The interface of Children Services (1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The interface of Children Services: Support/help without completing a holistic Child and Family Assessment or investigating families.
IRAS ID
335160
Contact name
Nancy E Brewah
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 28 days
Research summary
This study focuses on an essential aspect of the Children's Social Care system: the interface, which could be described as the "triage,” stage in medical terms. The multiagency interface (Working Together, 2018) starts the child's journey in social care. It is where several multiagency interventions occur, such as stepping down to early help and risk assessment; for others, it is the beginning of other statutory interventions and early intervention support.
The research focuses on interface policy within social care, early intervention, universal services, specialist, and targeted services. It will also focus on the experiences of children and their parent/guardian and consider professional experiences in early intervention and supporting children and their families not receiving statutory support.
Early help and triage support are not statutory interventions under the Children Act 1989, Sections 17 and 47. This aspect of children's social care and multi-agency work is preventative support and consent-based. The support provided for children and their families at this level of threshold is usually significant and makes a difference to the child and their family. Thus, for some, the interface is the end of the journey and receives no significant support from children's social care.
The research setting will be selected Children's Services within England, social care providers, and multi-agency partners.The research method is interviewing young people, parents/guardians, and a focus group of professionals.
*for the purpose of this study participants are the young people, parents/guardians and professionals.
The recruitment of young people, parents and professionals will take place via posters. The posters will be place in the premises of the gatekeeping organisations to aid self-referral providing and giving the time to any potential participant to consider and make direct contact with the investigator. There is a poster for each participating group, with QR codes that provides information about each participating group and provides information on the study and the researcher’s contact details.
The posters will be placed in universal service settings, social care settings and places accessible to families where they can be seen.The investigator will send a formal letter to organisations as gatekeepers working in universal service settings, social care settings and places accessible to families requesting to place posters in their establishments.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
24/IEC08/0034
Date of REC Opinion
5 Nov 2024
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion