Eligibility and referral screening for Children's Services Care 

1.      Introduction

This section explains the eligibility criteria for referral to Children and Family Services and provides a context for the multi-agency child protection procedures.  Children & Family Services has, by law, a range of responsibilities for children and families. The primary task of staff on receiving information about children and young people, and on receiving requests for specific services, is to make a judgement about whether the child (and family) is eligible for a service from Social and Housing Services. This is the process of screening incoming work.

2.      Children in Need

The local authority has a responsibility to identify children in need, assess their needs and provide services to promote and safeguard their welfare.

In effect, Section 17 (10) of the Children Act 1989 states that a child is a child in need either:

• because of their status, i.e. legal status as a child subject to child protection legislation or as a looked after child or as a disabled child, or
• because of a judgement that their health and development is, or is likely to be, impaired without the provision of services, or
• because of a judgement that they are unlikely to achieve a reasonable standard of health and development without the provision of services.

It is not possible to make judgement about the last two criteria without assessment of the effects of any situation on the health and development of a child, and any needs or risks to that child.

In order to determine eligibility for children’s social services

• There is a process of assessment
• Eligibility criteria are applied
• Multi-agency protocols are used to  determine agency responsibility for meeting particular needs

Eligibility for a service from Children's Social Care, therefore, means eligibility for assessment in these cases.

3.      Bath and North East Somerset’s policy

Bath and North East Somerset has interpreted the definition of children in need under the Children Act 1989 by reference to the following illustrative conditions and states with which children and their families may present:

• Disabled children and young people, and those with significant emotional and behavioural difficulties (including children and young people at risk of exclusion from school).
• Children and young people at risk of significant harm, for example as a result of neglect or abuse.
• Young People aged between 16 and 18 leaving care and other young vulnerable people living independently in the community such as those who are homeless, or in sub-standard accommodation. Care Leavers may be eligible for a service up to the age of 24.
• Children and young people who are involved in crime or at risk of becoming involved in crime, or misusing substances.
• Children and young people separated from their parents and families by reason of being looked after by the local authority, hospitalisation, special educational need.
• Children and young people with caring responsibilities, including young people who are parents.
• Children and young people at high risk of family breakdown for example children whose parent(s) are living on low wages or Income Support, in one-parent families, in overcrowded conditions or in temporary accommodation or large families with limited informal support.

4.      Deciding and recording eligibility

The Department of Health has introduced a scheme for recording categories of need. This enables comparisons to be made between authorities nationally. However it does not precisely match the B&NES eligibility criteria. The following table sets out the eligibility criteria with interpretative considerations and the need categories to be recorded.

Where more then one recording category applies to the presenting or assessed need, the highest numbered is recorded - i.e. 1 – abuse or neglect takes precedence over all other categories, 2 - disability takes precedence over 3 - parental illness/disability, etc. The need category should be recorded following referral screening and should be reviewed following each stage of assessment. The category may change at each stage – e.g. a referral based on child protection concerns (1 – abuse or neglect) may result in an assessment of need on the basis of family crisis (4 – family in acute stress).

Eligibility criteria and interpretative considerations

Children and young people at risk of significant harm, for example as a result of neglect or abuse.

Children and young people at risk of significant harm, for example as a result of neglect or abuse.

Include:

• Children referred with evidence of/concerns about possible neglect or abuse
• Children subject to s. 47 inquiries
• Children whose names are on the child protection register

All young people subject to s.47 inquiries for whatever reason should be included in this category. This will include s. 47 inquiries arising from domestic violence, involvement in prostitution or abusing other children.

Disabled children and young people, and those with significant emotional and behavioural difficulties (including children and young people at risk of exclusion from school).

•  Where children suffer from permanent and substantial disabilities they will be children in need under this definition.
•  Where children have needs on an interval basis which may temporarily impair their health or development they may be children in need under this heading where the disability has a significant impairing effect.

Children with significant emotional and behavioural difficulties will include those that self-harm, those with a significant eating disorder and those suffering psychosis and depression.

Children and young people with caring responsibilities, including young people who are parents.

Not all children who act as carers are "children in need". Child carers will be "children in need" when found in those situations in which their caring role is likely to impair their health or development or means this cannot be achieved or maintained at a reasonable level. The nature of the caring relationship is not relevant when considering this element of the definition (i.e. it applies equally to children caring for parents, siblings, other family member, teenage mothers etc.).

Children and young people at high risk of family breakdown, for example children whose parent(s) are living on low wages or Income Support, in one-parent families, in overcrowded conditions or in temporary accommodation or large families with limited informal support.

Not all children who face family breakdown will be "children in need". An assessment will need to be made as to whether the risk of family breakdown is likely to lead to significant harm.

Children and young people who are involved in crime or at risk of becoming involved in crime, or misusing substances.

Not all offenders are "children in need" for the purposes of this definition. The nature of their offending (e.g. frequency; severity) and its consequences (e.g. response of the criminal justice system; impact upon the victim or community) should be a significant feature of their lives, causing or likely to cause significant harm to themselves or others. Similar consideration should equally apply to those who misuse substances.

Children and young people separated from their parents and families by reason of being looked after by the local authority, hospitalisation, special educational need.

While children looked after by the local authority will be children in need not all children hospitalised or in the special education process will be. Hospitalisation for profound or severe disabilities in health will make the child "in need" (e.g. terminal illness, daily interruptions of normal activities due to physical ill health).

Children in need who are in the special educational need process require a joint protocol between the Housing and Social Services and Education Cultural and Community Services which identifies assessment, planning and reviewing responsibilities of the respective Services.

Young people aged between 16 and 18 leaving care and other young vulnerable people living independently in the community such as those who are homeless, or in unsuitable accommodation.

All young people ceasing to be "looked after" and requiring after care support will be "children in need" until the duty of after care ceases (currently to age 21, following enactment of the Care Leavers Bill this will be extended to 24).

Where young people who have ceased to be "looked after" are between 16 and 18 they are automatically a ‘child in need’.

Homelessness or unsuitable accommodation per se does not make a young person in need. Homelessness or unsuitable accommodation must give rise to their welfare being "significantly prejudiced" and hence "vulnerable".

The local authority has a range of other statutory duties towards children and young people that are the responsibility of the Housing and Social Services.

These duties are usually to:

• provide specific assessments, for example:
• a Disabled Persons Act assessment, or
• a welfare report when there are concerns about a child in domestic proceedings (Section 7 of the Children Act), or
• to assist a court in a decision about making an adoption order (Schedule 2 Adoption Act 1983).
• supervise children in certain circumstances (e.g. private foster placements), or
• provide support to adults and children who have been in receipt of services from Children's Services Care or other welfare agencies in the past (e.g. birth record counselling, access to files, post adoption support).

Requests for these services will be screened as appropriate referrals / requests to the Children's Services Care. However, the children and young people that are in receipt of these services are not children in need, as defined by the Social Services policy unless their circumstances also bring them within the children in need eligibility categories.

<<<<< Back to Main Index