We have lots of teams in Children’s Social Care and we all have one goal, to make a difference to children, young people and families in Sefton.
Take a look at what each of our teams do:
Our Assessment team get to know you and your family and try to establish what support you might need. We may complete a child, young people and families assessment to learn more about your family, any issues that you are dealing with and what support or interventions might be useful to you.
The Children's Help and Advice Team (CHAT) is the front door of our service. We are the first people you will speak to if you have a concern about a child or young person
We will talk through your concerns and discuss what support we can offer. We may arrange for a social worker to visit the family, pass you to our Early Help colleagues or signpost to services available to all in the community.
Whatever the outcome, you will be a part of making a plan to alleviate any pressures or issues that may be present and finding the best solution for the family.
You can call the CHAT Team on 0151 934 4013 or find out more about the CHAT service by clicking here
We are the team you can reach in an emergency. If the issue cannot wait until the next working day, you can contact our Emergency Duty Team.
Outside of working hours, including weekends and bank holidays, call us on 0151 934 3555
Remember, if a child or young person is in immediate danger, please call 999.
The Targeted Family Support team will work with you and your family to identify your strengths and find a way to navigate issues you might be experiencing with targeted support.
Our aim is to deliver support 2/3 times per week for between 12-20 weeks. We will help you and your family to gain knowledge, confidence and practical solutions.
We support families to have family time in a safe, secure and structured way and work with your family and professionals to find the best way to make this happen
Sefton Family Group Conferencing Team work with children, young people and families who are experiencing difficulties or problems and are in need of some help.
We run a family group conference with families to work through any issues. A family group conference is a meeting with the whole support network of family and friends.
We all come together in a meeting and make a support plan to help children/young people. The child/young person will be involved and to make sure that they can have their voice heard and listened too. We can arrange for someone called an ‘Advocate’ to make sure they have their say and are included in decision making that affects them.
A Family Group Co-Ordinator will be allocated to a family. They will come and see the family and ask what they want and need. The Co-Ordinator is not a social worker, their job is to help families arrange a meeting in a nice place that everyone can get to and have a discussion about the support a family needs.
After the meeting, the Co-Ordinator will make this into a report so everyone knows what they should or should not be doing. This will also be given to the child/young person so they know which family member, friend or professional they can turn to if they need too.
After the meeting has taken place, we set a date for a follow up meeting called a ‘review’. This is so we can all make sure everyone is doing what they said they would to help each other and if not we can make some changes. It may be that a family don’t need the help any more or they might feel like they want more. Either way, we will keep reviewing until the right support is put in place for the family.
We specialise in working with children and families who have a child/young person with complex needs or disabilities. We support you as a carer and your child to live happy, enriched lives and identify the support you need from other professionals as well as ourselves to make that happen
We work with families once they have been through the assessment process. We get to know our families and try to find long term solutions to keep children safe and happy. You will see our social workers regularly as they review your plan and undertake direct work with your child and your family.
We work with children and families who have had some involvement with law and order. We look for ways to support children and families to prevent repeat incidences.
We work with families and children as their case goes through the courts, they offer support to make this process run smoothly and put the child at the heart of everything we do
The Social Work Academy is a structured way for new or returning social workers to ease themselves in to their social work career and benefit from high quality training and enhanced practice support.
You can find out more about the Social Work Academy on our dedicated page
My SPACE is a wraparound exploitation service for Sefton young people aged 11-18 who are at risk of significant harm from Child Sexual or Criminal Exploitation.
We provide an intensive intervention service to young people focusing on:
- Educating the young people around the risk of exploitation and grooming.
- Diverting the young people into positive activities and opportunities.
- Disrupting exploitative relationships and CE locations/hotspots.
- Support prosecutions for any perpetrators of Child Exploitation.
The My SPACE Team works in close partnership with colleagues from other organisations. Key organisations we work in partnership with include:
- Police
- Youth Justice
- Alder Hey Fully Integrated Care Team. (Emotional and Mental Health Support)
- PACE- Parents Against Child Exploitation
Young people will be supported on an ETAC (Exploitation Team Around the Child) Plan. ETAC plans will be multi-agency intervention plans which highlights the actions of professionals and family members in order to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities of Child Exploitation.
A young person will continue to be supported by the My SPACE team until it can be evidenced that the young person is no longer at significant risk of harm.
We work with cared for children to ensure they are safe, happy and thriving. You will see us on a regular basis if we are working with you or your family to make sure our plan is having an impact.
You can find out more about the support on offer for cared for children on our dedicated webpages
We support children who are involved with fostering and adoption. We make sure foster carers and homes are suitable and work for you and ensure foster carers are supported too.
You can find out more about Fostering in Sefton on our dedicated website
We work with Adoption in Merseyside to find suitable adopters for those children in that position.
We work with older children and young people in our care to support them and their families to tackle issues they face as young people. We start to prepare our cared for children for adulthood.
You can find out more about the support on offer for young people in care on our dedicated webpages.
We work with over 18 care experienced young people to support them into adulthood. Care experienced young people can face a number of challenges and as corporate parents, we are here to support them in what they choose to do.
You can find out more about the support on offer for young people in care on our dedicated webpages.
We ensure the work done by our colleagues is high quality and child focused. We undertake audits of our work to make sure children are safe, supported and heard when they are working with us. We support our colleagues to learn from experiences they have and identify and share good practice.
We are a partnership of agencies across Sefton who work with children and families. You can find our website here https://seftonscp.org.uk/scp
The Virtual School is a team that is responsible for promoting and monitoring the education of children in the care of the Local Authority. All of our children go to real schools and have a Personal Education Plan (PEP). Our team supports the child, school and families to make sure that the child is thriving and making progress in education. We also provide advice to families and children who were previously in the care of the Local Authority and now are adopted or have a Special Guardian Ship order (SGO). The Virtual School also promotes the education of children with a social worker.
Our Virtual School website has lots of help and guidance available