What do we offer?
- A social work and occupational therapy service to disabled children and their families across South Gloucestershire.
- A range of services to maintain disabled children within their families and their local communities.
- Work with families to determine the support they may need and how to obtain this.
- We offer parents the chance to talk over any concerns about their child with someone outside the family.
The team is made up of qualified social workers, social work assistants and occupational therapists.
Team members recognise the crucial role parents play in caring for their child with additional needs and the child’s siblings and seek to support them in ways that meet the needs of parent carers and the family as a whole as well as the individual child or young person.
The service
The service operates by assessing the needs of each child and their family, discussing with them what services could be provided through the team and/or suggesting other agencies which might be able to help. Services available could include any of the following:
- Support from a Social Worker for an agreed purpose over a specific period of time
- Contact with a Family Support Worker
- Information about local support groups and services
- Sessional workers to assist with the child’s care in the home or with other activities
- Help with household tasks
- Arrangements for short breaks e.g.
- Access to holiday play schemes
- Family based short break care
- Residential short break care
- Advice to enable children to remain in the family home and prevent long-term fostering and residential placements where possible
- Advice on independence needs
- Housing adaptations
- Provision of equipment
- Advice on moving, lifting and handling the child.
The services offered are designed to minimise the effects of the children's impairments and to promote independence and autonomy.
Access to the specialist Child Health and Disability Team
We work to eligibility criteria to decide whether children and their families can be offered services. The criteria for referral to the CHAD social work service take into account the impact the child’s impairment has on the family and the child’s level of need arising from his/her condition, and/or whether services are needed in order to promote the child’s safety and well being in the family.
Many children and young people will be able to use non-specialist services or access services through an assessment coordinated through the Locality Hubs. However children, whose needs cannot be met by non-specialist provision and where the family is experiencing significant pressure as a result of their caring role, will be offered a specialist service from the Child Health and Disability Team.
The social work service of the team supports families where:
- the child has a substantial and long lasting/permanent impairment, or a life-limiting/life-threatening condition; and
- there is a significant impact on the child or family’s life, including a risk to parental resilience; and
- the child’s or family needs cannot be met without support from a specialist social care disability service
Services are provided to:
- maintain parental resilience
- Improve the quality of life for the child and family
- reduce stress levels in the family resulting from caring responsibilities
- prevent family breakdown
Contact details:
Child Health & Disability Team
South Gloucestershire Council
PO Box 2082
Castle Street
Thornbury
BS35 9BQ
Tel: 01454 866364
Email: CHAD-Duty@southglos.gov.uk