Social care
‘Step down’ from Children’s Social Care takes place either as an outcome of the Single Assessment or following on-going social care involvement (through being in the care of the Local Authority, Child Protection or Child in Need) because the needs have been met and/or the risks to the child have decreased.
When a decision has been made that a child or young person is no longer in need of social work or other specialist intervention (‘step down’) a review meeting should identify the Lead Practitioner and agree the on-going plan
The Team Around the Family should continue to offer co-ordinated support and the Lead Practitioner role can be assumed by the most suitable practitioner. This will ensure that the child, young person and their family will benefit from a period of co-ordinated support from across the partnership at this stage in their journey.
When a decision has been made that a child is no longer in need of social work intervention, but an ongoing level of support is required and the family and child have given consent to continued support and for information to be shared, then a transfer will be made to Early Help Targeted Family Support using the step down process referred to below.
Weekly meetings are held in each locality, chaired by the Safeguarding Head of Service in order to plan for families to be transferred from social care to early help. These meetings, which usually involve Safeguarding and Assessment team managers, Families First managers and Children and Family Centre managers and Partnership Managers are run consistently across the County in line with the agreed protocol.
How we support children and their families in stepping down from a Child in Need (CiN) Plan
A decision to transfer a child from an existing CiN plan to a multi agency Early Help My Plan Plus should be discussed and agreed at a CiN review meeting when planning the withdrawal of Level 4 interventions. Where the My Plan Plus was in place (and paused) prior to the social care involvement, this should be re-activated and the content reviewed to incorporate current needs.
This meeting should identify a new Lead Practitioner and agree the ongoing plan to ensure the identified needs for support are met through an early help offer.
The plan will be agreed as part of the final CiN meeting and will be passed on by the social worker to the identified Lead Practitioner together with a copy of the single assessment.
The Early Help Lead Practitioner will need to review the support plan at six weekly intervals which will enable the Lead Practitioner, with the child and family to make a decision to continue with the support at Early Help Level 3 or further step down to Level 2.
Where a disabled child’s needs are met through the provision of support services such as short breaks, the child will remain open to the Lead Practitioner in the community or the Disabled Children and Young People’s Service for 6 monthly reviews.
When the child’s circumstances are satisfactory at the review then the child and family will be encouraged to continue to receive support through targeted or universal services.
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