Children's social workers

The Child Care Social Worker (CCSW) is the child's allocated social worker. Dependant on the team, the social worker will be required to undertake a variety of responsibilities and tasks. Lancashire have three main children's social work teams. These are:

The Assessment and Safeguarding Team (AS) - Social workers in this team will complete time limited assessments from initial referral point. The children and families open to this team will either step down to universal or early help services, or be subject to Child in Need services.
Child Protection and Court Team (CP) – Social workers in this team will be the allocated worker for children subject to Child Protection Plans with their family. Dependent on the level of risk the family may be subject to court proceedings. Children allocated to this team will either step down to Child in Need or may become Children Looked After. They remain the child's social worker through court proceedings.
Children in our Care Team (CIOC) – Social workers in this team will be the allocated worker for children who are subject to Full Care Orders. The children could be living with foster carers, family and friend's foster carers, children's home or with birth parents under the auspices of a home agreement.

The roles and responsibilities of a social worker in these teams is both extensive and varied to ensure children are safe and achieving positive outcomes. Children's social workers are responsible for undertaking continual assessments of children and their families, multi-agency work, developing and progressing individual care plans, court work and visiting children on a regular basis, both on an unannounced and announced basis.

A typical day in the life of a Children's social worker

*written by a child's social worker in the child protection and court team

07:30am – Wake up from dreaming about unfinished case notes and an ever growing to-do list. Coffee, shower, leave for an early start to attack the to-do list.

08:30am – Arrive at the office and turn on the computer, time to start with that to-do list after a Coffee. Open emails to see the homeless teenager I had found a place for in a hostel has left overnight and has been reported missing to the police. Turn on mobile phone to decipher angry text messages from him and tearful voicemails from his grandmother. Time for another Coffee and come up with a plan of how to locate him, phone round his friends and associates, try and calm down his distraught Grandma. The to-do list has to wait.

09:30am – Have to be in a meeting at a school as far away from the office as we go, weave through school traffic, arrive five minutes late. Head teacher, mental health worker and mum's drugs worker are waiting however give a sympathetic smile, parents don’t attend. Take down notes and optimistically commit to circulate them tomorrow. Can feel my phone vibrating in my pocket throughout, quickly check it as I leave the school, it’s the police, no time for a Coffee.

10:30am - After being on hold for what appears to be an eternity, get through to the Police. They have located my missing young man, relief and elation is short lived as they inform he is in custody for shoplifting and will be heard in Court that afternoon, 'sometime after 1pm'. He has asked for you to attend as his support in Court. A slight smile comes to my lips, he told me that he hates me yesterday and never wants to see me again, yet he has asked for me.

11:30am – Run across the road to a three-way meeting with Mental Health services for a parent with severe anxiety whom I have referred for CBT and psychological support. The parent hasn't attended due to their anxiety but has sent a letter asking if I will take their children into care as she wants them to have a 'normal life'. This mum is a good mum, she is just anxious about leaving the house, I really want to help her but she won't let me in.

12:30am – Attempt to eat lunch, a colleague reports that an elusive dad who I have trying to track down for weeks is outside the shops having a cigarette so shoot over there and try to get them in to see me for a chat and to discuss them accessing some counselling. He was abused as a child and his children are currently in care while we are going through Court proceedings. He tells me to get lost but warms to the idea of a food parcel, I will slip the counselling information in there. He looks thin and isn’t looking after himself. Lunch can wait, I will grab a quick Coffee and head over to the youth Court.

13:30 – Rush into Court slightly late, shouldn’t have rushed as he is only due in at 15:00, at least I have time to return to my car and get a tie from the glovebox. Manage to type up a Court report for another case whilst waiting. Speak to the young man for five minutes before his Court hearing. He tells me that I better find him somewhere better to go as he isn't going back to the hostel. Manage to sneak my laptop open in Court to email colleagues to get them ringing round to find a placement.

15:10 - Shouldn’t have bothered sending the email. He is sentenced to six months in the nearest Young Offenders Institute in Wetherby. I need to go and see him there tomorrow, I will have to clear my day. It’s a six hour round trip, that to-do list will have to wait. The Court vending machine provides an out of date packet of quavers and a packet of Rolo's to give me the energy to phone his Grandma to let her know. She will be heartbroken, I am too secretly, he will struggle being away for so long, I hope he is safe in there.

15:35 – Get back to the office, colleagues can see I'm a bit dejected and provide a vast array of cakes to choose from. However I have a visit an hour away to some children that are in a foster placement on an Interim Care Order. The drive is a good chance to blast on some music and try and cheer up to make sure these children see a happy face. They haven’t seen their mum and dad since they came into care as they have been banned from the contact centre. They miss them but are starting to flourish in their placement.

17:00 - Arrive at the placement later than planned, the traffic was terrible and every traffic light was red. I was apologetic on arrival however the foster carers were understanding and offered me some tea. I declined on the offer of a meal, despite having a rumbling stomach however I sat with the family as they ate and noted down the progression of the children, talking positively about school, eating their food with a knife and fork, both talking about a walk they went on at the weekend. They look healthy and have put on weight. They race upstairs to show me their bedrooms and want to show me models they have made, and tell me a joke they had heard from the foster carer's adult son. Checked in with the foster carers who state that they are settling in well and they are getting to know each other. They will email over updates as its getting late and they want to get the children settled for bed.

18:45 – On the drive home remember I need to return a call to a worried teacher from school. We have been playing telephone call tennis for two days. It's too late now, I will email her when I get home, and hopefully I will catch her tomorrow.

19:00 – Log on to my emails quickly, promised the wife I would just be ten minutes as I am ready for tea, email the teacher, add to the to-do list, start reading the latest management briefing about how we need to see the children more often and record the visits more quickly. I will log on early in the morning to get a head start before my drive to Wetherby. Read the foster carer's logs instead of logging off while I eat my tea. It's fantastic hearing the change in the children despite the challenges. I feel privileged to be part of that, close the laptop with a smile.

Please note:

Core working hours are 08:45 to 17:00. The 'day in the life' above illustrates how a typical day might appear for a child's social worker but workers will only be available between core hours unless they are undertaking specifically agreed visits.

See the three minute briefing on support for details of after hours support (8).