Social work careers – Bolton Council

The main focuses for this team are to increase the number of children being adopted and, in turn, reduce the length of time children wait to be adopted. They also aim to improve post adoption services for those families who have adopted, reduce the number of adoption agencies available to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Bridges Family Support

Support is provided in the young person homes to support them to live and develop within the family by offering practical support & personal care.

The Bridges team provides us with excellent support every week

Children with Disabilities

The team provide statutory Social Work Services, Short Break Care and Family Support Services for children and young people from birth up to the age of 18, to young people who have a long-term disability and whose needs are significantly and consistently greater than children and young people of the same age.

Complex Safeguarding & Youth Justice

A specialist multi-agency team for children and young people aged 10 – 18 year olds involved in the criminal justice system. Their aim is to reduce offending by young people and work with families and young people who are at risk of becoming involved in anti-social behaviour or at risk of offending.

Conferencing, Review and Partnership

This consists of the IRO service which oversees the chairing of ‘Child Protection Conferences’ and the ‘Independent Reviewing Officers’ who have the responsibility to chair ‘Children Looked After’ reviews.

Family and Friends

Have responsibility for completing all Reg 24/viability/stage 1 assessments including statutory checks and writing these up for court.

Family Time Service

The team provide supervised intervention based statutory ‘Family Time’ sessions for looked after children and offer short term direct work for children and families open to Social Care around all aspects of parenting capacity, pre-birth assessment, and reunification plans.

Fostering

Works with prospective and approved foster carers to provide a quality service to assess, train and develop prospective carers and support approved foster carers.

Integrated Front Door Team

The team receives referrals in respect of children in need and suspected significant harm. They work with different services to identify the necessary support required and if necessary, transfer the cases to the longer-term teams.

Leaving Care

The team works with young people aged between 16-23 years old to support and advise them of how to prepare for independence and gain the best possible education and work opportunities to live positively within their communities.

Looked After Children

These teams focus on the specific needs of looked after children, implementing plans to ensure children and young people receive the best possible placements and outcomes both physically and emotionally.

Principal Social Worker Unit

The team leads the development and workforce across the ‘Childrens Social Care’ service.

Referral and Assessment

Referral and Assessment teams work short term with new cases that are referred to them either by the family themselves or other professionals such as schools, health, and the police. The Referral and Assessment Team are part of the MASSS. Once an assessment has been identified by the MASSS, the Referral and Assessment team then works with the family to identify services to support them and, if necessary, transfer to the longer-term teams safeguarding or Looked After Children. There are three Referral and Assessment teams all based together in one venue.

Safeguarding

The team work directly with children in need of help, protection and those who are subject to care proceedings and adoption plans.

Targeted Early Help

The team provides targeted support to children and families to deliver a wide range of services for areas such as education, parenting and emotional wellbeing.