Professional Support Service

The Service areas within Children’s Services supported by the Professional Support Service.

Responsive Services

MASH

The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) brings key professionals together to facilitate quality information sharing, analysis and decision-making, to safeguard vulnerable children, young people more effectively. Staff from across health, social care, police, and education are based in the MASH at any one time at its base in Broadgate House in the city centre. Our MASH is the front door to statutory services, by applying consistent thresholds based on Right Help, Right Time.

EDT

The Emergency Duty Team provides an out-of-hours emergency service between 5pm and 8.30am throughout the week, including weekends. The team responds to safeguarding concerns relating to children, young people, their families, and adults. They also provide an out of hours housing service.

Horizon Team

The Horizon team works with young people who are at risk of exploitation. Horizon is a statutory social work team that consists of Social Workers, Youth Workers, a Children and Families Worker, a Health Worker and Police Officers. The Horizon team support young people via the Child in Need or Child Protection frameworks. Young people are supported to understand healthy and unhealthy relationships, grooming, online safety and exploitation, from sexual exploitation to criminal exploitation.

Area Based Teams

Area Teams

There are 15 social work teams across four areas, each team consisting of a Team Manager, Senior Practitioners and a mixture of experienced and newly qualified social workers, and a child and family worker. The Social Work Teams work with all new referrals into the service, completing assessments and child protection enquiries, as well as working with children and families who are supported via CIN and CP plans, those in PLO and all initial court work. The teams are fast-paced, but there is high support and manageable caseloads.

Early Help

Early help is the support given to a child, young person, and their family when a problem first emerges. Help may be required at any stage in a child’s life from pre-birth to adulthood and applies to any problem or need that the family cannot deal with or meet on their own. Early help is not a service provided by one agency but is an approach that services adopt with many stakeholders working together through the Coventry Early Help partnership to provide an early help offer. The Early Help Offer (system) is the network of services, processes and interactions that aim to help children, young people and families at the earliest opportunity to provide the right help at the right time with the right people.

Children’s Services' Early Help contribution to that offer is provided through the Family Hub, Start for Life Offer and the Supporting Families teams.  We host 8 family hubs, 2 per locality (West, Central, South, and East). Each Family hub has a variety of skilled and experienced staff, working in partnership with a wider range of partner services and teams to deliver a universal offer to families. Anyone can come to a family hub and use our facilities. The Family Hub offer also extends out into the community and we also have a comprehensive virtual offer available 24/7.

Our Supporting Families teams are also based in the Hubs, and they deliver intensive family support to individual families who have multiple needs and require a lead professional to support them and a team around a family approach. Early Help is offered in a variety of way, from group work, 1:1 work, parenting support and families’ needs are understood through Early Help assessment and supported through Early Help plans.

Children’s Disability Team

Coventry Children’s Services has a specialist Children’s Disability Team (CDT) which provides support to children and young people up to the age of 18 who have a lifelong learning/physical disability. The CDT is passionate about working with children, families, and other professionals to achieve the best outcomes for vulnerable children. The team undertake children and family assessments and works with children in need, children subject to child protection plans and looked after children. A multi-disciplinary approach is modelled in the team in partnership with both universal and mainstream services to support children, young people and their families.

Social Work Academy

Coventry’s Social Work Academy offers children and family social work practitioners a pathway through their career with Coventry Children’s Services, by creating an environment which supports stability and continuing professional development. The Social Work Academy supports Newly Qualified Social Workers through their first 12 months. NQSWs are based in the Academy for the first 6 months, spending a minimum of a day per week with their dedicated host teams. Following successful completion of the first 6 months, NQSWs then transition out to their host teams, receiving outreach support from the Academy Team.

The Social Work Academy also supports social worker progression and development for professionals at every stage of their careers.

Looked After Children and Permanence Service

The Service works with children who are Looked After from birth to 12 years old. We take case responsibility from the child’s first Looked After Child’s Review or first court hearing from Social Work Teams. We work with children who are subject to care proceedings, long-term Looked After, and those with an adoption plan, whilst also working closely with the Regional Adoption Agency, Adoption Central England (ACE).

Through Care

The Through Care Service works with looked after children and care leavers. The service is co-located with carers advisors, a housing liaison officer and a UASC liaison officer. Through Care is an innovative and dynamic service involved in national pilots of Lifelong Links, Leaving Well and New Belongings and were shortlisted for the 2019 Social Workers of the Year awards. Coventry is part of the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum.

Fostering

The Recruitment and Assessment Team has responsibility for recruitment and assessment of a range of applicants to become Coventry Foster Carers. The Assessment Team has responsibility for the recruitment and assessment of a range of fostering applicants. The successful candidate will be responsible for undertaking a range of these assessments. They will also undertake initial visits of fostering applicants through participating in a recruitment hub rota.

Coventry City Council is investing strongly in its fostering provision with a target to significantly increase the number of looked after children placed with in-house foster carers. The service commits to working closely with our foster carers and with children’s social work teams to ensure that fostered children are well cared for and achieve best outcomes. The assessment team has been successful in increasing the number of newly approved foster carers significantly over recent years and is recognised for its market-leading recruitment practice.

Placements

The Placements Team is responsible for sourcing quality residential, fostering, and supported accommodation placements for children and young people who are in need of protection and are not able to live with their families. When a placement is required, the team will contact and liaise with internal provisions and independent providers to identify a suitable placement match. The team collate the potential options and shares them with the Social Workers or Personal Advisor to identify the most appropriate placement for the child or young person.

Coventry Children’s Homes

Children’s Residential Services offers a safe, nurturing and family-orientated environment for our children to call home. Our amazing children are supported in every aspect of their lives so we can celebrate individual successes, achievements, and progress.

We currently employ over 100 dedicated staff across 6 homes including a Short Breaks provision for children with disabilities. Our vision is to open new homes across the city, which will enable Coventry’s children to stay closer to family networks, friends and key services allowing them to thrive in their local communities.

Quality Assurance

a. Family Group Conferencing

The Family Group Conferencing model seeks to place decision-making processes for children, in the hands of families and communities. Coordinators support family groups to make informed and responsible decisions, recommendations and plans with regard to their children. This enables families to work in partnership with professional services to secure positive outcomes for children and young people.

b. Child Protection Conference Chairs

CP Conference Chairs independently chair multi-agency child protection conferences for children who are considered at risk of significant harm. CP Conference Chairs focus on ensuring children are safeguarded first and foremost and their families receive the support they need in order to achieve the best possible outcomes to make a difference for the better in their lives.

c. Independent Reviewing Officers

The IROs independently oversee and track care planning for children in care in Coventry and are responsible for providing challenges where appropriate and protecting the interests of children. IROs develop positive working relationships with the children they are responsible for and support their wishes and feelings in decision-making.

d. Risk Management Team

The team plays a key part in managing strategic and contextual safeguarding risks for vulnerable children and young people in Coventry by working closely with partners and key stakeholders. This includes:

• Management and oversight of responses to allegations regarding professionals who are deemed to have abused their position of trust working with children (LADO).
• Delivery of training and support for the early identification of children and young people at risk of harm through radicalisation and exploitation.

Commissioning and Partnerships

The Commissioning and Partnership Service is responsible for commissioning services for children, where the Council does not provide these services itself, or where it is helpful to have additional provision to meet need. These include fostering and residential placements, supported accommodation provision, mental health provision, family health and lifestyle services and children’s advocacy and domestic violence services. A range of services are commissioned jointly with the Education Service, Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group and Public Health. Commissioners are responsible for quality assuring commissioned services in partnership with operational colleagues. The Commissioning and Partnerships Service also has a Service Development Team, which delivers specific projects aimed at supporting service improvement and has recently taken on responsibility for managing The Professional Support Staff.