Adult Services and Children's Services

The Directorate is committed to helping people to live as independent a life as possible in the Community.  To do this we ensure that people receive the support services they really need.

Adult Services

Accessing Services and Assessing your Needs

If you or someone you care for needs help from Social Services, you have a right to ask us to assess your needs.  To do this, a Social Worker will visit you and together you will decide what support you need to continue living in your own home or you may look at other ways to meet your needs.  To do this the Social Worker will complete a Unified Assessment.

 
To gather information on what your needs are we will do the following:

• We will ask you about your life and how you want support to help you cope;
• We ask your husband / wife or any other partner or carer about what they think you need to help you cope;
• We will talk to any health professionals or support workers you may already have supporting you;
• With your permission we will find out about the way you like to spend your time now and, if you had help, what you would like to do in the future. 

The things we look at are:

• Your health;
• Your physical needs. e.g.    climbing the stairs, mobility in and outside your home, washing and bathing, dressing, meals/eating etc;
• Shopping;
• Keeping warm;
• Your senses (e.g. eyesight, hearing, etc );
• Your state of mental health;
• Your relationships with others, including support groups like the Church;
• Your safety;
• Your home;
• Your finances;
• How you spend your day.

How we plan your support

Using the information you/your carers give us, together we will be able to agree your support needs.  The Social Worker will prepare a plan of how we, other carers and your family will all work together to help support you.  This is called a Care Plan.

The services will not be arranged without your agreement.  The Individual Care Plan is yours and the decisions are yours, made in partnership with us and other professionals if required.  Together we will review your Care Plan at least once a year and it will be changed as your needs change.

Help for Carers

If caring for someone has a significant impact on your life, you are entitled to an assessment of your own needs.   Please visit our Carers page for further information.

Contributing towards the cost of providing services

You may need to make a financial contribution towards the cost of providing the services you receive.  We will discuss this with you before your services start.  In this way, you will not receive any unexpected bills.

Contact us

If you feel that we can help, you can contact us or make an appointment

Customer Service Reception

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council

Post Office Lane

Merthyr Tydfil

CF47 8BG 

Telephone: 01685 724500

Fax: 01685 370198

Email: adultintakeservice@merthyr.gov.uk

If you can’t get in touch with us yourself, we would be happy to talk to your family, friends, doctor, nurse or anyone else you choose to talk to us on your behalf.

Children's Services

How to make a referral about a Child

In Merthyr Tydfil we seek to ensure that Services are delivered in a timely transparent manner.

Children's Services works mainly with families with high levels of need, but, where our direct involvement is not appropriate we can act to signpost customers to other Agencies who may offer the services which best meet the needs. Therefore, everyone in need of help first has an assessment to see if they are "eligible".

Duty And Assessment (Who can make a referral?)

You can ring or visit the Office yourself to make a referral or another person could contact us on your behalf this could include other Professionals, Health Visitors, General Practitioner's, relatives or friends.  You may be the person ringing on behalf of someone.  It may even be regarding someone you don't know, but where you have concerns regarding the child.

When you first visit or ring the Department you will speak to the Intake and Early Assessment Team - Duty Officer.

In some instances the Duty Officer may be able to resolve your issues straight away.  If this is not possible your referral will be passed to a Social Worker who will make arrangements to see you or the person  referred by appointment, either in the office or at home.

If you are calling to report a concern regarding a child/ren welfare.  The Duty Officer will take all the details and advise you how the referral will be dealt with.

If you are concerned, it is important that we here from you and we would always listen and take any issues that you raise seriously.

Assessment

Generally, the Social Worker will arrange to meet with the family who has been referred to the Department.  In order to undertake an assessment of need. 

The family will be asked to sign an agreement to say that the worker can speak to the Health Visitor, General Practitioner or other Agencies involved. We have learnt that it is important to gather all relevant information to ensure that we can respond appropriately.  If the child/ren are old enough they will be asked for their views.

The idea is to find out as much as possible about any difficulties so as to provide the best help and advice. The assessment might be quite short (seven working days) if the child’s needs are straight forward, or it may take up to 35 working days if there is lots of information to think about. If the family have particular needs arising from religion, culture or disability then the assessment will take account of this.

It is important that we work in partnership with the family to understand the issues and look at what support or services are needed.

People often worry that if they go to Children's Services their child will be taken away. Children's Services work is about keeping families together wherever possible and getting children who are in care back home. Even where there are concerns about the child’s well being the Social Worker will always try to work in partnership with the family and to involve them fully in the plans.

Social Services cannot take a child away against the parents wishes, unless there are serious concerns and they have asked the courts for a special order. This will happen if a child is likely to be harmed or the parent/s is unable or unwilling to co-operate in keeping the child safe.

Children In Need Services

After the assessment many people are helped by being put in touch with community organisations or parenting groups or through extra support from their Health Visitor. If the needs are more complex the family may offered help from a Social Worker or Family Support Worker. This may include help for the child/ren, visits from a Social Worker to provide support and advise or the chance to be involved in groups with other parents or a referral to the Gellideg Family Centre. The Children in Need service also works with families whose children have recently come into care so that they can return home, if at all possible.

The Department’s Child in Need services are not available without an assessment to see if the family meet the eligibility criteria. Children and Families does, however, fund a number of voluntary organisations who can be approached direct.

Child Protection

If the assessment shows that a child has been neglected or harmed or is likely to be so in the future, a Child Protection Conference will be held. The family will be invited to attend. This conference will decide if a child’s name should go onto the Child Protection Register and the reasons why, and agree a plan to make sure the child is safe. If this happens you will be allocated a Social Worker who will visit the family and also spend time with the child. The Social Workers aim will be to help them to safely care for the child and also monitor that they are well. This can be a very difficult time for families but it is important that the adults co-operate with the Child Protection Plan because if the Social Worker is really worried about the child and they are not let into visit or see the child when they need too, then they could get a court order to remove the child and/or have he or she examined by a doctor.

The child/ren is regularly reviewed and their name will be taken off the Register as soon as it is safe to do so. Again the aim is always to work with children and their families seeking to make sure that the best interests of the child is always first priority.

Contact us
If you would like to speak to the Duty Officer, for advice or to make a referral or an appointment please contact us:

Customer Service Reception

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council

Post Office Lane

Merthyr Tydfil

CF47 8BG 

Telephone: 01685 724500

Fax: 01685 376608