Support for family and friends carers and children in your care
Looking after somebody else's child can bring challenges:
- You and your family may need to adjust to having a new member in your family
- You may need practical help
- You may need advice on what rules are appropriate
- The child in your care may have suffered harm and need extra help with their emotions, behaviour or education
There are many different services that can support you and the children in your care.
Kinship care, fostering and adoption services
Kinship support team
The kinship team supports family members and friends who are looking after a child they know.
We can give you advice and support over the telephone to.
We also run sessions, workshops and training for carers and children.
You can contact the kinship support team Monday to Friday, 9am to 12pm.
Contact the kinship support team
Foster and adoption services
Our fostering, kinship care and adoption services recruit, approve and support people. This is whether you are providing short-term, long-term or permanent care for children.
If you become a temporarily approved foster carer, a supporting social worker will support you. They will have knowledge of the challenges faced by family and friends (kinship) carers. They will know how best to advice and support.
Go to the types of friends and family care webpage for more about temporary approval.
More about fostering and adoption services
Local services for all families
Universal and targeted services
Universal services
Universal services are services available to all families. Examples include:
- Your local children's centre. Children's centres often know what practical help is available in your area. Such as knowing how to use a car seat or accessing activity groups in the school holidays.
- Teachers at the child's school. Schools are likely to be the best people to know how to help with education issues.
- The child's health visitor or GP. GPs are most likely to know about health issues.
Universal services have advice for children and carers about emotional and behavioural issues.
Search for local services on the Norfolk Directory
Targeted services
The universal service you speak to may think you need more help with a specific issue. They may make a referral to a service that specialises in the area you need help with.
They will speak to you about this suggestion before they make the referral as they need your consent to do it.
These are targeted services.
Support to bring together all those helping you
Family support process and early help
You may have many different people or services supporting you and the child. It can be helpful to bring all these people together for regular meetings to:
- Discuss progress
- Coordinate the help you and the child receives
- Ensure you receive consistent advice
- Ensure nothing is being forgotten because people assume someone else is doing it
This can be done through the family support process.
You and the child choose one person to lead the family support process. This should be someone you get on with well, such as the schoolteacher.
The early help hub can assist with this family support process.
Request support from the early help hub
Family help teams
Family help teams support families who need help and protection. They bring together the:
- Family assessment and safeguarding teams (FAST)
- Family support
- Intensive and specialist support service (ISSS) functions
There is one lead professional who maintains the relationship with you and the children in your care.
Family help teams mean the services can bring in specialist workers without delay. This means you can get support at the right time from the right service.
Contact us to request support from family help teams
Extra support from children's services
Child in need
The child in your care may need extra help above what universal/targeted services and the family support process can provide.
In these cases, children's services recognise the child as a 'child in need'. We will provide extra support.
Children's services:
- Support children and their families to improve any difficulties. This is so that the support level required can go down to a lower level again. For example, back to support from the family support process.
- Understand that some children's difficulties cannot improve. These children may need ongoing support for the foreseeable future.
We automatically class all disabled children as children in need. They can receive ongoing support from the children with disabilities (CWD) team into adulthood.
Contact us to request support for a child in need
Safeguarding
Children's advice and duty service (CADS)
The Children's advice and duty service (CADS) is a team of senior consultant social workers.
You can contact them if you have any concerns about keeping children safe.
Other people, such as professionals who work with the child in your care, can also contact CADS if they think there is a safeguarding concern.
Child protection
The issues you, the child and their family are facing could cause significant harm to the child. In these instances, children's services have a legal duty to assess what is happening and make improvements.
Telling children's services about a risk of harm
You can call children's services if you think this applies to your situation. We will give you advice on what level of services would best help you.
Professionals working with you will call children's services if they think this applies to your situation. They will:
- Tell you that they are contacting children's services and why. This is unless they believe doing so might put the child in danger.
- Continue to support you and your family alongside any involvement from children's services
Education support
Virtual school for children in care and children previously in care
Norfolk's virtual school supports the education of:
- Children in care
- Children previously in care
- Children with a social worker
- Children in kinship care
It ensures that these children and young people make progress and achievements. This is by supporting and challenging schools, social carers and partners.
If your child was previously looked after before the court order, the virtual school may be able to offer you extra support.
If the child in your care has special educational needs and/or disabilities
Children with disabilities (CWD) service
The children with disabilities (CWD) service is a team of specialist social workers and occupational therapists.
They support children and young people who have a substantial and permanent disability.
Contact us to request support from the CWD service
Special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) services
SEND education health and care plan service
Our SEND service:
- Delivers education, health and care plans (EHCP) across Norfolk for 0-25 year olds. These detail children's needs and how to meet them.
- Has relationships with key partners within children's and adults' services. This includes education establishments and health and social care.
More about education, health and care plans
SEND specialist placements and funding team
The SEND specialist placements and funding team:
- Oversee children's school placements. This includes any provision that sits outside the mainstream education system.
- Work with special schools and mainstream schools. This is to manage admissions and transitions of children into specialist provision.
- Has a lead role on funding arrangements and budget management across Norfolk's specialist sector
More about schools for children with SEND
Claiming benefits and financial support
Welfare rights services
You can contact welfare rights:
- For advice on benefits
- For help identifying missing benefit and to ensure you are receiving all you are entitled to
- For help with complex claim forms or telephone claims
If the department for work and pensions (DWP) has stopped your benefits, the welfare rights team will challenge this decision where appropriate. This includes during mandatory reconsiderations or through representing you at tribunal.
Contact the welfare rights service
Adoption and special guardianship support fund
If the child you care for was previously a looked after child, you may be eligible for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF).
This helps give children access to therapies to support them.
More about the adoption and special guardianship support fund
Out of hours support
Emergency duty team
The Emergency Duty Team (EDT) runs out of hours support for situations that don't need 999 services.
