Learn More about your Children’s Services
Early Help Hub
The Hub can give you information about services that can support your family in lots of different ways like parenting support, youth support, health support, helping you find services like after school clubs and childcare. The team will ask you what matters to you and your family and then identify the right service to work alongside you.
Intake, Assessment and Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub
Professionals, volunteers, parents, carers refer concerns they have about children’s safety and wellbeing to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). The team will then gather information from agencies like schools, health visitors, GPs, Police and previous records of support from Children’s Services and the Senior Social Worker will consider whether a child is experiencing harm or is at risk of harm. In most cases, children and young people will not be experiencing harm and therefore do not need a Social Worker from Children’s Services but there may be a need for a less intense level of service like Youth Support or Parenting so the families will be referred on to the Early Help Hub.
If the Senior Social Worker thinks the information indicates the child is experiencing harm or they are at risk of experiencing harm, a strategy meeting discussion will take place with Police and other agencies like Education. This discussion will consider whether any immediate actions need to be taken to ensure a child is safe and consider what steps to take next.
Children with Disabilities Team
The Team works alongside other specialist agencies like special educational needs support, Community Occupational Therapists and other Health professionals. The purpose of the team is to assess children and young people with a disability and their families. This may be for the provision of adaptations, equipment, advocacy, advice, or short break services. Carers are also entitled to an assessment of their own needs.
The Team covers the whole of the Borough, working with children and young people from birth to eighteen years of age. The Team works in partnership with families, foster carers, voluntary organisations and other public services to identify the right support at the right time for families.
Family Support Teams
The Family Support Teams, along with other professionals, work alongside families where there are safeguarding concerns that require longer term support. We engage with families to promote positive outcomes for children, working alongside their parents whether on a Care and Support or Child Protection basis. Working together we aim to achieve your family goals to a point where you no longer need support from Children’s Services and your needs can be met by other services like health and education.
The Family Support Teams would always seek to keep families together if it is safe to do so and our priority will always be achieving the best outcomes for children and young people. Supporting you as a whole family is really important to us. Occasionally, we need to ask the Court to make decisions to support your child/children to be kept safe.
Supporting Change Team
The Team offers three services to families:
The Outreach Service operate all year round and after normal working hours to provide tailored support to help families stay together. This includes working directly with children and young people.
For those families that need a more intensive intervention that support parents to make and sustain changes in their lives the team (SCAI) work alongside families where alcohol, substances, mental health or domestic abuse might be affecting their lives and their ability to safely parent their children. This arm of the service manages the pre-birth pathway and has a dedicated support worker who supports families throughout pregnancy and after birth for up to 12 months. The pathway also includes a specialist Dads worker.
The Family Time service provides advice and guidance during supervised sessions for children who are not living at home to spend time with their parents and other family members. They offer support with activities such as messy play, sensory activities, age and stage support and also encourage family cooking activities. They also support families where the plan is for the children to return home. Families may access more than one of these services as part of a package of support.
Fostering Team
Foster Wales Merthyr Tydfil work with children’s social workers to support children and young people when they are unable to live at home with their parents or other family members. Children and young people may live with a foster carer for a few days or longer. The team also assess and support family and friends who may be caring for relatives and are known as kinship carers. Each foster carer has their own social worker called a supervising social worker, who support them in their role and ensure that the care they offer helps children and young people to achieve their goals.
Children who are Looked After
The Children Looked After team supports all children and young people who are looked after (this means that a Court has decided there needs to be an order like a care order) until they reach 18. The children and young people may be living with parents, family members, foster carers or in specialist residential homes or supported living accommodation. We team works alongside parents and carers, agencies such as Schools and Health to make sure children and young people’s needs are met and that they are safe and protected. We understand the importance of family time and have regular review meetings to make sure all children and young people are spending time with people who are important to them. Regular Children Looked After Review meetings are held that look at the child’s plan and ensures the child has a voice in this. The review meetings are chaired by an Independent Reviewing Officer who is responsible for ensuring that agencies are working together to meet the child’s needs and ensuring that children and young people achieve their goals.
Care Leavers support services
There are two arms to this service
When young people reach the age of 15 and 3 quarters, they are allocated a Personal Advisor who is there to advise and support them and can remain involved with young people up to the age of 25. Between 16 and 18, young people will also continue to have an allocated social worker. Young people will have a pathway plan in place which is about what is important to them, what goals they want to achieve and who will support them and this is reviewed regularly.
Pathway to Work is another arm of the service developed to provide specialist support to young people who are or were looked after to access work, training, apprenticeship, further or higher education. Young people leaving care can often face more barriers in accessing these opportunities and this project provides them with a Mentor who will support them on whatever path they choose to follow.
