Changes to the way vulnerable children and their families are supported will be discussed by Calderdale Council’s Cabinet on Monday 17 November 2014.
The Council’s ‘Safe, Successful Families’ project has proposed the introduction of ‘systemic practice’ which will change the way that children’s social workers provide their services.
Systemic practice uses small teams of social workers to tackle challenging and complex family and child protection issues. It is a new approach in which social workers look at all the relationships in a vulnerable child’s life and then work together to improve these so that the child begins to get the right support. The team will work with the whole family, rather than addressing the needs of one member in isolation.
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services, Cllr Colin Raistrick said:
“It’s vital that we adopt best practice in social working whenever we can, to make sure that we offer the best service for vulnerable children and their families.
“We know from the research that systemic practice has been successful in other parts of the country and has reduced the number of children and young people coming into care, led to greater satisfaction with the service we provide and helped improve staff retention.”
Small teams of social workers will be set up, to cover child protection and legal proceedings. More specialised teams will work with children who are looked after, connected carers and disabled children.
The Council has applied to the Department for Education’s Innovation Programme for additional funding to help support the introduction of the changes.
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet will meet to discuss the changes at 6pm on Monday 17 November 2014 at Halifax Town Hall.