40% of children taken into care in rural Dorset come from Weymouth & Portland
A new pilot scheme is now hoping to help families before they reach crisis point
Weymouth and Portland is to be targeted with new ways of providing support for children and families.
Dorset Council say the project is a ‘pilot’ although the working model has been tried and tested in many local councils.
The Safeguarding Families Together way of working is not expected to get start until at least September with talks still taking place with some potential partners about how it will work and the role they will each play.
In essence it will involve a partnership approach to families – with adult and children’s social workers linking in with the police, education, health and other professionals as needs arise.
The aim will be deliver early support and help before families and children reach crisis point.
Executive director of children’s services Theresa Leavy told a people and health overview committee on Thursday that she had high hopes for the method of working which she said would have a focus on Weymouth and Portland because it was where the greatest need was and would also build on the success of the Harbour Project.
Portfolio holder Cllr Andrew Parry described the pilot as “a leap of faith”, but said he was confident in social services partners to help deliver results.
Report author Lisa Reid said one of the key aims would be to keep children with their families, backed up by adequate support, where it was safe to do so. If the approach worked it would reduce the numbers being taken into care and in other areas had proved to be effective and good value for money.
She said that while numbers coming to social services attention locally had not risen dramatically the complexity of cases had risen, often needing more input from a wider range of professionals.
“The main aspect of the Safeguarding Families Together project is creating specialist multi-disciplinary teams working alongside social workers … to support children and parents by integrating the specialist workers tackling domestic abuse, parental mental health, and substance misuse to improve children’s lives through whole family working.”
Previous reports have identified that around 40 per cent of all children taken into care in the rural county come from the Weymouth and Portland area, which has disproportionate low levels of educational achievement, poorer health and reduced life chances for many.
Weymouth councillor Pete Barrow welcomed the initiative but called for adequate monitoring of whether or not the method was actually achieving results.
The go ahead for the project is expected to be given at the April meeting of the council’s Cabinet.