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Social Care, Corporate Parenting, Commissioning and Youth Justice Service

Social Care, Corporate Parenting, Commissioning and Youth Justice

The children’s social care fieldwork service is made up of a number of teams working directly with children and their families.

Children and Young People Social Care Fieldwork Service

The Children and Young People (CYP) Social Care Fieldwork Service is made up of 13 locality-based children’s social care teams who undertake s17 and s47 assessments, and work with children subject to Child in Need and Child Protection Plans. There are 4 child in care teams, working with children subject to care proceedings and long-term children in care. Alongside these, there are several countywide teams; our Disabled Children’s Team, the Make A Change Team (working with children at risk of exploitation), and the Family Solutions Team (working with children on the edge of care). These teams come under one service, and work together to keep children safe and supported at home and in their communities.

See some of the key roles within the Children and Young People Social Care Fieldwork service below.

Residential Care

Every child in our care has a positive experience, feeling loved, cared for, and happy in a place that they can call home. When children leave us, they have grown individually and achieved socially, emotionally and educationally with skills to move on successfully.

Our 6 homes across Suffolk provide care for young people aged 11-17 with social, emotional, and mental health difficulties. We create a nurturing environment where each child feels safe, cared for, and empowered. We work closely with children, families, and professionals to address challenges and build self-esteem and self-determination through tailored placement plans. Our goal is to equip children with tools to overcome challenges and realise their potential.

We offer robust training and qualification opportunities. New staff complete a shadowing phase before working independently. We provide in-house training for Level 3 and 5 Diplomas in Residential Childcare to develop key skills in caring for and managing homes. Our professional development enables staff to gain skills and knowledge to nurture children.

Roles in our residential care service focus on providing and overseeing the trauma informed care and welfare of children in children's homes, acting as corporate parents and role models.

Leaving care

The Leaving Care service is responsible for children who have entitlement under the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, which may extend up to the age of 25. There are 3 teams across the county. They support young people who are over the age of 16 years old, through pathway planning, to acquire the skills and abilities needed to successfully move into adulthood and independent living.

Some of the key roles within the Leaving Care service include:

Social Worker,
Duty Coordinator,
Quality Assurance Leads,
Young Person Advisors.

Fostering and Adoption

The Fostering and Adoption service teams work together as one team with specific identifiable areas of responsibility. Our Permanence Support team offer support to children and their families that are living away from their birth parents in either, adoption, special guardianship, permanent fostering or link care.

The Fostering Changes for Children team are responsible for delivering services to Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children; Privately Fostered children and their carers; and all Connected Person/Kinship Foster Carers. Short-term and Intensive Fostering Team provides support and supervision to mainstream fostering households who are caring for children in emergencies, short term and short break placements.

The team also comprises of ‘Zipwire’ which is a therapeutic intensive support programme enabling children with a very high level of need to remain in a family foster placement. Each team is led by a Practice Manager and consists of Consultant Social Workers, Experienced Social Workers, Social Workers and Family Support Practitioners.

Youth Justice

Suffolk’s Youth Justice team has an approach of working together with families, agencies and charities to make sure each child gets access to the help that they need.

The combination of experts, activities, and support programmes that one child needs will be different to other children.

See some of the key roles within the Youth Justice service below.

As an Operational Manager, you’ll have oversight of all operational matters in your locality team. You’ll have oversight of staff who supervise a diverse mixture of outcomes – from youth cautions to custodial sentences. You will ensure service delivery is in accordance with the policies and procedures and partnership arrangements. You will develop and maintain positive relationships with key partners, such as the police, magistrates and other children’s services. Operational Managers develop their teams to bring the best out in them, in turn supporting the aims of the youth justice system to reduce offending and protect the public.

As a Practice Lead you will have the responsibility for embedding policy and practice in teams by coaching and mentoring Practitioners. You will support leading the team audit and overseeing any action plans that may follow. You will support Practitioners in their day-to-day work, including providing support and guidance for when they are working with children with complex needs. You will act as a single point of contact for volunteers and lead on service user engagement.

As a Practitioner, you will undertake assessments with children and their network to understand why a child has come to the attention of the youth justice system. Following this, you will co-produce a plan with the child and their network to reduce the likelihood of further offending. You will work with our restorative team to ensure that the needs of victims and potential victims are planned for. Practitioners work in a variety of settings, including the courts, in the community, in prisons and in their homes. You will work in a way which is relationship-based, using the Signs of Safety framework and values and trauma informed and restorative approaches.

Strategic Commissioning

The Strategic Commissioning team is a small, diverse and dynamic team that supports good practice in commissioning and contract management across the Children and Young People (CYP) directorate. Strategic Commissioning also has a focus on services that support children in care and care leavers – this includes development of strategic plans to support sufficiency of accommodation and support for children in care and care leavers; commissioning and contract management of those services, as well as a team dedicated to placing children in appropriate accommodation on their pathway throughout care and leaving care.

Some key roles within our Commissioning service include:

Service Contracts and Development Officers,
Housing Development Strategic Lead,
Strategic Commissioning Lead,
Placement Managers.

Social Care, Corporate Parenting, Commissioning and Youth Justice

Children and Young People Social Care Fieldwork Service

Practice Managers

Social Workers

Assessment Coordinators

Residential Care

Leaving care

Fostering and Adoption

Youth Justice

Operational Managers

Practice Leads

Practitioners

Strategic Commissioning