Being looked after!
Why might this happen?
What do children / young people need?
What is an Assessment?
What do Social Workers do?
Service Development Team
Accommodation
Contact

What are they talking about? a list of words that people use.

Being looked after means that either your parents have given their permission for South Tyneside Council to take care of you, or a court has given the Council the power to do so.

When you are looked after you may be living with foster carers, in a children’s home, boarding school, with your own parents or in your own place (having left care). The County Council must follow all laws and Government Regulations about looking after children and young people.

If your parents or other adults are worried that you are not getting your needs met, they may ask a social worker to help them to find out if you need some extra help. This is called an Assessment.

Your parents and other adults like doctors, nurses and teachers must make sure that you:

• Are as healthy as you can be
• Are kept safe from harm
• Have plenty of play and activities
• Have plenty of rest and sleep
• Have rules, advice and encouragement to help you to know right from wrong and to get along with other people!
  

An Assessment is a way of looking at the needs of yourself and your family. A social worker will begin the process of looking at how these needs can be met and planning the next steps. This can be very simple and quick or take more time depending on your needs or circumstances. Sometimes an Assessment is not necessary, for example if you require advice and information only. Your views and opinions should be included in any assessment that the social worker carries out - check out the children's rights section or Young People's Participation pages for more details about this.

Social Workers are responsible for assessing what help should be given to children, young people and their families and for making arrangements for the services they need.

The first task of your social worker is to develop a trusting, caring and supporting relationship with you. He or she needs to ensure that your wishes and feelings are recognised and not overlooked by parents, residential care staff or foster carers. A social worker should talk to you about your situation, explaining all the new language of being in the care system.

Most young people say they prefer and need more frequent visits. At your review, you and your social worker should agree about how often visits are needed.

Young people should always have access by telephone to their social worker. If your social worker is not in the office when you ring, leave a message that you need to speak to them. If it is urgent, there is usually a duty social worker who may be able to help you.

Social workers play a big part in your life, so it is expected that he or she will attend all your reviews, important meetings, court appearances and (in Scotland) Children’s Hearings. If your social worker is suddenly unable to visit you or attend a meeting, you should expect an explanation or an apology from them.

Your social worker also has a responsibility to try to keep you in contact with your family, either by visits or telephone calls. Relationships between you and your family may be difficult. Your social worker should work very hard to improve them, though it can take a long time.

Young people need to develop their own identity and feel happy about themselves. Social workers should help you to understand your past and why events happened, fitting together your ‘life story’. If you understand your past it can help you move on and improve your future.

Completing your education and getting ready for independence are also important. If you are having problems at school, your social worker should make every effort to work with your teachers to overcome these problems in a positive and supportive way.

What we do

• Encourage an exchange of ideas between children and young people and those who provide services to them.
• Help children and young people have a say about how the Early Intervention and Safeguarding department (children's social services) is run
• Make sure that the people who run the department (social work professionals, senior management) listen to and act upon the ideas given by young people. If children and young people have rights then adults have responsibility to recognise those rights.

• Help children and young people understand what rights they have and know how to act on them.

• Make sure that children and young people are involved in meetings that are about them e.g. reviews.

• Make sure that children and young people receive regular information and feedback about what is happening within the department.

How we do it

We will try to work with young people on activities that they have a say in organising.

• We will support young people to take a lead role in developing their ideas/projects.
• We will create opportunities for managers to be more accessible and for young people to communicate with them on their own terms.
• We will help to form agreements between young people and social care and health staff so that both understand their responsibilities.

The work plan that we have developed has been designed to ensure maximum involvement by children and young people. We recognise that all young people are individuals and as such have their own needs; this means that different types of projects and different ways of working are required. We hope that everyone will want to be involved in the projects that are developed-we don’t want anyone to miss out or feel that they are not included, this is one reason why we want you to help us decide on the types of projects to organise. We also realise that when it comes to being looked after - YOU the experts.

Children/Young People who are ‘looked after’ or are being ‘accommodated’ or are ‘in care’ may need to live away from home.

If this is necessary (i.e. if your needs are not being met) then you may be looked after either in:

Foster Care
Foster carers provide care and accommodation in their own homes for children and young people “looked after”. They are approved and vetted by the social care and health directorate.
Foster Carers can be the positive advocates that so many looked after children and young people need.

Residential children’s homes
Residential children’s homes are council managed homes where several looked after children or young people may live together. We have 3 children’s homes in the borough one of which is dedicated to supporting young people moving in to independent living.

The 3 homes are Henderson Road, Lanark Drive and Whiteleas Way. Each home has a statement of purpose, which sets out what each home is trying to achieve.

Secure Accommodation
This is accommodation where you are locked in or prevented from leaving. Only children or young people aged between 13 and 18 who are in care or accommodated by social services can be placed in secure accommodation. Young people aged 16 or over, can sometimes be placed into secure accommodation, even if they are not subject to a care order, but they must agree to this. Being placed into secure accommodation is quite rare and will only happen if you have run away from a placement, you have attempted suicide or hurt yourself or you might hurt other people.

Care Orders
Care orders are put in place by a court to protect a child. One way of doing this may be to decide that a child should be placed in to the care of the local authority. Being on a care order means that Social Services rather than your parents have the job of looking after you and making the decisions about how this should happen to you. The decision to obtain a care order will normally only be made after attempts to make voluntary agreements with parents have failed. Care Orders last until you are 18 yrs old, unless the social worker, your parents or you asks the court to “discharge” the care order before then.

Care Plans
A care plan is compulsory for any child who is ‘looked after’. It includes the case background, the overall plan for the child and what needs to be done to achieve it. A care plan can only be changed at a Child Care Review. The plan should be drawn up in consultation with you and your views must be taken in to account.

Contact is the word used to describe seeing or speaking to members of your family or friends. It can include seeing members of your family (known as direct contact), speaking to them on the telephone or writing to them by letter or email. It also includes receiving presents, letters and emails. A Contact Order can be put in place by a court, this sets out how often you should see or speak to a particular person. A contact order can also say that you should not see a particular person. Supervised Contact is when the court decides that it is better for you to see your family with another family present. This may be because they are worried that you may be come upset during the visit or that your family may say or do something that will hurt or upset you. Sometimes another adult will come along just to see how the visits are going, to make sure they are taking place in a way that makes them enjoyable for you.

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