Who Are Social Services?
Social Services is a government-led organisation that aims to protect the wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults. You can find the department that serves your area from your Local Authority.
What Do Social Services Do?
Social Services have a statutory obligation to safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children and can offer a wide range of care services to children and their parents.
Social Services’ care department helps ensure children are healthy, safe, and well looked after. They work in partnership with a number of charities and organisations to ensure families receive the help they need.
Families often feel anxious at the prospect of Social Services’ involvement because of experiences they may have heard from others, or just because they are frightened that social workers will remove their children from the family home.
If the Social Services department of your Local Authority considers your child, or one you are legally responsible for, at risk of harm or in need of help, they have a duty to investigate the situation. They will assess what actions need to take place in order to safeguard the child or promote their welfare.
If they have been in touch to let you know that they are conducting an inquiry, it is important not to panic. It is natural to feel anxious and frightened in this situation, but you should be informed by social services what the process involves and be given leaflets about what you can do.
Unless there are circumstances preventing them, they will write to you and let you know they are conducting an initial assessment. This assessment should be completed within a certain number of days and they will inform you of how long this will take. In most cases, these assessments result in them providing support and other services, with your agreement, in the family home.