The Children's Advice and Assessment Service

(aka the ‘Front Door’)

The ‘front door’ service – what is it?

The Children's Advice and Assessment Service (CA&AS) provides professionals and members of the public with advice, information and support about services for children and young people who are vulnerable and at risk. The team aim to help practitioners to deliver the right help to the right children and young people at the right time and maintain the development and implementation of integrated working arrangements across YorOK partner agencies.

Who is the service?

The service is made up from two teams, the Children's Advice Team & The Children's Assessment Team.

The Children's Advice Team has 7 & half Children's Advice Workers and a Practice Manager.

The Children's Assessment Team has 9 Social Workers, a Practice Manager and currently 3 student Social Workers.

The Service also has a Service Manager.

What does the service do?

The service takes referrals and information regarding concerns for Children & young people. Each day we discuss the information in a daily meeting to decide what action will be taken.

Visitors

We welcome all practitioners to this meeting so that you can see

• what type, quantity and quality of referral information we receive
• contribute to the response from your own agency perspective
• see first hand decision making and implementation of thresholds

Please see the daily meeting page for more information and how to book to come along.

 

If you have concerns about a child or young person who is vulnerable:

As a practitioner, if you have a concern about a child or young person, you can call the CA&AS on 551900 ( or email : childrensfrontdoor@york.gov.uk ) to:

• access information held on the Child Index (authorised users only);
• receive advice and information about tier 2 services that might assist;
• discuss concerns about a child or young person and work out which service might be best placed to address those concerns in a timely and proportionate way;
• assist with brokering help and support for vulnerable children at tier 2
• receive advice and support with making best use of local integrated working arrangements, including the use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and undertaking the Lead Practitioner role;

This is the core work of the Children's Advice Team.

If you have a concern that a child or young person is at risk of significant harm:

If you are concerned that a child is at risk of significant harm, you can call the CA&A service on 551900 ( or email : childrensfrontdoor@york.gov.uk ) who will:

• deliver a fast track response to child protection concerns – undertaking child protection investigations under s.47, C&YP Act 1989, taking immediate protective action, as necessary;
• undertake initial and/or core assessments of need in more complex cases where children & young people may require longer-term support from a tier 3 specialist service; 
• following assessment, transfer appropriate cases to the Children's Social Care Service for longer-term support; or consideration of a brokered support package at tier 2; or taking no further action;

The Children's Assessment team are also responsible for responding to other enquiries that might require the attention of a social worker but not an initial assessment of need (e.g. access to files requests; background checks on behalf of Cafcass).

This is the core work of the Children's Assessment Team.

 

Feedback following a contact or referral:

Anyone making contact with the service will be notified of the outcome of their contact or referral.

Named links for schools and services:

Members of the Children's Advice Team will act as named links for partner agencies, services and schools across the City. They will offer information, training and support to help embed integrated working tools and practices and approaches to early intervention in a way that is helpful and supportive of the business, priorities and plans of the service or school.

What will happen when I contact the 'front door' service?

Your phone call, e-mail or letter to the Service will be dealt with, in the first instance, by an Advice & Early Intervention Worker. They will be responsible for working with you to decide on the most appropriate and proportionate response to your enquiry. This team may:

• discuss with you how you can support the child or young person;
• make further enquiries to get a better picture of the child and their circumstances to inform planning and action;
• fast track child protection concerns, or other complex family situations that might require an immediate social work response, to the duty social worker in the Assessments Team;
• Let you know of the outcome of your contact with the service.

For more information

Please continue to visit the YorOK Website for:

• Further details about the service, including business process map & service structure chart
• Threshold guidance, CAF guidance, YorOK Prevention pyramid
• Prevention & safeguarding route maps
• How to become an authorised user to access the Child Index
• Training and other support