Resposibilities of Workers
Last updated: October 7, 2008
Table of Contents
1. Social care staff and agents
Where any member of staff within Children’s social care or working on behalf of Children’s social care, suspect that a child may be in need of protection, they should immediately contact their line manager, duty and investigation team where the child lives, or the child’s social worker.
- Children’s social care act as the principal point of contact for children about whom there are significant concerns.
- Children’s social care has a duty to make enquiries where there is reason to believe that a child in the area is suffering, or is likely to suffer significant harm.
Reference to local procedures will inform staff as to how such enquiries should be made. - Such enquiries will be made via an assessment of the child’s needs, the parent’s capacity to keep the child safe and promote his or her welfare, and of the wider family circumstances. Where a child is at continuing risk of significant harm, a case conference will be held and an inter-agency plan to safeguard the child will be developed. Children’s social care has a duty to co-ordinate the progress of this plan.
- In certain circumstances the inter-agency assessment may indicate that a child’s welfare cannot be sufficiently safeguarded if s/he remain at home. In these instances, Children’s social care may apply to the court for an order to remove the child from the home.
