Children's Disability Team

Overview and description

The Children's Disability Team provide support and services to disabled children and their families across Plymouth, complying with all relevant statutory requirements and department policies, standards and guidelines.

Social workers take the lead role in co-ordinating and carrying out assessments of the needs of disabled children and their families in accordance with government and local guidance for Children in Need, Looked After Children and Child Protection, ensuring the most cost-effective and beneficial support packages are established, delivered and monitored.

Where necessary workers will initiate appropriate statutory action to protect children at risk and carrying out any related preventative and remedial activity fitting to the role of the Social Worker. Social workers also hold responsibility for undertaking statutory visits to Looked After Children; those on the child protection register and for identifying the permanency needs of children who can not be cared for at home.

Assessments are completed with children, families, carers and other professionals to identify individual needs, overcome problems and reduce risks. Identification of intervention, service provision and support needs will then form the basis of care planning.

Care plans will promote the well-being and protection of children and ensure they get the care and support they need, ensuring that children in the community and those looked after by the Local Authority are supported and provided with the best opportunity to meet their full potential.

Intervention in helping children and families to overcome the problems of disability can include support to enhance parenting, helping parents develop the skills and understanding to be more effective in meeting their children’s needs for care, development and control; the provision of information about entitlements and other services; making joint assessments of social and nursing needs; acting as broker and requesting funding to obtain the support people want; arranging good-quality alternative care for children whose parents cannot care for them; cooperating with other disciplines in implementing the frameworks for inter-agency and multi-disciplinary working and regular review of support packages in ensuring support fits the changing needs of children and families.

On occasion the provision of bereavement services are applied either as part of the social work task or via referral to the appropriate service.

These tasks are integral to an effective social work response, but do not all have to be carried out by social workers. Some tasks can be appropriately shared with or delegated to other social care staff under social work supervision.

Referral criteria or eligibility criteria to access a service from the team

The Children’s Disability Team accept referrals by the Advice and Assessment Service and The Single Point of Contact where the assessed needs are primarily in relation to permanent and/or significant disability. The team has close links with colleagues across the service and offer consultation, advice, information and joint assessment where needed.

Children and young people referred to the team will have:

• Profound/severe or moderate physical disability
• Profound/severe learning disability
• Diagnosed Autism where this severely affects functioning
• Complex/severe epilepsy
• Long-term medical condition that will result in disability