Social care

If Surrey County Council agrees to assess, a triage is undertaken by Social Care. The social care triage involves a qualified Education Social Worker who reviews the child's or young persons' record and the information submitted in the paperwork requesting an EHCNA.

1. If a child or young person is already open to Social Care the allocated worker will be contacted and asked to provide Social Care Advice.
2. If a child or young person is not open to Social Care or Early Help Services, then a request is sent to the Social Care Assessment for SEND (SCAS) Team.
3. For those triaged as not requiring a SCAS, and unlikely to have high social or care needs, parents will be called by the SEND Support Hub, who will signpost to Universal Services and the Local Offer and explain why the SCAS was not offered. Parents who feel strongly that they want a SCAS will be provided with one on demand.

The Social Care Assessment for SEND aims to explore whether there are any unmet Social Care needs for children and young people undergoing EHCNA. The objectives are to offer help, advice, guidance and signposting to support services, referrals to services or agencies that can support.

If the SCAS identifies unmet social care needs, then the social worker in the SCAS team will signpost and or refer to the appropriate social care team. Parents or carers will be sent a copy of the SCAS. If the SCAS team feel that a referral is required then they will discuss this with the parent or carer before making the referral.

The SCAS team do not offer long term work with families; they work entirely on brief assessments.

The coordinator for the SCAS Team will contact the parent to explain that a SCAS is being offered and ask if they wish for the SCAS to be undertaken or not. For the parents who agree for the SCAS to be undertaken, a social worker from the SCAS Team will contact parents. If it is established that there are potential unmet social care needs that may require specialist social care involvement (see the Surrey Continuum of Support) a SCAS will be undertaken.

The social worker undertaking the SCAS will look at both support needs and potential safeguarding issues when making this.

SCAS are undertaken virtually and in special circumstances home visits are done. Both the social worker and the parents or carer will agree a date and time to complete the SCAS.

The information gathered during the SCAS will be recorded on a form. The form will be written up within 10 days of the visit and sent to the Manager for sign off.

Once the SCAS is signed off by the manager, the social worker:

• Completes the social care advice for the EHCNA,
• Sends signposting information to the parents or carers,
• Sends a referral to the appropriate social care team, if appropriate.

The SCAS assessment looks look at:

• Physical and mental health
• Education and interests
• Emotional and behavioural development
• Role of extended family and friends
• Housing, income and employment.

If the outcome of the SCAS is that statutory social care services is required then the social worker in the SCAS team will complete Sections D to state [CHILD's NAME] has been referred to X team for Y needs. Any assessment by that service will inform future social care provision. Section H will merely state that provision will be determined at the conclusion of the assessment. Section H must be left blank at this stage because no provision has been identified and the SCAS team cannot commission any provision directly.

SCAS are only undertaken with parental or carers consent. There is no obligation for parents or carers to agree to a SCAS. The decision not to have a SCAS will not influence the decision to issue an EHCP, just the level of provision.

If the LA says no to assess but then later concedes (agree to assess), the Tribunal Team will inform the SCAS team of their decision. The SCAS team will then contact the family as previously stated.

You will have been contacted from our colleagues from the Children's Single Point of Access as they will have received a 'request for support' for your child from their school, health services, community safety/police or another local agency. As a part of the conversation they will have requested your consent to pass the 'request for support' to TYS.

We will start by meeting with you to understand what is going on and to undertake an assessment with you to identify your needs and develop a Family Action Plan. This is your plan and is designed to meet your specific needs.

We will also work alongside other services who have a role in supporting your child. For example; your child's school, education services, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Housing, Substance Misuse Services and health. These services make up what we call a 'Team around the Family'. The 'team' will meet together every couple of months to check out how we are progressing with your family action plan and to make sure that these services are also doing what they said they would do to support you.

We will have 1 to 1 meetings with your child every 2 weeks and usually more at the beginning of our work with you. Our work is based on getting to know you and supporting you in the best way possible and we can only do this by meeting with you regularly.

As a part of our meetings and included in the plan we will offer tailored support that looks at the specific issues that you and your family are experiencing. This list below gives an idea of some of the areas we can include in the plan;

Managing feelings and emotions, building positive family relationships, support with attending education/training, self-esteem and confidence, healthy relationships, peer influence and decision making, support for emerging mental health needs (for example, anxiety, low mood, self-harm) substance misuse education, understanding identity and diversity, exploitation awareness/prevention, online safety, preventing criminal/anti-social behaviours, support for parenting teenagers (1 to 1 and group programmes).

Young people need to consent to working with TYS. It is important that you speak to your child, to let them know what you are worried about and how you think we can help. We ask that families work with us as this is the only way that we can achieve positive change. We help you to identify what you need to be different and support you to achieve that we ask that you are open to participating in this process.

While we are able to offer a broad range of support tailored to you and your child there are some areas that we do not cover, but we are able to put you in contact with local services that can provide this support. Detailed below are some of the services that are provided by our partners that we can refer you to.

• Mentoring Support; Surrey Care Trust and East Surrey YMCA provide mentoring support across the county and we can support you in making a referral to this service.
• Activity Provision; We have access to a wide range of local activity resource and can support you to access these where appropriate
• Respite Services; If you need this support then we can put you in touch with the right people to explore your options.
• Financial assistance; Citizens Advice Bureau will be able to help with that.
• Family breakdowns or custody hearings – CAFCASS will support you and your family with support for families learning to co-parent, and reports for Court.

We will set up a series of 1 to 1 appointments with you and your child. If you need to re-arrange the appointment, please give us as much notice as possible. If you or your child miss 2 appointments in a row, or continually re-arrange appointments we will have a conversation with you to understand the type of support that you do need and then we will support you to access these services.

Our support will end when we have worked with you to complete the family action plan we have developed with you. Alternatively, if you need ongoing support we will help you to access other services. For example this could be local mentoring support, activity provision or more specialist support provided by Surrey's Children Services and its partners We will help you with this move by arranging a meeting with you, us and your new service and make sure you know who your new workers are and how to contact them. You are of course able to end the support you receive from TYS at any time before this if you no longer want our help.