Some children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) who live in Warwickshire will need social care support.
Social care covers a range of services that help people with day-to-day living. For children and young people with SEND, this may mean help with personal or physical care due to a disability. Or it may mean respite or a short break activity for the child or young person to enable them to spend regular time away from the family home.
If you feel your child may need support, your first point of contact would be to access Early Support.
The purpose of Early Support is to put in the right support at the right time so that problems are less likely to escalate to a point where the child becomes vulnerable or in need. Early Support is sustainable so that problems are less likely to re-occur. All children, young people and families in Warwickshire are entitled to receive Early Support. This means offering information, advice, guidance, and support to families as soon as a concern emerges or seems likely to emerge.
The following services are here to support your family.
Family Information Service
The Family Information Service (FIS) is an information and signposting service for families. FIS provide a wide range of information and support relating to children and young people aged 0 to 25 including, but not limited to, childcare, money and benefits, housing, special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), health and wellbeing.
They offer information, advice and guidance and will work with you to help you access the services that support you and your family.
Early support
Early support is a graduated approach to meeting children’s needs. The purpose is to work with families to put in the right support at the right time, as early as possible. It ranges from information, advice and guidance that families can access themselves through to more individualised or targeted support.
Family support
Family support workers offer advice and support to families who are seeking help with parenting for example support around challenging behaviour or sleep issues. Advice and guidance can be tailored to the needs of you and your family. They offer telephone helpline advice and parenting workshops and can support you to access a more targeted early support offer if required.
Most children and families will be able to access the support they need at an early support level, however some children will also need a Family Help Assessment.
Family Help Assessment
You can ask for a Family Help Assessment through Family Connect by calling 01926 414144. They will listen to you and work with the relevant team to provide you with a response.
Please be aware that Family Connect deals with all social care requests, including ‘children in need’ and child protection. Children with disabilities are defined as ‘children in need’ under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989.
Where children have disabilities considered to be severe or profound, it is recognised that a specialist service is likely to be required. These children and young people will be referred to the Children with Disabilities Team (CWDT) if they require a social work service.
The CWDT work alongside the wider social care service and provide support where a child or young person is considered to have a disability. They also support parents and carers through the carer support pathway and offer bookable advice sessions to parents and carers.
If you are a carer, you can request carers support through the parent carer support pathway.
Find out more about the Parent Carer Support Pathway
What help is available after a Family Help Assessment?
Social care support covers the following services for children with SEND:
- SEND social workers
- Equipment and adaptations to housing (only provided following an occupational therapist assessment)
- Home care
- Overnight respite and short breaks
- Help with transport
- Volunteers
- Direct payments
The level of support we can offer will depend on your assessment.
Safeguarding
If you have concerns for the safety and wellbeing of a child, whether your own or another child, the first point of contact is Family Connect. Family Connect brings together social care, early support and other multi-agency partners together in one place to help ensure your concerns are dealt with quickly and through the right service.