Duty to provide and publicise services- Day care, family centres, services to help children whilst they are living with their families.
Duty to take reasonable steps to prevent ill treatment or neglect of children- to prevent the need for a child to be taken into care.
Duty to provide accommodation to children in need without provision of services to them by local authority- Taken into care with the voluntary agreement with the parents and the views of the child taken into mind (with regard to the child’s age and understanding.)
Duty to children looked after- to consider wishes, welfare and those of parents and relevant others. And have regard for religious, racial and cultural background.
Duty to provide after care- to promote the child’s welfare when leaving care, including in kind or cash to those previously looked after aged 16 to 21.
Duty to provide secure accommodation- where a child has a history of absconding and is likely to abscond and to suffer significant harm.
Duty to have complaints procedure- for children in care, parents, others with parental responsibility and others with an interest in the child.
E.G.- Ms Redding comes in with her three-year-old child. She has six other children. Harry, age three, is having behaviour problems. Ms Redding cannot cope with him all the time, and cannot look after her other children and take care of the house.
Under section 17 children protection act, social services pays for Harry to go to nursery and pay a childminder, so Ms Redding can clean her house and take care of her other children as well.
Long term team-
They have the same format as the duty assessment team.
They take on the cases that are transferred to them from the duty assessment team. Then they have responsibility for all looked after children (children in care). They are also responsible for all children leaving care.
Children (leaving care) Act 2000
The act imposes a duty upon local authorities to prepare 16 and 17 year olds for leaving care and to support them up to the age of 21
Each “eligible child” i.e. a 16 or 17 year old who has remained in care for a period of at least three months, will have an assessment of their current and future needs leading to the preparation of a pathway plan.
Both teams are responsible for children on the child protection order.
(The child protection register is a list of children whose welfare and safety are felt to be at risk. It is compiled and, managed by local authority social services department.)
Both teams are allocated a budget from central government to the local authority and the money is divided amongst all different services upto individual managers of each team to manage their budget for their own team.
Both teams are responsible for child protection and related court orders. The duty to investigate.
Child Protection and related court orders.
The local authority has the duty to investigate where a child in their area is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, and to decide on action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare (section 47). The court may also order the local authorities to investigate the child’s circumstances.
E.g.- If there is a phone call received from a school by social services to say that a five-year-old boy named Tom has a black eye and fingerprint bruising on his face. As a result, social services would have the duty to investigate how it occurred and who was responsible. They would have to carry out an emergency protection order and social services can apply for a court order.
Emergency protection order-
The authorities remove the child, or prevent the removal from hospital.
A child assessment order- if the child is suffering or likely to suffer from significant harm and an assessment is necessary and cannot be satisfactorily take place without an order.
Care Proceedings
A compulsory care or supervision order may be made once the court is satisfied that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm AND this is attributable to the care given to the child, or likely to be given if the order were not made, not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give, OR the child is beyond parental control.
A care order- gives responsibility to the local authority
A supervision order-places a duty on the supervisor to advise, assist and befriend the child.
Interim care or supervision orders- if the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the primary grounds under section 31 are met
Education supervision order- may be made to the local education authority if a child is not being educated properly.
Case study
Ms Jones is a single parent of five, aged 1,3,7,8 and 10. She has difficulty managing her children’s behaviour, as the children are unruly. Ms Jones has an alcohol miss use problem and suffers with depression. With consent, the children’s heath visitor refers her to social services.
A worker from the duty assessment team would make an appointment to visit her at home (they could do a joint visit with the health visitor as they know her and her children). During this visit, they would carry out an assessment on the family. Using the Framework for assessment of children in need and their families (otherwise known as THE PURPLE BOOK) The services she would need are a detox centre or be referred to a drug and alcohol management centre. Day care for her two under five children (especially when she is at the management centre. She could have a therapist for her depression, or medication from the doctor. And a family centre to help her children’s behaviour.
But her problems may prevent her to access these services. I.e.- She may be drunk and cannot take her children to day care/school and cannot get to her parenting classes or alcohol management classes. Her depression might stop her from even getting out of bed. Also financial cuts in the social services and prioritising might prevent these services from being offered to her.
Case Study
A teenage boy, Daniel age 15. He has a drug miss use problem and misses a lot of school due to truanting. He has had to be placed in care with consent of parents, as they do not get along. Steps were taken to resolve their differences after a break down in the family. A lot of work was done to keep him in the family, but all attempts failed. Daniel also has anger problems due to past family problems. Daniel was asked his wishes and feelings.
Social services would need to find a good foster home to meet his needs. He would need to be referred to a drug management class and I think a councillor for his anger would be best so he could talk about his problems as well as learn how to control anger. There would also need to be contact with parents and any siblings. An education supervisor would have to be placed to advise and help him at school
Daniel may not be able to get a foster placement for his age group, or there may only be one for far away. He may also refuse to go to drug management or refuse to talk to the councillor. If he is placed in a foster home, he may not like his foster parents, and may make things difficult for them as a result of his anger. Or his foster parents may not be able to cope with him whilst he comes of drugs as his behaviour and attitude would be bad. Or he may not want or be able to come of drugs, so foster parents may not be able to cope with his drug related problems (i.e.- Stealing, overdosing). His school may refuse to have him as he has a drug problem, or he might be difficult at school and continue to truant.
Prioritise work- Safety of a child= highest
Lunch = lowest
Arranging home visits to families and children
Attend meetings
Telephone to clients and other professionals
Report writing and administration
