Support and Advice
Every family works alongside their own allocated supervising social worker based in their local office.
Because of their protected workload - each worker supports no more than 10 families - social workers have the space to devote to a high quality service. Consultation from our play therapist is also available, if for instance, carers are addressing behaviours that are especially tricky.
Our carers are clustered within a radius of around 40 minutes travelling time of their local office. As a result the agency and our resources are easily accessible. They get to know the staff and carers from their office. Informal support networks develop with other carers living locally. Each local office develops a sense of identity, the personal touch backed by the strength of a larger organisation.
24 hour support
Our on-call service ensures that a member of the SFS social work staff is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to provide advice, support and guidance and to deal with emergency referrals from local authorities. A senior manager is additionally available as back up.
This service is highly valued by our carers but is sparingly used, a measure of our success in empowering our carers to effectively handle the issues that arise with the children in their care.