Children in Care service

There has never been a more exciting time to join our service: alongside making a difference to the lives of individuals and families, we have adopted exciting new strengths-based approaches and are passionate about delivering continuous service improvement. The Children in Care Service provides ongoing support and services to all children for whom there is no plan to return home. The Children in Care Service also receives referrals for separate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and provides the planning and support services for those children. The Children in Care Service provide a 0 to 18 years old service for children and young people who have been looked after. Young people will transfer to the 18+ Leaving Care specialist team when they reach 18 years. A Leaving Care Personal Advisor will be allocated alongside the Social Worker from the age of 16. They will then remain the allocated Personal Advisor after the young person reaches 18 and beyond. The Children in Care teams and the Leaving Care service will work closely together and form a transition plan for each young person. The Children in Care service will be responsible for the following for children allocated in the team:

• after a Care Order is granted
• provision of services to children in Section 20 care who have no plan to return home
• formation and implementation of the permanency plans for children
• children placed with their parents where there is a period of stability needed before an application for a discharge of the care order is made.
  
  At Telford and Wrekin, we have implemented a new approach to Child Protection services developed by Hertfordshire County Council, and began to deliver their innovative and pioneering practice model of Family Safeguarding.
Family Safeguarding is a model of system change where specialist adult practitioners are embedded within Family Safeguarding teams of Social Workers. The intervention supports a whole-system change to a local authority's child protection approach for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults in order that children can safely remain within their families. Our brilliant practitioners are at the heart of our ambitious approach to improve outcomes for children and families in Telford and Wrekin: that's why from tailored in-house training to the West Midlands Teaching Partnership, we will ensure that you have access to the best development opportunities. We have been judged to be outstanding overall in terms of effectiveness (the only Authority in the West Midlands with this judgement). Here's just some of the great things Ofsted had to say when they visited us in 2020:
• Children are cared for and cared about
• Social Workers and other staff who support children are very committed and they are exceptionally well trained
• Children are listened to and their experiences are well understood
• Senior Leaders aspire to a service for every child that they would welcome for their own
• Children benefit from a stable workforce which is highly committed and experienced
• Staff experience a wide range of development opportunities
As an example, one of our Team Managers said: "I have been offered a broad array of training opportunities, including specialised supervision training with the Centre for Systemic Practice. I think it would be fair to say that my experience certainly demonstrates that Telford and Wrekin are keen to encourage their Social Workers to develop their practice and career. It is a Local Authority which likes to grow its own." If you share our passion for making a difference, we would be delighted if you joined us.