Working with Children
A new management team at West Sussex has undertaken a
fundamental redesign of Children’s social care services to improve
outcomes for children and families across the County.
We did this because at the end of 2008, the ‘Staying Safe’
component of Children’s Services in West Sussex was judged to be
inadequate. At the same time, demand for our service increased by
over a third in the last 2 years.
Our response has been swift and far-reaching. We are already
starting to see significant improvements because of the passion and
commitment of our staff.
Our service is now centrally managed and locally delivered from
3 areas:
- Chichester and Bognor Regis
- Worthing, Adur and Littlehampton
- Horsham, Crawley and Mid Sussex
We have:
- increased the number of posts across the service;
- implemented a new duty model within the Assessment and Duty
teams which is improving how work is allocated and
transferred;
- expanded our family resource service to provide an extended
service with greater out of hours support to prevent the need for
young people to be ‘looked after’; and
- invested in technology aimed at greater flexibility – reducing
the time social workers spend in front of a screen and maximising
the time spent with children.
We are also working with our Children’s Trust, schools, and
health service to make sure we collaborate to provide appropriate
services at the earliest opportunity. We also want to reduce the
need for more intensive and expensive specialist services.
The safety and success of all children in West Sussex is
paramount to us.
“West Sussex has a dedicated workforce with an open door policy
to management. You are supported and encouraged to undertake
relevant training.” - Social Worker, West Sussex County
Council.
Find out more information about Children's
welfare in West Sussex and view the Social care boundaries
map.
We want to support you, to support them.