Our service areas

Front Door

This is the access point for Children's Services in Powys. Families are able to contact us directly for Information, Advice and Assistance. This is also where all referrals to Children's Services are received from family members, other agencies and professionals.

Once a referral has been received at the Front Door, social workers and information, advice and assistance officers gather information from families and our multi-agency colleagues. This enables the Front Door to make decisions for next steps, assessing what support is required and whether threshold is met for Early help or social care intervention. We ensure all referrals are dealt with proportionately and appropriately depending on need and risk whilst keeping to timescales.  

Once a decision has been made the children and/or young people are transferred to the team that will offer the support and where required, carry out an assessment.

Assessment Team

This is where social workers work with children, young people and their families to undertake Wellbeing Assessments and section 47 enquiries. We ensure that all strengths, needs and risks are captured and assessed so that intervention can be effective.

If further involvement is needed, the child, young person and family are at the centre of, and co-produce, the plan. Following assessment, some families may be stepped down to our early help team, or progressed through for Care and Support.

Early Help

We engage with children, young people and their families at the earliest possible opportunity to support them to make changes in order to achieve their family goals and prevent the need for statutory social work intervention.

We work closely with our colleagues in health, education, housing and other partner agencies, including the third sector, to assist families to link into their communities.

Care and Support

These teams focus on children, young people and their families where there has been a Social Work assessment and they have been identified as needing additional services. This may be children in need of care and support or protection, families in the Public Law Outline (PLO) processor in court proceedings.

Care and Support team North support the geographical area from Newtown up towards Oswestry whilst out South team support the area between Knighton and Ystradgynlais.

The teams comprise of Team Managers, Principal and Senior Social Workers, Social Workers, Newly Qualified Social Workers and Wellbeing Workers.  In addition, the team is very well supported by Team Co-ordinators who ensure the smooth running of the service.

At present we are modelling a patch-based approach to allocations, requiring less time for travelling around and more time to spend working with and supporting children and their families. This approach supports greater communication and working relationships with our partner agencies.

The Court Team

The Court Team is a small, specialised team under the larger Care & Support umbrella, that considers children and young people's long-term care plan and permanence. We focus on ensuring the best decision is made for the children whose cases we carry from First Hearing to Final Order. Whilst working hard to ensure that children stay within their birth families, we also carry cases to Placement and Adoption orders if deemed necessary by the court.

The team work closely with colleagues in Care & Support and Through-Care Teams, as well as those in our Fostering, Family-Time, and Intervention and Prevention Teams. As a team, we are supported by our Legal colleagues, as well as our own Team Co-ordinator, who works to support our social workers in their everyday roles. Within the team we also have our own Wellbeing Worker, who provides support to our families alongside the social workers. We have a Data Quality Clerk that keeps us on top of our statutory requirements and ensures our cases are well ordered.

With interesting, intricate cases, there is never a dull day, and we work hard as a team to support each other. With a Team Manager, Principal and Senior, we are well managed. We are a supportive and experienced team where social workers can build their confidence and knowledge while achieving positive outcomes for children.

Our social workers said that they were drawn to court work as it allows you to work complex cases with a structured timetable, making balancing home and work life more achievable. They noted that they enjoy managing cases in proceedings, the variety of assessments, focusing on getting to know the child and understanding their wishes and feelings.

Integrated Disability Service (IDS)

We provide support for disabled children and their families for them to be cared for safely and achieve their wellbeing outcomes. We use the Person Centre Planning and Signs of Safety approaches which place the child or young person at the centre of planning support without specialist multi-agency partners in Health and Education. Our responsibilities cover the whole range of social care for disabled children through from Early Help, Care and Support, Child protection and Children looked after.

There are two teams which are split geographically between North and South Powys. Each team is made up of a Team Manager, Principal and Senior Social Workers, Social Workers, Wellbeing Workers, Support Workers and Team Co-ordinators. We also welcome social work students into the team each year.

Both teams have developed knowledge and expertise in this field and are welcoming and supportive. We meet together monthly in person and each team, has regular weekly catchups. There are also monthly consultations with the in-house Psychologist. Supervision for case work and professional development takes place each month. We organise meetings with our partners to share information on supporting disabled children as wells as planning for their transition into adulthood. Joint working with other specialists is a key feature of our work.

Specialist training is provided to keep up with developments, skills and knowledge in the disability field.

Through Care Teams

In these teams, children and young people who are looked after are our priority. We are split into two county wide teams; one team works with children between the ages of 0-14 and the other team works with young people from the age of 14 up to the age 25. We want to be the best parent we can be and work to make sure children and young people have every opportunity to fulfil their dreams and achieve their goals.

The teams are made up of Team Managers, Principle and Senior Social Workers, Social Workers, Support Workers and a Team Co-ordinators, in addition to this the 14+ team have the support of Personal Advisors, who work with young people from the age of 16 upwards, and the support provided from a Data Quality Coordinator helps to keep them on track with statutory timescales.

The team is well established and very supportive, we have daily virtual catch ups and also meet in person for team meetings. Supervisions are held monthly, and informal supervisions occur in between.

Fostering Teams

The fostering service in Powys is a countywide service that encompasses all aspects of Fostering work, from initial enquiry to supervision and support of approved Mainstream Foster Carers and assessment and support of Connected Persons that Foster. In addition to fostering, the work also includes supporting children who are living with families under Special Guardianship Orders.

The Fostering service consists of two teams, Mainstream Fostering Team and Connected Persons Team. The teams consist of Team Managers, Principal Supervising Social Workers, Senior Supervising Social Workers, Supervising Social Workers and Support Workers. The teams also provide placements for Social Work Students. There are four administrators based in the team, consisting of two Foster Panel Co-ordinators and two Administrators. We are also supported by a Data Quality Co-ordinator who helps us to keep on track with our statutory responsibilities. The team is also supported by designated Recruitment and Retention Officers.

The Fostering Service has a stable workforce which consists of experienced members of staff, who have extensive knowledge and skills within the fostering sector. The majority of Social Workers in the team hold many years of experience of working within the Children's Services sector prior to specialising in fostering. Both teams are very supportive of one another, there are daily virtual catch ups, and in person weekly team briefings. In addition, there are monthly in person team meetings which take place in the middle of the county, the whole service meets on a quarterly basis.

Staff supervisions are monthly, and informal supervisions occur regularly in between meetings. Social work practice meetings take place on a regular basis, allowing time for critical group reflection, discussing a range of topics from serious case reviews, feedback from training to policies and procedures. These sessions are facilitated by the Principal Social Worker with topics for discussion agreed by social workers.

Adoption

The Adoption Team in Powys are part of the regional Mid and West Wales Adoption Service, working alongside our colleagues in Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

We are a county wide team, who work across all areas of adoption, including:

• Assessing and supporting prospective adoptive parents.
• Family finding for children with a care plan of adoption.
• Supporting them through their adoptive journey and supporting them in their adoptive homes.
• Providing birth parent support through their child's adoption journey.
• Providing training and signposting to adoptive families.
• Post adoption support to families who need additional support after a child has been adopted.
•  A Letterbox service, with a devoted worker, to maintain birth family links for adopted children.
• Supporting adopted adults with accessing their birth records.

Adoption practice is varied, meaningful and specialised. Our purpose is to support and promote positive outcomes for adopted children and their families.

The structure of the team includes a Team Manager, Principal Social Worker, and qualified Social Workers, all supported by an Adoption Administrator. Social Work students also join the team regularly