3.3 Norfolk Local Protocol for Assessment and Support

RELATED GUIDANCE

This document should be read alongside.

• Norfolk Continuum of Need Guidance
• NSCP Child Protection procedures
• Working Together To Safeguard Children 2023

1. Introduction

Every year, tens of thousands of children in Norfolk are referred to Children’s Services by individuals who have concerns about their welfare and thousands have social care support offered. For children who need additional help, every day matters. The actions taken by professionals to meet the needs of these children as early as possible can be critical to their future.

Professionals help best when they have worked together to carry out a thorough assessment and drawn up a plan for support with the parents/carers and naturally connected network of support around the child/children. Ultimately, promoting the safety and welfare of children can only be effectively achieved by putting children at the centre of the system, and by every individual and agency playing their full part.

2. The Local Protocol for Assessment and Support

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) explains what the Local Authority (LA) and other organisations should do to safeguard and promote the welfare and safety of children. It also asks all LA’s with their partners to write and publish a ‘Local Protocol for Assessment and Support’. The Local Protocol allows children and their families and everyone who works with them to understand exactly what process they can expect when children are referred for assessment and support. It also aims to explain the journey that children will take through the assessment process, providing support to them and their families on the way.

In this document the ‘child’ refers to all children who are subject of the assessment. A child is defined as anyone who has not reached their 18th birthday, including unborn children. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently or is in further education, is a member of the armed forces, is in hospital or in custody in the secure estate, does not change his/her status or entitlements to services or protection.

3. Norfolk Continuum of Needs

In Norfolk we want to put more value into getting the right Assessments, Services and Support in place for children and their families in times of need rather than employing a check list of thresholds that is mechanistic and does not take into account the strengths and resources that families have or the complexity of their situations. What is important to us is that the right conversations are happening at the right times to identify children in need. The Norfolk Continuum of Needs guidance and toolbox has been designed to continue to improve the conversations we have when we are concerned about children and ensure that professionals know the best support route so that the issues children and families are facing can be managed as early as possible.

The threshold guidance for working with disabled children and young people was a supplement to the previous Norfolk Threshold Guide, and is still relevant for children with disabilities.

4. Early Help Assessments

Early Help is the initial response offered by all services in Norfolk in contact with children and families when they need extra support to flourish. It’s not a specific service or team. It’s an approach to working that brings together people from a range of different services and teams who will work with the whole family and natural network around a child with emerging needs to help improve things for them. The aim of Early help is to build on family’s capacity and resources to manage their own dilemmas, resolve their own difficulties and prevent problems in the future.

The Early Help Assessment & Plan Practice Pathway provides the framework from which to build a holistic picture of the family’s circumstances, including areas of strength and resilience and areas requiring support that will benefit the child/children. It is designed to be completed alongside family members and shared with other relevant workers who may form a team around the family in order to develop a family plan and provide appropriate support. The assessment should be undertaken with the agreement of the child and family. It requires honesty about the reason for completing the assessment, clarity about the presenting concerns, the perspectives of all family members including those in their wider family support network and most importantly, the feelings and wishes of the child

With early identification of concerns, early help can be really effective and prevents the need to make contact with the Children’s Advices and Duty Service. All Early Help Assessment & Plans should be registered. Professionals are able to access support in completing an Early Help Assessment & Plan through the Community and Partnership Team.

Support is also available for 0-5 year olds through the Early Childhood and Family Service and through Cambridgeshire Community Services who deliver the Healthy Child Programme.  Staff members in these services, along with staff in the CS Community and Partnerships team, make up the core workforce for the family hub approach in Norfolk. Family hubs provide a joined up approach for families with children 0-19 (up to 25 with SEND) to access support, either through walking in to a family hub site or other community venues where the family hub logo is displayed, or through the webpage offering information, advice and self-help:  Family hubs - Norfolk County Council. Start for Life is part of the family hub offer and is focused on the services and needs of families from conception up until the child’s second birthday. This offer can be accessed on the webpages  Start for Life - Norfolk County Council.

5. Children’s Advice and Duty Service (CADS)

The Children’s Advice and Duty Service is the front door for Children’s Social Care. All referrals relating to the safety and welfare of children go through this team of consultant social workers.

If you are a professional concerned about a child in Norfolk and want to speak to someone, you can call the Children’s Advice and Duty Service, on their direct line 0344 800 8021. If you are a member of the public you can do this through their Customer Service Centre on 0344 800 8020. You may wish to refer to the FAQ’s and flowchart to help you prepare for the conversation. For any call raising concerns about a child, CADS will ask:

• all of the details known to you/your agency about the child;
• the family composition including siblings, and where possible extended family members and anyone important in the child’s life;
• the nature of the concern and how immediate it is;
• Any and what kind of support has been provided to the child or family to date;
• where the child is now;
• whether you have informed the parents/carers of your concern

Every phone call to CADS will be followed up in writing by the Consultant Social Worker. It is also best practice to keep a record of the contact you have made, the discussion and any decisions made. You should also record whether you have obtained parental consent and if not, why not.

CADS will undertake further information gathering about the child and their family from relevant agencies and their own multiagency records, and from this combination of information will make a decision as to whether the case needs to be referred to the Family Help Service. Where the concerns for a child are immediate and serious, the CADS information gathering process runs parallel to essential safeguarding action planning between Children’s Services, the police and health.

Practitioners should always follow up their concerns if they are not satisfied with the decision made in CADS and should escalate their concerns if they remain dissatisfied. See below (section 14) for further information.

6. Statutory Assessments, Support and Planning

Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a general duty to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. A child in need is defined under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 as a child who is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable level of health or development, or whose health and development is likely to be significantly or further impaired without the provision of services, or a child who is disabled. To fulfil this duty in Norfolk, a social work qualified manager will initiate a multiagency assessment within one working day of accepting a referral from CADS. A lead practitioner, either a Family Practitioner or Social Worker will undertake an assessment of needs, giving due regard to a child’s wishes and feelings, age and understanding when determining what, if any, services to provide. All assessments and any resulting plans will be overseen and approved by a social work qualified manager.

When allocating the lead practitioner, the social work qualified manager will consider the needs of the child and their family to ensure the lead practitioner has skills, knowledge, competence, and experience to work effectively with the child and their family. The lead practitioner will always be a social worker for child protection enquiries. The practice manager also ensures that the allocated worker has the time required to undertake the role of lead practitioner.

In Norfolk, lead practitioners are based in Family Help teams. These are multidisciplinary teams where lead practitioners are able to hold risk and shape interventions collaboratively with other members of the team, for example intensive support workers and/or domestic abuse workers. They also have access to high quality individual supervision and group supervision.

Effective supervision plays a critical role in ensuring a clear focus on a child’s welfare, and supports practitioners to reflect on the impact of their decisions on the child and their family. All lead practitioners will receive both reflective case supervision and support for continuing professional development and to maintain professional registration, where appropriate, within their management arrangements.

The maximum timeframe for the assessment to conclude, such that it is possible to reach a decision on next steps, should be no longer than 45 working days from the point of referral. If, in discussion with a child and their family and other practitioners, an assessment exceeds 45 working days, the lead practitioner will discuss with the social work qualified practice manager and record the reasons for exceeding the time limit.

Every assessment will be informed by the views of the child as well as the family and unless there is good reason, children will be seen alone. Where a child requests to be seen with a trusted adult, this will be supported and any communication needs will be taken into account. When assessing children in need and providing services, specialist assessments may be required and, where possible, these will be co-ordinated so that the child and family experience a coherent process and a single plan of action.

Some children in need may require accommodation because there is no one who has parental responsibility for them, they are lost or abandoned, or the person who has been caring for them is prevented from providing them with suitable accommodation or care. Norfolk Children’s Social Care will accommodate such children in need in their area under section 20 of the Children Act 1989. Under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives or is found in their area is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, it has a duty to make such enquiries as it considers necessary to decide whether to take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. Such enquiries, supported by other organisations and agencies, as appropriate, will be initiated where there are concerns about all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation whether this is taking place in person or online, inside or outside of the child’s home. Where there is a risk to the life of a child or a likelihood of serious immediate harm, whether from inside or outside the home, Norfolk Children’s Social care will work with the police to use our statutory child protection powers to act immediately to secure the safety of the child, as set out in Section 46 of Children Act 1989.

Where the decision to return a child to the care of their family is planned, Norfolk Social Care will undertake an assessment while the child is looked after as part of the care planning process (under regulation 39 of the Care Planning Regulations 2010). This assessment will consider what services and support the child and their family might need and what is available to the child within their natural network of support. Plans will be drawn up with the family, including the wider family network, or the family could be offered a Family group Conference (FGC) to establish how the family network will support the child to return home. The decision to cease to look after a child will, in most cases, require approval under regulation 39 of the Care Planning Regulations 2010. Practitioners must carry out an assessment of need for eligible children to consider their eligibility for independence and transition into adulthood. Where a child who is accommodated under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 returns home in an unplanned way, (for example, the decision is not made as part of the care planning process, but the parent removes the child, or the child decides to leave), the local authority should work with partners to consider whether there are any immediate concerns about the safety and wellbeing of the child. This could include harm from outside the home. In these circumstances, Norfolk Children’s Social Care will take appropriate action, including making enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, if there is concern that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. There will be a clear plan for all children who return home that reflects current and previous assessments, focuses on outcomes, and includes details of services and support required. Following reunification:

• practitioners will make the timeline and decision-making process for providing ongoing services and support clear to the child and family.
• when reviewing outcomes, children will, wherever possible, be seen alone. Practitioners will ascertain their wishes and feelings regarding the provision of services being delivered.

7. Principles and process of Assessments

High quality assessments are timely, transparent and proportionate to the needs of individual children and their families. Norfolk’s practice model utilises Signs of Safety and the Family Networking Approach. This means that all assessments in Norfolk will:

• Identify what is working well for the children and the family;
• Identify worries, risks or dangers for the children in the family
• Identify what needs to change for the care of the children to be safe and stable in the long term;
• Be undertaken in partnership with the family and their naturally occurring network, meeting them directly and eliciting their wishes, views and feelings and observing relationships;
• Ensuring that the child and each member of their network understands the assessment process and type of help offered and is able to contribute their own ideas and plan of support to improve the child’s outcomes;

Assessments will gather information around the three domains of the Assessment Framework

• the child’s developmental needs
• the capacity of parents or carers (resident and non-resident) and any other adults living in the household to respond to those needs
• the impact and influence of the family network and any other adults living in the household as well as community and environmental circumstances.

The assessment framework provides a model to examine how the different aspects of the child’s life and context interact and impact on the child. It ensures that :

• Information is gathered and recorded systematically;
• Information is checked and discussed with each child and their parents/carers where appropriate;
• Differences in views about information are recorded;
• The impact of what is happening to the child is clearly identified.

All related children living in the same household will be included in the assessment to prevent families from negotiating excessive paperwork. However, the individual needs of each child will be explored separately, including their relationships with each other and their parents, including absent parents. Any concerns about ‘scapegoating’ of any child or children within the family will be explicit in the assessment. Where the needs of children greatly differ, consideration can be given to undertaking separate assessments for each child, particularly where this would benefit the child. Actions to meet a child's needs will begin before the assessment has concluded where this would benefit the child and prevent drift and /or delay.

Where there are concerns that a child may be at risk of, or experiencing harm outside the home, lead practitioners will work with the child, parents, carers, family networks and partners to determine:

• the nature and duration of the harm
• where risk is located and understand the context in which harm is or may be happening, including online
• the level of risk associated with each concern and context identified.

Assessments will consider how a child’s experience within their family and networks, including their friends and peer groups, and extra-familial contexts, such as the places and spaces where they spend their time, interplay with the risk of harm outside of the home.

Where the child has links to a foreign country, the lead practitioner may also need to work with embassies and colleagues abroad. See Working with foreign authorities: child protection and care orders (2014) for more information.

The social work qualified practice manager will review and approve the assessment with the lead practitioner and ensure that actions such as those below have been met:

• There has been direct communication with the child alone and their views and wishes have been recorded and taken into account when providing services;
• All the children in the household have been seen and their needs considered;
• The child’s home address has been visited and the child’s bedroom has been seen;
• The parents (including all absent parents with Parental Responsibility) have been involved and their views and wishes have been recorded and taken into account;
• Wider family members and the naturally occurring network have been involved in the assessment;
• All partner agencies working with the child have been spoken with and contributed to the assessment;
• A multiagency chronology has been completed which helps inform the assessment and makes sense of previous patterns of concerns, referrals and interventions as well as when things have been working well.

They will also check that the assessment:

• provides clear evidence for decisions and what needs to happen to provide good outcomes for the child and family, including any services required.
• is holistic in approach and addresses presenting and underlying issues and each of the child’s needs, giving sufficient recognition and priority to the specific needs of disabled children and young carers and to any risks the child faces within or outside the home, including online
• explores the needs of all members of the family as individuals and considers how their needs impact on one another as well as how the family network could support and help de-escalate issues
• is a dynamic process, not an event, analysing and responding to the changing nature and level of need and/or risk faced by the child from within and outside their family
• recognises and respects the individual and protected characteristics of families, including the ways in which these can overlap and intersect, ensuring support reflects their diversity of needs and experiences
• leads to action, including the provision of services, the impact of which is reviewed on an ongoing basis
• recognises a child’s entitlement to a full-time education and the positive impact attendance at school has on personal development and attainment

Where a child becomes looked after, the assessment will be the baseline for work with the family. Assessment by a social worker is also required before a looked after child under a care order returns home. This will provide evidence of whether the necessary improvements have been made to ensure the child's safety when they return home. Following an assessment, appropriate support will be provided for children returning home, including where that return home is unplanned, to ensure that children continue to be adequately safeguarded.

8. Contribution of partner agencies working with the child and their family

As set out in Working Together 2023, all agencies and professionals involved with the child and the family, have a responsibility to contribute to the Assessment process. This might take the form of providing information in a timely manner and direct or joint work:

• For all children under the age of 5 including pre-birth, the expectation in Norfolk is that assessments will be undertaken jointly between the lead worker and health practitioner or midwife.
• If during the course of the Assessment, it is discovered that a school age child is not attending an educational establishment, the lead practitioner should contact the Attendance Service csattendance@norfolk.gov.uk in line with the Attendance Strategy.
• Agencies providing services to adults who are parents, carers or who have regular contact with children must consider the impact on the child of the particular needs of the adult in question.
• All agencies contributing to the statutory assessment process will have a responsibility to ensure that their staff work within the Protocol and that their staff have received the necessary safeguarding training.

Professionals will sometimes have different experiences of the child and family and understanding these differences will actively contribute to the understanding of the child and their family. Joint Agency Group Supervision (JAGS) can be used to support this shared understanding. Differences of opinion between professionals should be resolved speedily through conversation and discussion. Where different opinions cannot be resolved through case discussion and joint working, the Resolving Professional Disagreements policy should be followed.

9. Contribution of the child and family

The Child

The child/children will be supported to participate and contribute directly to the Assessment process based upon their age, understanding and identity. They will normally be seen alone and if this is not possible or in their best interest, the reason will be recorded. The lead practitioner will work directly with the child using relationship based practice in order to understand their views and wishes, including the way in which they behave both with their care givers and in other settings.

The pace of the Assessment needs to acknowledge the pace at which the child can contribute. However, this should not be a reason for delay in taking protective action.

Assessments will be child-centred and responsive to the voice of the child. This means decisions being made in the child’s best interests, rooted in child development, age-appropriate, sensitive to the impact of adversity and trauma and informed by evidence. Observation can be an important way to get the perspective of babies, infants, and non-verbal children. In the case of disabled children, practitioners should consider whether any specialist communication support is required and consider how advocacy services can support the child to communicate their views. Where there is a conflict between the needs of the child and their parents/carers, decisions will be made in the child’s best interests. In all assessments, the child’s home address must be visited and the child’s bedroom must be seen.

The Parents, Caregivers and Wider Family

The parents (including any absent parents with PR) should be involved in the assessment at the earliest opportunity unless to do so would prejudice the safety of the child. The parents’ involvement in the assessment will be central to its success. At the outset they need to understand how they can contribute to the process and what change is expected of them to improve the outcomes for their child. The assessment process must be open and transparent with the parents. However, the process should also challenge parents’ statements and behaviour where it is evidenced that there are inconsistencies, questions or obstacles to progress. All parents or care givers should be involved equally in the assessment and should be supported to participate whilst the welfare of the child must not be overshadowed by parental needs. However, the process of assessment must consider the safety of an adult as well as that of the child where necessary, for example in cases of domestic abuse.

The wider family and friends who support the child should also be engaged in the assessment. Encouraging the involvement of wider family and natural network usually provides additional support and/or safety for the child and assessments should be made to determine this. It also helps parents understand what professionals are worried about when there is a shared understanding with those in their natural network.

Lead practitioners will explore the wider network with the child and parents as part of the assessment and the network should be brought together during the assessment to support this process in the best interests of the child. Family members will always need to be assessed where a child goes to live with them during the course of an assessment.

10. Sharing the Assessment

The reasons for the assessment and the outcomes of the assessment will be explained in language that the family can understand, using family or children’s terms where understanding will be enhanced by doing so. Explanations should be free from professional jargon and acronyms. Assessments will also be shared in writing with families using straight forward, jargon free language, and ‘words and pictures’ will be used to support children’s understanding as required.

Where a child or parent speaks a language other than that spoken by the social worker, an interpreter will be provided. Alternatives to speech will be used as necessary where a child or parent has communication difficulties.  Other professionals who know the child and their communication methods well will be involved to support children where required. Where the child has had a communication assessment, its conclusions and recommendations will be observed.

11. Analysis and Decision-making

Analysis and decision-making should be a collaborative process between the lead practitioner and the multi-agency team working with the family, including the social work qualified manager. As Working Together 2023 points out;

“No system can fully eliminate harm. Understanding harm involves judgement and balance. These are central to effective analysis of the relevant information gathered as part of the assessment. Analysis should build upon the history of every child, taking account of family history and the child’s experience of cumulative abuse, neglect, and exploitation as well as the impact of any previous services. Where a child has been looked after and has returned home, information from previous assessments and case records should also be reviewed”.

The analysis should include:

• The impact of past harm on the child;
• The future danger to the child if nothing changes;
• Any complicating factors which may prevent change/make change more difficult;
• What is working well in the family, including strengths and safety;
• What needs to happen to ensure future safety and wellbeing for the child, and allow specialist services to withdraw.

The Lead Practitioners’ analysis should be challenged by others working in the Family Help team, including the social work qualified practice supervisor or manager, as part of reflective group supervision. Supervision should promote professional curiosity, focusing on the child’s lived experience, the likely impact of abuse and/or neglect and make use of relevant findings from serious case and practice reviews when analysing the need and risk. They should be aware of their own personal bias and alert to making assumptions.

Decisions on the nature and level of the child’s needs, and the level of actual or likely significant harm, if any, should be reviewed by a social work qualified practice supervisor or manager and include:

• Is this a Child in Need? (Section 17 Children Act 1989);
• Is there reasonable cause to suspect that this child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, Significant Harm? (Section 47 Children Act 1989);
• Is this a child in need of accommodation? (Section 20 or Section 31A Children Act 1989).

Judgements may need to be revised as a case progresses and further information comes to light.

12. Actions and outcomes

The outcomes of an assessment may be as follows:

• No further action;
• Additional support which can be provided through universal services and single service provision; or early help services
• The development of a multi-agency child in need plan for the provision of child in need services to promote the child’s health and development;
• Undertaking a Strategy Discussion/Meeting, a Section 47 child protection enquiry;
• Emergency action to protect a child.

Where Norfolk children’s social care involvement continues beyond the assessment, the lead practitioner will need to develop a plan of action with the child, the family and their naturally occurring network, and in partnership with the multiagency team around the child and their family.  

The plan should set out which services are to be delivered, and what actions are to be undertaken, by whom and for what purpose. A child’s engagement with education should be reflected in the plan, where this is a relevant factor. Many services provided will be for parents or carers (and may include services identified in a parent carer’s or non-parent carer’s needs assessment). Where this is the case, the plan should reflect this and set clear measurable outcomes for the child and expectations for the parents, with measurable, reviewable actions for them.

In cases where there are concerns of harm outside of the home, the plan should ensure the parents and carers are supported to understand what is happening to the child. This should take a strengths-based approach to support parents to meet the child’s needs. Practitioners should be aware that parents may feel blamed or criticised in these circumstances and will need to work thoughtfully with parents to build effective partnerships.

The plan will be reviewed regularly to analyse whether sufficient progress has been made to meet the child’s needs. This will be important for neglect cases where parents and carers can make small improvements. In such cases, the test should be whether any improvements in adult behaviour are sufficient and sustained and whether the pace of that change is appropriate for the child.

Reviews will also consider how the family network is supporting the parent or carers to sustain improvements and whether any further support could be offered. While involvement of the naturally connected network in assessment and planning is expected from the earliest point as a normal part of practice in Family Help, that should not prevent consideration of referring to the Family Group Conference (FGC) Service if there is a possibility the child may not be able to remain with their parents or carers, or in any event before a child becomes looked after. FGC’s should always be facilitated by an independent co-ordinator and include private family time. If a family group conference/ decision-making is refused it should continue to be offered and still considered as an option later, including as a route to reunification with the birth parents or family network where appropriate.

Known transition points for the child should be planned for in advance. This includes where children are likely to transition between child and adult services, where they move from one local authority to another, where they move between schools and/or to support hand over to new lead practitioners, utilising guidance produced by Norfolk’s In Care Council about changes and new beginnings.

13. Assessing Specific Children

Where a child is involved in other assessment processes, it is important that these are coordinated so that the child does not become lost between the different agencies involved and their different procedures. All plans for the child developed by the various agencies and individual professionals should be joined up so that the child and family experience a single assessment and planning process, which shares a focus on the outcomes for the child.

Young Carers and Families

Young carers are children under the age of 18 who provide regular and ongoing significant unpaid care or emotional support to a family member or friend who is physically or mentally ill, disabled, or misuses alcohol or other substances. The child or young adult has caring responsibilities that are important and relied upon within the family in maintaining the health safety or the day to day wellbeing of the person receiving care or of the wider family. It does not apply to the everyday and occasional help around the home that may be often expected of or given by children and families and is part of community and family cohesion.

Young adult carers are aged 16 to 25 years and have specific needs and rights as they make the transition to adulthood.

Norfolk children’s social care will carry out an assessment for all young carers that may have support needs, or who request an assessment under section 17ZA of the Children Act 1989 to establish how best they can support the young carer and their family. The assessment will consider whether it is appropriate or excessive for the young carer to provide care for the person in question, (which may be a sibling, parent, or other member of the family), in light of the young carer’s needs and wishes. They will also look at the needs of the whole family as part of the assessment, as set out in the Young Carers (Needs Assessment) Regulations 2015.  The assessment will be combined with any other assessment of the needs for support of the young carer, the person cared for, or a member of the young carer’s family where this can be achieved to prevent duplication or conflicting information for the family and workers.

The results of a young carer’s needs assessment will include establishing whether the child should be provided with services as a “Child in Need” (under section 17 of the Children Act).

Supporting Disabled Children and their carers

A crucial role of children’s social care is to provide help and support to disabled children and their families. When undertaking an assessment of a disabled child, lead practitioners should recognise the additional pressures on the family, and the distinct challenges they may have had to negotiate as a result of their child’s disability. The assessment process should focus on the needs of the child and family, be strengths-based, and gather information to inform decisions on the help needed to:

• ensure the child achieves the best possible outcomes
• enable the child’s family to continue in their caring role where that is right for the child
• safeguard children in cases where there is abuse, neglect, and exploitation
• ensure that appropriate practical support is in place to enable disabled children and their families to thrive.

Norfolk Children’s social care will also consider whether it is necessary to provide support under section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. Where they are satisfied that the identified services and assistance can be provided under section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, and it is necessary in order to meet a disabled child’s needs, they will arrange to provide that support.

They will also assess the child’s carers (under section 1 of the Carers Recognition and Services Act 1995, and under section 17ZD of the Children Act 1989) where required or requested and take account of the results when deciding what services to provide to the disabled child.

In line with the commitments made in the Special Educational Needs and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, Norfolk social care have implemented the role of Designated Social Care Officer (DSCO) who provides the capacity and expertise to improve the links between social care services and the SEND system. The DSCO role supports both operational input (such as the contributions from social care to education, health and care, EHC, assessments) and more strategic planning functions (such as the commissioning of care services such as short breaks) for disabled children and those with SEN. Within EHC assessment, planning and review, it is important that the social worker or family practitioner provides an update of the child’s progress and family circumstances as identified in the last review of any plan so that assessments of educational, social and health needs are coordinated.

If a child aged 13+ has a disability which means they may receive a service when they become an adult, the assessing and reviewing social worker will use the statutory guidance to guide further assessment of needs for services into adulthood and where applicable seek the support of the Preparing For Adult Life team.

Unborn children

Research and experience indicate that unborn and very young babies are extremely vulnerable, and that work carried out in the antenatal period to assess risk and to plan intervention will help to minimise harm. The antenatal assessment provides a valuable opportunity to develop a proactive multiagency approach to families where there are acknowledged vulnerabilities and an identified risk of harm.

Professionals need to be curious and ensure that the needs of the unborn baby are paramount, taking into consideration the involvement of the father/partner or others taking on the parenting role, any existing children of either parent and the wider family and the impact this has on the health and well-being of the unborn baby. Fathers can be unseen and it is essential to encourage the involvement of the father unless there are concerns that to do so would heighten any risk to the child and/or mother e.g. high levels of domestic abuse, stalking/harassment.

Pregnancy in a child under the age of 18 should be considered but not automatically be seen as an indicator of risk. Pregnancy in a child under 16 must give consideration to a consultation with or referral to Children’s Social Care. Sexual activity within this age group should always make professionals consider whether the child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm and may be at risk of child sexual exploitation. Any pregnancy in a child of 13 years or under must be referred to Children’s Services and reported to the police. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, penetrative sex with a child under 13 is classed as rape.  

In all cases where there are concerns about parental capacity or risks that may impact on the health, safety and wellbeing of the unborn baby, Norfolk’s pre-birth protocol flowchart should be followed and the pre-birth protocol should be followed. If the family is already known to children’s social care, a referral to midwifery services should happen at the earliest opportunity so that a joint assessment with the health visitor can take place and support provided as soon as possible. This includes all looked after children and care leavers. Where mental health issues are identified a referral should be made to the Specialist Perinatal Community Mental Health team. This is a pathway for vulnerable women, who have pre-existing mental health problems and where these emerge during the pregnancy.

The assessment completed by Children’s Social Care will include information gathered from Midwifery, Health Visitor/Family Nurse and Primary Care (GP) as well as, when appropriate, Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and drug and alcohol services and any other services having contact with the family and/or adults within the family and household.

Where there are concerns about significant harm, consideration should be given to the timing of the strategy meeting to ensure the child protection conference (where one is required) can happen as soon after 24 weeks as possible and earlier where there are potential health complications that could lead to an early delivery.

A Discharge Planning Meeting and Safeguarding Birth Plan and Discharge Plan will take place if a child is subject of a child protection plan or Public Law Outline (pre-proceedings or care proceedings), prior to the baby leaving hospital. This is to ensure that support is planned and shared between parents, family network and professionals and any safeguarding risks are anticipated and minimised through protective strategies. 

Children in hospital

Hospitals should be child-friendly, safe and healthy places for children; children under 16 should not be cared for on an adult ward. Any concerns about Significant Harm to a child within a hospital or health-based setting must be referred to the Children’s Social Care Services.

When a Norfolk child has been in hospital for three months or more, the hospital must notify the Norfolk Children’s Social Care who will carry out a statutory assessment, as detailed above, and decide whether services are required under the Children Act 1989.

Discharge from hospital should be planned where professionals have concerns about a possible child protection issue, including a holding strategy meeting and ensuring a multiagency action plan is in place to safeguard the child where there are concerns about significant harm.  This must be agreed and recorded before the child leaves hospital. Particular attention is required in the discharge planning of newborns from neonatal intensive care units, since these babies are at high risk of re-admission to hospital. All children should have in place a properly co-ordinated programme of follow-up, and co-ordinated input of services.

Children in mental health in-patient settings

Any child admitted to an adolescent inpatient unit should be considered to be a Child in Need. They/their parents have the right to request a Child in Need (CiN) assessment under the Children Act 1989, or the Unit should seek informed consent to notify Social Care of the admission and to request a child in need assessment via CADS as detailed above. Where children are already known to Norfolk Children’s Social care as a child in need, child in need of protection or looked after child, their plan should be updated to reflect the child’s needs during and post admission.

For all children, discharge planning should start from the day of admission, and the lead social care worker should attend CPA reviews and discharge planning meetings as appropriate. The CPA Discharge Planning Meeting must be held before the child is discharged. The purpose of the meeting is to ensure that there is an appropriate multiagency plan in place for the child’s discharge and appropriate aftercare support.

The views and wishes of the child must be taken into account alongside an analysis of the risks and protective factors, and should be attended by the child, their advocate where they have one, the lead social care worker, CPA co-ordinator, ward staff and key worker, psychiatrist, parents/carers and wider family as appropriate.

The discharge meeting should be followed by the appropriate child in need review meeting, Core group/Child protection conference or LAC Review to ensure plans are coherent and coordinated. Where a child is looked after, the Review of their care plan must take place within 8 days of their discharge from the in-patient unit.

Children with specific communication needs

All children have different communication needs and time and consideration must be given to understanding how children best communicate and working with others to overcome any barriers in communicating with children. Even where children have very limited communication with only a hand, sign or even eye pointing movement that indicates yes and another to indicate no, this does not mean that the child cannot understand or is able to communicate what has happened to them. All children have the ability to communicate, and it is up to professionals to identify how.

Throughout any assessment process, communication is key. All steps must be taken to avoid confusion. Participation in all forms of planning meetings post assessment must be encouraged and facilitated. Where there are communication impairments or learning difficulties, particular attention should be paid to the communications needs of the child to ascertain the child’s perception of events and his or her wishes and feelings. Practitioners should be aware of non-verbal communication systems and should know how to contact suitable interpreters and facilitators. Very young children and many disabled children effectively communicate their needs through their behaviour. It is very important therefore to maximise the use of observation and reports from those in contact with the child. Practitioners must not make assumptions about the inability of a disabled child to give credible evidence, or to withstand the rigours of the Court processes where these are required.

Asylum seeking children

An unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC) is child under the age of 18 who is applying for asylum in his/her own right, and is separated from both parents and not being cared for by an adult who has responsibility for them. Unaccompanied children have the same basic needs as other children for care and attention but may have additional needs linked to culture; ethnicity or religion. They are likely to feel very isolated but may also have suffered from torture and be traumatised by this experience, with mental or physical health problems which may not have been diagnosed. They are often highly anxious whilst their asylum claims are being processed. 

In Norfolk, all unaccompanied children receive their services from the UASC County team. The UASC Team strives to provide a trauma informed service which embeds the principles of trauma informed practice for children, young people and employees – Safety; Choice; Collaboration; Trustworthiness and Empowerment.

Working with unaccompanied minors is a highly complex area of work and therefore Norfolk ensures UASC Social Workers, Personal Advisors and colleagues have a solid understanding of the asylum process, and of additional vulnerabilities/safeguarding, including:

• Good knowledge of immigration process, different types of leave and appeal’s processes;
• Good understanding of modern slavery, trafficking/exploitation identifiers, assessment tools and trafficking referral system, as well as understanding of the wider child protection system
• Be competent in completing good quality age assessments which evidence an understanding the impact of cultural difference, trauma and lived experiences has on emotional and behavioural development/physical presentation
• Good understanding the possible asylum outcomes and how that impacts on care/pathway planning.

The child’s needs will be assessed using the principles above and UASC practitioners will ensure expert/good quality immigration advice is provided on arrival in Norfolk. An unaccompanied child who becomes a looked after child is cared for under the looked after children guidance (e.g. Care Standards Act 2000, Foster Care Regulations). Advice and support should be given to promote links or reunification with the child’s family where it is possible and safe to do so and interpreting services should be made available as required.

Unaccompanied asylum seekers who become looked after will be offered an initial health assessment; many asylum-seeking children have very high levels of health need which are unusual in the UK, and it is essential that these are addressed by experienced practitioners at the earliest possible date. Advice may be required from the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture.

All refugees have the same rights to education as other children in the UK. Their educational attainment will vary depending upon their country of origin and the opportunity for them to access schooling. However, only children with indefinite leave to remain in the UK or who have temporary leave to remain and fulfil residency requirements are eligible for an educational bursary. Once the local authority has taken on responsibility for the child then the policies governing special educational needs, free school meals, uniform grant and travel will apply.

Assistance for unaccompanied asylum seeker children under s.17 and s.20 ends at the age of 18. However, the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 then applies for any child who has been accommodated or received services equivalent to accommodation and a needs assessment and a Pathway Plan should be completed. Because of the uncertainty associated with the outcome of an asylum application it is important that planning addresses the possibility that the child may be required to return to their country of origin. Should a child become Appeal Rights Exhausted secondary legal advice will be sought and, if appropriate, a Human Rights Assessment completed. Any further applications for leave to remain must be made in a timely manner, specifically before any previous leave to remain expires. Close liaison with the UK Visas and Immigration is required to ensure changes in status are monitored and services adjusted accordingly.

Supporting children at risk of, or experiencing, harm outside the home

Often referred to as “extra-familial harm”, harm to children outside the home can occur in a range of extra-familial contexts, including school and other educational settings, peer groups, or within community/public spaces, and/or online. Children may experience this type of harm from other children and/or from adults. Forms of extra-familial harm include exploitation by criminal and organised crime groups and individuals (such as county lines and financial exploitation), serious violence, modern slavery and trafficking, online harm, sexual exploitation, teenage relationship abuse, and the influences of extremism which could lead to radicalisation. Children of all ages can experience extra-familial harm.

Where children may be experiencing extra-familial harm, children’s social care assessments will determine whether a child is in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 or whether to make enquires under section 47, following concerns that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. All children, including those who may be causing harm to others, will receive a safeguarding response first and practitioners will work with them to understand their experiences and what will reduce the likelihood of harm to themselves and others.

During the assessment, the lead practitioner will:

• build an understanding of the child’s strengths, interests, identity, and culture
• respond to each of the vulnerabilities and/or challenges that the child may be facing, including any within the home
• gather information on past experiences of trauma and how this may impact on the child’s current experience of harm and on how they interact with practitioners
• explore how the child's experiences within their families and networks, including their friends and peer groups, interplay with the risk of harm outside of the home and identify what needs to change
• support parents, carers, and family networks to understand what is happening to the child, working with them to ensure they can best meet the child’s needs and play an active part in the solutions and processes to help create safety for the child
• understand the risk of extra-familial harm for siblings, for example, where older children are exploited, younger siblings may also be at risk of being targeted.
• work with police and other community safety colleagues, as well as the school/educational setting and other key agencies in the professional network to agree a plan to keep the child safe
• record and communicate decisions with the child and their parents or carers so that everyone understands the actions that will be taken to promote the child’s safety and welfare

Lead practitioners in Family help will call in support from the Targeted Youth Support Service (TYSS) as required, particularly where there are concerns that more than one child may be experiencing harm in an extra-familial context. This will enable the TYSS worker to work with the group, whether they are already known to local authority children’s social care or not. This will ensure the practitioner is able to build an understanding of the dynamics between those within the group and the extra-familial context.

All practitioners will refer to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) where they identify someone that may be the victim of modern slavery and human trafficking. A child’s consent is not needed for a referral to be made.

Children at risk of female genital mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a collective term for procedures, which include the removal of part or all of the external female genitalia for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons. The practice is medically unnecessary, extremely painful and has serious health consequences, both at the time when the mutilation is carried out and in later life. The age at which girls undergo FGM varies enormously according to the community. It is typically performed on girls aged between 5 and 8, but in some cases it is performed on new-born infants or on young women before marriage or pregnancy.

FGM is much more common than is generally realised both worldwide and in the UK. It is deeply embedded into the culture of communities and intervention by statutory agencies may be resented.

FGM is illegal in the UK The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 makes it an offence for UK nationals or permanent UK residents to carry out FGM abroad, or to aid, abet, counsel or procure the carrying out of FGM abroad, even in countries where the practice is legal.

It is reportedly practiced in 28 African countries and in parts of the Middle East and Asia, but it is increasingly found in Western Europe and other developed countries. UK Communities that are most at risk of FGM include Kenyan, Somali, Sudanese, Serra Leonean, Egyptian, Nigerian and Eritrean. Non-African communities include Yemeni, Afghani, Kurdish, Indonesia and Pakistani.

There are a number of factors in addition to a girl’s or woman’s community that could increase the risk that she will be subjected to FGM:

• Any girl born to a woman who has been subjected to FGM must be considered to be at risk, as must other female children in the extended family;
• Any girl who has a sister who has already undergone FGM must be considered to be at risk, as must other female children in the extended family;
• Any girl withdrawn from Personal, Social and Health Education or Personal and Social Education may be at risk as a result of her parents wishing to keep her uninformed about her body and rights.

If any agency becomes aware of a child who may have been subjected to or is at risk of FGM they must make a referral to Children’s Social Care Services as Child In Need. Children Services will work with the police and make enquiries to safeguard a girl’s welfare under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 if it has reason to believe that a girl is likely to be subjected to or has been subjected to FGM.

The assessment principles above will be followed to ensure parents and carers are aware of the reasons for assessment, and to ensure they are involved in the process. Despite the very significant severe physical and mental health consequences, parents and others who have FGM performed on their daughters do not intend it as an act of abuse. They believe that it is in the girl’s best interests to conform to their prevailing custom. Therefore, it may not always be appropriate to remove the child from an otherwise loving family environment. However, the child must be protected and where a girl appears to be in immediate danger of FGM, and consideration should be given to legal Interventions such as, Police protection, Emergency Protection Orders under section 44 of the Children Act 1989, Care Orders and Supervision Orders, Inherent jurisdiction, Applications for wardship, or Repatriation back to the UK.

Professionals have a responsibility to ensure that families know that FGM is illegal, and the family will be breaking the law if they arrange for the child to have FGM. This knowledge alone, that the authorities are actively tackling the issue, may deter families from having FGM performed on their children, and save girls and women from harm. Children’s Social Care, in partnership with the Police Child Abuse Investigation Unit, will liaise with the Paediatric services where it is believed that FGM has already taken place to ensure that a Medical Assessment takes place.

Children involved in the Youth Justice System

Where the Youth Justice Service is involved with a child who is being assessed under Section 17 or Section 47 of the Children Act 1989, the case worker and/or manager will be expected to contribute to the statutory assessment. Equally, all specific youth justice assessments will take account of any statutory assessments and plans in place for the child.

The Norfolk Youth Justice service carries out assessments for children in a range of circumstances:  triage and diversion, out of court disposals (e.g. Youth Cautions) and statutory interventions from Court Orders. The main framework for the assessment of children in the youth justice system is AssetPlus. AssetPlus is an assessment and planning framework approved by the Youth Justice Board and mandated by National Standards 2019. AssetPlus provides a framework for practitioners to analyse the child’s offence(s) and anti-social behaviour and identify factors or circumstances which may contribute to similar behaviour in future. AssetPlus places a focus on identifying strengths and factors which may help or hinder the process of desistance. The information gathered from AssetPlus is used to inform court reports and help formulate plans of intervention to address needs, safety and wellbeing and future offending, including harm to others.

Where a child becomes looked after as a result of being remanded to youth detention accommodation (YDA), Children’s Social Care will undertake a full assessment (as described above) and make a decision about how they should be supported. This information will be used to prepare the care plan, which will set out how the child’s needs will met whilst they remain remanded and make plans for their transition back to the community or receiving a custodial sentence. The care plan will be reviewed in the same way as a care plan for any other looked after child. Visits to the secure establishment may take place jointly with the youth justice worker in order to avoid multiple assessment interviews for the young person and to encourage a joint approach.

Children with a parent in custody/prison

The Prison Service undertakes a child safeguarding enquiry with children’s social care for all newly sentenced prisoners and will identify prisoners who present an ongoing risk to children from within custody. Prisons will decide on the level of contact, if any, they will allow between a prisoner and a child based on a child contact risk assessment and will prohibit or restrict a prisoner’s contact with a child where necessary.

In response to a child safeguarding enquiry, Norfolk children's social care will:

• review information provided by the Prison Service and record it as required
• respond to a child safeguarding enquiry and share with the Prison Service any concerns about the prisoner and any contact with a child
• contribute to the prisons’ child contact risk assessment where a child is known to children's social care, or has previously been known, by providing a report on the child's best interests and verifying the child's identity. Where the child is not known to children’s social care, they should still provide a view on child contact and should advise the prison to complete a child safeguarding referral if one is required.

The Probation Service will share information with children’s social care about supervised individuals who have contact with children or who pose a known risk and will also request information by making child safeguarding enquiries. Information exchange between probation and children’s social care help both agencies develop a better understanding of the children and families they work with and ensures risk assessments are accurate and well informed.

Where parents do not present a risk to their children, workers in early help and social care will seek to work with incarcerated parents as they do with parents in the community, which can mean working around some obstacles and challenges. Being in prison does not mean that parents lose parental responsibility of their children. Additional support in understanding processes and working with prisons can be found through Pact website.

Although it can be difficult to call prisoners, and they have limited accessibility to phone and no email, by working with the family officer, it is possible to send important documents and even have prisoners attend Teams meetings where enough notice is given. Most prisons also have rooms where face-to-face meetings can be held. Legal/professional visits should also be arranged in order to conduct assessments and gain parental views and wishes.

Family time for children with their incarcerated parent will depend on the nature of their offence, but in most cases where the parent presents no risk to their children, family rooms and family time is well supported and can be observed by workers where necessary. Family days also take place in many prisons which is a good opportunity for parents to spend quality time doing crafts and activities with their children. Workers should also liaise with prisons about sentence planning and release, to support any work that may be required of parents while they are in prison, and ensure they are supported appropriately upon release into the community.

Children in kinship care

Kinship care is any situation in which a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their parent. The arrangement may be temporary or longer term.

The following are all types of kinship care arrangements however this list is not exhaustive:

Informal kinship care/ Family arrangements (not approved foster care). This includes private family arrangements in which a close family member who does not hold parental responsibility raises the child, the local authority has had no major role in making the arrangement for the child, and the Family Court has not made an order in respect to the care of the child. It also includes situations where a child under the age of 16 is being provided with accommodation for less than 28 days by an individual in their own home who is not a close relative, and where a 16 or 17 year old is being provided with accommodation by an individual who is not a close relative in their own home.

In private family arrangements where the local authority have had no role in making the arrangement, any concerns for the child should be referred through in the usual way. If children’s social care are already working with the family and the parent makes a private family arrangement, the child will be supported under a child in need plan/child protection plan. However, oversight and legal advice will be obtained where children’s services would intervene if the child were removed from the kinship care arrangement by the parent.

Private fostering arrangements in which someone who is not a close relative of the child looks after the child for 28 days or more (as per section 66(1)(a) and (b) of the Children Act 1989)241. In these circumstances, a Private Fostering Assessment will be completed by children’s social care. This statutory assessment is to ascertain the carer’s suitability to care for the child and must also consider the child’s needs to ensure the carers are able to provide suitable day to day care of the child. The assessment will be completed by a social worker within 42 working days of the referral. Further information can be found in Norfolk’s Private Fostering Statement of Purpose.

Child arrangements orders, where the order has been granted in respect of the child, in favour of someone who is a friend or family member but is not the child’s parent.

Special guardianship orders, where the order has been granted appointing a friend or family member as the child’s special guardian.

Kinship/family and friends foster care, where a child is a ‘looked after child’ by virtue of either an interim or final care order or being accommodated by the local authority under section 20 of the Children Act 1989, and the child is being cared for by a friend or family member who is not their parent, and the friend or family member is approved as a local authority foster carer on a temporary basis or following full assessment and receive ongoing support by the local authority.

Private Law

All private law referrals will be directed through CADS and screened against the protocol between ADCS and Cafcass. Appropriate requests for a section 7 report and all requests for a section 37 report will be sent through to the relevant Family Help team and be overseen by a social work qualified practice manager. The lead worker with the social work qualified manager will consider whether undertaking an assessment under s17 or an enquiry under s47 is appropriate and take appropriate action alongside undertaking the court report and sending to court within the agreed timescale.  

14. Compliments & Complaints

Norfolk’s social care practitioners work alongside children, families, carers and other professionals in order to promote the best possible outcomes for the children. This means communicating, engaging, involving and acting on views appropriately. We ask for feedback as part of practice, as it is one of the best ways to understand how well this has been done and where it could be better. Gathering and using feedback promotes reflective practice and provides evidence of the good work taking place, and will be regularly discussed within supervision.

We also use information from compliments and complaints to inform practice development.

• The compliments we receive are logged by the NCC compliments and complaints team and some are also anonymised and shared in the Executive Directors weekly update as an important way of promoting good practice.
• Complaints are responded to swiftly to try and put things right as soon as possible. This will include hearing about what the complainer would like to happen as a result of their complaint. A complaint about Children’s Services will not have a negative effect on any services already being provided, or any applied for. Learning from anonymised complaints is included in the Director of Family Help and High Needs weekly bulletin.

Compliments or complaints can be made by

• Having a conversation with your/your child’s worker or manager
• Completing the online form
• Calling the freephone number
  • 0800 917 7425 for children
  • 0344 800 8020 for adults
• Emailing complimentsandcomplaints@norfolk.gov.uk

Appendix: Definitions

1. Definition of Child in Need

For the purposes of this Part a child shall be taken to be in need if—

1. He/she is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him/her of services by a local authority under this Part;
2. His/her health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision for him/her of such services; or
3. He/she is disabled, and “family”, in relation to such a child, includes any person who has parental responsibility for the child and any other person with whom he has been living.

For the purposes of this Part, a child is disabled if he is blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from mental disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity or such other disability as may be prescribed; and in this Part—

• “Development” means physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development; and
• “Health” Means Physical or mental health.

2. Definition of Significant Harm

The Children Act 1989 introduced Significant Harm as the threshold that justifies compulsory intervention in family life in the best interests of children.

Harm is defined as the ill treatment or impairment of health and development. This definition was clarified in section 120 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (implemented on 31 January 2005) so that it may include, “for example, impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another”.

Suspicions or allegations that a child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm may result in a Child In Need Assessment incorporating a Section 47 Enquiry also known as a child protection investigation.

• ‘Harm’ means ill treatment or the impairment of health or development, including for example impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another.
• ‘Development’ means physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development
• ‘Health’ means physical or mental health; and
• ‘Ill treatment’ includes sexual abuse and forms of ill treatment that are not physical.

Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect are all types of harm.

There are no absolute criteria on which to rely when judging what constitutes significant harm. Sometimes a single violent episode may constitute significant harm but more often it is an accumulation of significant events, both acute and longstanding, which interrupt damage or change the child’s development.