Cheshire West & Chester Council
student placement opportunities
Cheshire West & Chester Children’s Services
Placements will continue to be organised by the university Placement Coordinator.
Cheshire West & Chester (CW&C) is a large unitary authority where placements are offered in a range of teams that can offer support and challenge to students. Placements are well structured and access to case management systems prompt self-directed inductions covering NHS colleagues in co-located settings. Placements allow swift and direct engagement with service users and opportunities to shadow other teams and services. CW&C offers Step-Up to Social Work and will be supporting Social Work Apprenticeships. Progression is clear and well-supported in both adult and children’s services. There are placement opportunities in teams with expertise in the following areas:
Duty, Assessment and Child in Need (CIN)
Working with Children and Young People who are in need of care and protection, undertaking joint work with qualified Social Workers; Single Assessments, duty visits, CIN meetings.
Child Protection and Court Team
Working with children subject to Child Protection Plans, Pre-proceedings process and Care Proceedings.
Permanence
Key statutory Social Work working with Children in Care, working towards Permanence Plans.
Emergency Duty Team (EDT)
Generic Social Work dealing with vulnerable children and adults, Mental Health Act assessments, Appropriate Adults and out of hours homelessness placements. A quality placement for a student that is able to learn to straddle all areas of Social Work practice. This require creative Social Work and risk assessment skills to work with high risk and crisis situations.
Integrated Access and Referral Team (i-ART)
Office based role assessing the support and safeguarding needs of families and gathering information to inform decision making in relation to risk. The role does not include face-face contact but opportunities can be created for shadowing CIN/EDT Social Workers if required.
Provider Services
Mainstream Fostering team working closely with children and young people and supporting Foster Carers. Opportunities to undertake Fostering Assessments, help identify short/long term placements, review the ongoing suitability of approved Foster Carers and assist with recruitment.
Supporting Independence
Working with young people aged 15 to 18 years who are looked after in various settings including; residential, foster care, semi-independent and hospital. Students have the opportunity to develop Pathway Plans and develop Risk Management Plans with individuals who display complex and challenging behaviours
Transitions and Disabilities Team
Working with those aged 16 to 25 years who have disabilities. Students gain experience in both Children’s & Adult Social Work practice with a range of opportunities including Children and Families Assessments, Care Act Assessments, CIN, Child Protection, Looked After Children, DoLS and mental capacity work.
Cheshire West & Chester Adult’s Service
Placements will continue to be organised by the university Placement Coordinator.
Cheshire West & Chester (CW&C) is a large unitary authority where placements are offered in a range of teams that can offer support and challenge to students. Placements are well structured and access to case management systems prompt self-directed inductions covering NHS colleagues in co-located settings. Placements allow swift and direct engagement with service users and opportunities to shadow other teams and services. CW&C offers Step-Up to Social Work and will be supporting Social Work Apprenticeships. Progression is clear and well-supported in both adult and children’s services. There are placement opportunities in teams with expertise in the following areas:
Community Access Team
The Community Access team are the ‘front door’ into adult social care, they give Information advice, guidance and support on care and support for adults. They carry out initial assessments, signpost to other services as and when required. The team is integrated with Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Social Care Assessors, and Occupational Therapy Assistants. Once the initial assessment is complete, if further assessment, a care package/service/safeguarding enquires are required these are loaded on the system and passed to the relevant specialist or community team.
Community Teams
There are currently 6 Community Social Care Teams over the Cheshire West and Chester footprint. They predominantly support adults with a physical health condition and any adults over the age of 65 in a community setting. The role and function of the teams is to undertake strengths based assessments, in line with the Care Act, 2014; support planning; and reviews of packages of care.
Hospital Discharge Team
This team is responsible for any clients discharged from Hospital. They complete strengths based assessments under the Care Act 2014.
Adult Safeguarding Unit
Cheshire West and Chester Council has statutory responsibility to establish whether abuse has taken place, when safeguarding concerns are reported. The Care Act 2014 (Section 42) requires that each local authority must make enquiries, or cause others to do so, if it believes an adult is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect.
Deprivation of Liberty SafeguardsTeam
The DoLS Team manage all referrals and assessments for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards for residents of Cheshire West and who are identified as lacking capacity as to whether they should be accommodated in the care home or hospital for the purpose of receiving care and treatment and those arrangements maybe amounting to a Deprivation of their liberty. We are a team of experienced social workers, social care assessor and best interest assessors with specialist knowledge of Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
Review
The purpose of the Review Team is to have a standalone team to focus solely on statutory scheduled reviews as per Care Act 2014 with the aim of reviewing and monitoring existing care and support plans in place for adults aged 18 and over. The team is integrated with Occupational Therapists (OT) & Social Workers who work very closely together to achieve outcomes
Community Mental Health
The teams are a specialist service for adults with mental health needs. They predominantly assess under and work within the remit of the Care Act 2014 There is also an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) service, which undertakes assessments under the Mental Health Act. This is an essential service which operates 365 days a year day and night, in order to keep people safe from harm.
Learning Disability Teams
The Learning Disability Service is specialist for people with a learning disability (from 25 years old and over) whose primary need is a Learning Disability (as defined in Valuing People). The role of the Learning Disability Team is to undertake Care Act Assessments for adults with a learning disability and/or their carers, in line with the Care Act 2014. The teams will assess in both the community and hospital settings (liaising with the appropriate professionals to support timely discharges form hospital), and complete unscheduled and scheduled reviews, including for those people placed out of Cheshire West area.
Transitions Team-Adults
The transition team works with young adult aged 18-25 with a learning disability. The team undertake assessments in line with the Care act 2014. The team will assess in both the community and hospital settings (liaising with the appropriate professionals to support timely discharges form hospital), and complete unscheduled and scheduled reviews, including for those people placed out of Cheshire West area.
The Emergency Duty Team (EDT)
The EDT provides an emergency Social Work urgent response to social care situations for adult and children’s services, including undertaking Mental Health Act assessments. These situations are triaged and prioritized to ensure an appropriate degree of safety until the next working day.