from files to which the datasubject has no right of access.


Looked after Children packs

Kent has developed an information pack that all Looked After Childrenshould receive on placement. This includes information on children’s rightsas well as more practical information about what they can expect fromKent.

Listening to children

The Children Act 1989 requires Children’s Social Services, where appropriate, to consult children about plans that are made for them and torecord their views. CSS encourages children, young people and their parents to provide their views and to influence the social work decisionsthat affect them as individuals or families. Examples include family groupconferencing and the contribution of children and young people at childcare reviews.

Families of disabled children have been asked their views on local servicesand have been actively involved in the development of the children’sresource centres. There are also several parents’ groups around the county providing an opportunity to influence the development of local services such as Adolescent Resource Centres. The division is continuingto develop its approaches to citizen engagement ensuring the views of children, young people and parents and carers are heard, including thosewho might be considered “hard to reach”.

To support this process CSS has invested in laptops and a software programme called Viewpoint that enables children and young people torecord their views about their care arrangements in a user friendly and ageappropriate way. They can also use this technology to contribute to theirstatutory reviews.

Emotional Support for Looked after Children

Children’s Social Services funds dedicated LAC Mental Health advisersand a clinical child psychotherapist – hosted by CAMHS – to provide advocacy for children and consultation, support and training to social workers, foster carers and teachers who work with Kent Looked after


Children. They will also provide clinical support to practitioners who areproviding ‘direct’ work services to help Looked after Children developresilience and promote their mental health.

Legal Services

Children’s Social Services undertakes in excess of 200 care proceedingsand in the region of 120 adoption or other proceedings each year. TheJudicial Protocol has set a target that requires care proceedings to be completed within 40 weeks and this places considerable pressure uponfront line social work staff who are expected to gather the evidence, identifyand prepare witnesses and complete court reports. Increasingly, final hearings are taking up to 4 days to complete. In order to support this, theauthority employs teams of dedicated solicitors to provide legal advice andwho present cases to court on the instruction of social workers.

Customer Care

Social Services has a unit that is dedicated to managing the interface withservice users. This is particularly important in relation to children’s socialservices because the involuntary nature of much of the service makes itimperative that there is an objective and robust process in place for managing communication and complaints.


Chapter 8

Strategy, Policy and Performance

Children’s Social Services is subject to performance monitoring and management from the Strategy, Policy and Performance Division (SP&P)which is a separate part of Children, Families and Education Directorate toensure that it is objective and independent of operational managementarrangements. It has a number of general and specialist functions relatingto policy, planning and performance management.

Policy – children and families social work is very heavily regulated, complex and subject to frequent policy changes. In order to ensure consistency, policy development is led from a dedicated Policy andPerformance unit at headquarters. Key activities include the:

m Interpretation of all relevant government policy, legislation and guidance;

m Provision of briefings and reports on policy and recommendations regarding any necessary actions for senior managers and members;

m Implementation of government policy and legislation through production of procedure and guidance;

m Scrutiny of local, national and international research to inform practice guidance;

m Keeping existing policy/procedure under review to ensure that it is fit for purpose;

m Development of local policy/procedure to support plans and objectives. This often involves negotiation with DfES to ensure that policy does not conflict with national policy or objectives;


Production of practice guidance based on research and best practice;Development of multi-agency partnerships. Children’s Social Services hasa statutory duty to promote partnership working with parents and otheragencies under the Children Act 1989. Therefore, Children’s SocialServices was well placed to take a lead role in the development of policyarising from the Every Child Matters/Children Act 2004 to ensure that theinterests of vulnerable children are prioritised.

The SP&P Division maintains a web site where all policy and procedure islodged to ensure that it is easily accessible to practitioners and managers.This also ensures that practitioners always have access to the most up-to-date version. There is a system of notices that alerts managers and practi-tioners when documents have been amended or new documents pub-lished. District managers are expected to ensure that key changes arebrought to the attention of their staff through a range of mechanismsincluding workshops, practice briefings, supervision etc. Complex or majorpolicy developments are implemented through Area Workshops facilitatedby the Lead Policy Manager. Appendix 3 sets out the policy, guidance andprocedures that regulate the day to day practice of social workers.Compliance is checked through regular audits.

Members of the headquarters SP&P Division also make and maintain linkswith a range of government departments, both national and regional andother authorities in order to ensure that it is fully informed and also to learnfrom the best practice of others rather than re-invent wheels.

Planning – this function in Children’s Social Services is co-ordinated fromheadquarters to ensure that plans are consistent and, where necessary,reflect strategic priorities and objectives. Children’s Social Servicesengages in or contributes to different levels of planning:

m Statutory plans such as Children and Young People’s strategic planm KCC Strategic plans m County operational planm District plansm Consortia plans

Planning is informed by any new legislation or policy developments withinKCC. Because effective social work depends upon partnership working,these plans include multi-agency arrangements and objectives.


The SP&P Division monitors achievement of targets and objectives andprovides the Social Services performance data necessary to the AnnualPerformance Assessment process.

Performance management – this is a complex activity as it encompassesboth the achievement of targets and objectives as measured by government indicators (Children’s Social Services has more than 70 performance indicators) and quality assurance.

Children’s Social Service has a clear policy that states that performancemanagement is the responsibility of every manager and practitioner. Thispolicy is supported by a Performance Management Framework designed tohelp operational managers undertake this task. They are also supportedby locally based performance monitoring staff who provide both local andcomparative data on all the performance indicators and other informationthat managers may require.

The Performance Management Framework includes the PerformanceAssessment Framework (PAF indicators) and a range of strategiesdesigned to promote best practice and is overseen by the PS&P unit atheadquarters through a range of mechanisms that include:

m Annual District performance workshopsm Regular reports to the senior management team providing

comparative data on a range of indicatorsm Regular audits of practice (at least 3 a year)m Practice/service reviewsm Risk reporting requirementsm Intelligence provided from outposted regulatory staffm District self assessmentsm Case sampling procedures

Members of the unit also undertake a range of tasks that include:

m Internal management reviewsm Disciplinary investigationsm Investigating and responding to complex complaints (particularly

involving MPs or Elected Members)

The performance function of the SP&P Division incorporates both the policy and planning functions and may be summarised as follows:


m Performance monitoring – use of various mechanisms and data to determine compliance with the law/policy, quality standards and achievement of targets and indicators. This includes use of data to determine trends or identify hot spots, information gathered from regular practice audits and intelligence gathered from regulatory staff based in areas relating to specific cases or practices;

m Performance management – analysis of all the above information, development of hypotheses to explain problem, consultation with operational managers to check hypotheses and drafting of action plans to address identified problems.

The PS&P Division has specific responsibilities for CSS work whichinclude:

m Overseeing the policy, planning and performance functions for Children’s Social Services tasks in relation to child protection, children in need and looked after children;

m Contribution to continued development of Kent’s multi-agency partnerships as required by Children Acts1989 and 2004;

m Management and provision of policy and secretariat support to KentSafeguarding Children Board;

m Management and provision of policy and secretariat support to Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership;

m Represents Social Services on the Kent Family Justice Council.

Child Protection/Children in Need – led by a specialist senior policyManager who leads on child protection for Kent and whose responsibilitiesinclude the following:

m Maintaining close working relations with Kent Policem Management of Kent Child Witness Service contractm Line management of:

m CP/CHIN Policy and Performance officer who has responsibility among other things for private fostering, children with disability, duty and assessment and family support;

m 3 Area CP Co-ordinators based in the field who in turn manage the Independent Child Protection Conference Chairs;

m County Domestic Violence Co-ordinator who is based at Police HQ;


m Safeguarding team - which undertakes CRB/Agency checks team for Fostering (including Independent Fostering Agencies and private Children’s Homes), Adoption, Kinship placements, CAFCASS, OfSTED, SSAFAA and other local authorities;

m Maintenance of Child Protection Registerm Maintenance of Schedule 1 Offender listm Policy support to KCPC (Safeguarding Board)m Strategic liaison with MAPPAm CP policy support to Children’s Champions Board

Locally based CP Co-ordinators provide expert advice and support to frontline managers and practitioners and work closely with colleagues inEducation and Health to support the Local Children Protection Committees,Quality Assurance and local liaison groups.

Looked After Children - led by a specialist senior policy manager wholeads on LAC issues for Kent and whose responsibilities include:

m Line management of:m LAC Policy and Performance Officer who is responsible for

provider services such as fostering, adoption and residential care;

m Area LAC Co-ordinators based in the field who in turn manage the Independent Reviewing Officers. Area LAC Co-ordinators provide expert advice and support to front linemanagers and practitioners as well as working with other colleagues such as the LAC Clinical Psychologist, EducationLAC Advisor, Designated LAC Nurse, Designated Teachers, LAC Mental health advisors and Education Support assistants attached to the Fostering teams, to form a ‘virtual’ integrated support team;

m LAC Policy and Performance Officer who, among other things, oversees the Independent Reviewing Officer Service;

m Independent Reviewing service, which was developed to comply with requirements of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. Legislation requires that it is managed outside of the direct line management of front-line children’s services. IROs have a regulatory function and particular responsibility for chairing LAC Reviews, monitoring care plans and preventing drift and promoting the involvement of children


and young people in their reviews. They are expected to beexperienced social work practitioners with a sound knowledge of care planning and the needs of LAC in order to ensure that the children’s best interests are served. There are 12 IROs based in Areas but the IRO Service is managedfrom Headquarters to ensure consistency of approach and ensure that the service’s independence is maintained. The IRO Service has the power to make representations to the Children and Families Court Advisory Service (CAFCASS Legal) if an authority is not progressing a Looked After Child’s care plan and this is impacting on their human rights.

m Policy support to the LAC Steering Group;m Management oversight of CICA (Criminal Injuries Compensation)

schemem Policy lead for 16+m Monitoring of LAC service contracts, e.g. Upfront advocacy service,

16+ etc.m Liaison with CAFCASS (Children and Families Court Advisory

Service)m LAC policy support to Children’s Champions Board

Performance monitoring – led by a policy manager whose key responsi-bilities include:

m Line management of:m 5 information monitoring staff

m Co-ordination of social services contribution to planning/monitoring including C&YPP

m Co-ordination of social services contribution to APA process

Children’s Champions Board - a small Board comprising elected members from both the Social Services and Education Policy OverviewCommittees was originally set up in 2004 in response to the VictoriaClimbie Inquiry which identified that elected members were not sufficientlyinformed or involved in child protection matters.

In addition, on the recommendation of Kent’s Scrutiny Committee followinga report on LAC services in Kent the Board now alternates its focusbetween Child Protection and Looked After Children issues and has a vitalrole to play in championing the interests of these groups of vulnerable children through raising the awareness of other elected members.


Kent Safeguarding Children Board - this Board is hosted within PS&PDivision. It has its own dedicated Board Manager, Board Support Officer andTraining Manager. It also funds administrative staff to maintain the CP andSchedule 1 Offender Registers and provide activity data to KSCB asrequired.


Appendix 1

Glossary of frequently used terms

Accommodated – a child in need is looked after by the local authority inaccommodation that is not their own home at the request or with the agreement of the parent or person with parental responsibility

After care services – support for young people who have left the care of alocal authority

Allocated case – case is actively being worked by a qualified social worker

ACPC – Area Child Protection Committee (in Kent this was referred to asKCPC). This is a multi-agency committee involving all agencies with arole in child protection. ACPCs have been replaced by SafeguardingBoards under the Children Act 2004

APA – Annual Performance Assessment by OfSTED.

Care Order – court order that bestows shared parental responsibility onthe local authority

CAFCASS – Children and Families Court Advisory Services


CAMHS – Children and Adolescent Mental Health service

Carer – a parent or relative or guardian who supports a child. Parent car-ers of children with a disability may be entitled to an assessment of needunder the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000.

CAS – County Asylum Service

CIN – Children in Need

C&YPSP – Children and Young People’s strategic Partnership

C&YPP – Children and Young Person’s Plan

Choice Protects – a government initiative and grant to help authoritiesprovide an increased choice of placements for children in care and to min-imise expensive and inappropriate out-of-authority placements

CICA – Criminal Injuries Compensation

CSCI – Commission for Social Care Inspection

CSS – Children’s Social Services

DCS – Director of Children’s Services (statutory title)

Direct payments – eligible parent carers or disabled young people of 16and over may choose to receive money to purchase their own servicesrather than access local authority services.

DIAT – Duty and Initial Assessment teams

FST – Family support teams

FWA – Family Welfare Association (voluntary agency)

IFA – Independent Fostering Agency

IRO – Independent Reviewing Officer

KDAAT – Kent Drug and Alcohol Action Team


KISKA - Kent Independent Support and Kinship service provided by NCH

NCH – National Children’s Homes – Action for Children (voluntary agency)

OLA – other local authority

OOH – Out of Hours service

PAF – Performance Assessment Framework

PFI – Private finance initiative

Quality Protects – government grant to local authorities to improve servic-es to children in need (ceased in 2002)

SP&P – Strategy, Policy and Performance

SRB – Single Regeneration Budget (government grant)

UASC – unaccompanied asylum-seeking child

YOS – Youth Offending Service

Young carer – child or young person who is looking after a parent or rela-tive or sibling


Legislation Statutory guidance

Chronically Sick and Disabled Act 1970Disabled Persons (Services, Consultationand Representation) Act 1986Children Act 1989NHS and Community Care Act 1990Carers Recognition and Service Act 1995Community Care (Direct Payments) Act1996Crime and Disorder Act 1998Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act 1999The Protection of Children Act 1999Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000Carers and Disabled Children Act 2002Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004Adoption and Children Act 2004Children Act 2004Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill

l Care Plans and Care Proceedings 1989l Framework for Assessment of Children in

Need and their families 2001l Local Authority Circular LAC (98) 20l Adoption Rulesl Independent Reviewing Officer guidance

2004l Protocol for Judicial Case Management in

Public Law Children Act cases 2002l National Minimum Standards for Adoption

Servicesl National Minimum Standards for Fostering

Servicesl Working Together to Safeguard Children

2005l ‘ What to do if …..’

Regulations Standards

l Court Orders vol.1l Family Support, Day care vol.2l Family Placements Vol.3l Residential care, Vol.4l Children with disabilities, Vol.5l Private Fostering, Vol.8l Review of Children’s Cases Regulations

1991 (amended 2004)l The Community Care Services for Carers

and Children (Direct Payments) (England) Regulations 2003

l Adoption Agency Regulationsl Adoption Allowances Regulations 2004l Fostering Services Regulations 2002l Adoption Services Regulations 2004

l Choosing with Carel Children in Public Carel Promoting the Health of Looked After

Children 2002l Guidance on the Education of children and

young people in public care 1999l National Care Standards 2000l National fostering standardsl National adoption standardsl Direct Payments Guidancel Valuing People - a new start for learning

disabled for the 21st century 2001l Caring about Carers: The National

Strategy for Carers 1999l Fair Access to Care Services: Guidance on

Eligibility Criteria for Adult Services 2002 l A Jigsaw of Services: Inspection of

Services to support disabled adults in their parenting role 2000

l National Service Framework for Mental Health 1999, Standard 6 Caring for the Carers

l Effective Panelsl National Services Framework for children

and young People and Maternity Services

Children’s social services Legislative & Policy framework

Appendix 2


Kent Children Social ServicesPolicy, procedure and guidance

Regulatory Child Protection (incl. high level CIN)

l Assessment, planning and review framework

l Recording and file management policy & procedure

l Performance management framework:l Risk assessment l Accountability and Delegation l Supervision policyl Authorisation process for undertaking

statutory workl IRO policy and procedure

l KSCB CP proceduresl KSCB supplementary proceduresl CSS CP proceduresl CIN policy and procedurel Disabled children and familiesl Direct Payments policyl Child witnessesl Forensic interviewingl Young Carers guidancel Parenting order policy l Family Support policy

Looked after Children Kent Policy

l Looked after Children Policy:l Safe carel Promoting health and wellbeingl Promoting education and achievement

l Children Act proceedings frameworkl Transfer protocolsl LAC placement with parents

Contactl Positive parenting - managing difficult

behaviourl Relationships and sexual health

policy/guidancel Delegations of permissions and consentsl Managing and administration of medicationl Placing children in foster carel Placing children in residential carel Placing children in adoptive placementsl Fostering policy & Procedures (including

Panels)l Adoption policy & procedures (including

Panels)l Leaving carel Criminal Injuries Compensation

l Eligibility and Threshold criteria policyl Permanence and Stability Policyl Kinship Care policy & procedurel Family Group conference proceduresl Working with schools policy

Appendix 3


Type of service No. of teams/units

Duty and Initial Assessment Teams 12

Long term (CP/LAC) teams 16

Family Support Teams 12

Out of Hours team 1

Disabled Children teams 5

Deaf Children’s team 1

Family Group Conferencing teams 3

Private Fostering team 1

16+ teams 4

Asylum teams 4

Fostering teams 6

Adoption teams 5

Residential & respite units 5

Social Work practitioners and managers type of post No. of posts

No. of Team leader posts 43

No. of Practice Supervisors/senior practitioner posts in front lineservices

63

No. of Social worker posts in front line services 228

No. of para-professionals in front line services 136

No. of Practice Supervisors/senior practioners in county services (Asylum, fostering, adoption etc.)

31

No. of team leaders in county services 19

No. of qualified social workers in county services 77

No. of FGC Co-ordinators 14

No. of para-professionals in county services 19

The tables below use data from 2004/5 to set out the number of teams andstaff in place to deliver children's social services and the level of core activity.

Social Work teams

Staffing

Kent Children's Social Services DivisionOrganisation, staffing and core activity

Appendix 4

52

Activity Level

Referrals into Duty Teams 13,656

Nos. of initial assessments 11,222

Nos. of high level Children in need 7,432

Nos. children on Child Protection Register 730

Nos. of CP investigations (s.47) 2,572

Nos. of Looked After Children 1,249

Nos. Care Proceedings commenced 204

Nos. of other court proceedings (incl. adoption) 117

Nos. disabled children 924

Nos. of unaccompanied asylum children 226

No. of Family Group Conferences 103

No. of foster carers recruited/approved 104

No. of adopters recruited/approved 66

Social Work activity

March 2007

Children, Families and Education Directorate - Kent · Children, Families and Education Directorate...

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