Eligibility criteria for children's social care - Find a freedom of information request

1. Do you have your eligibility criteria for children's social care clearly and publicly available:

a. Online?  If so, please send the direct link to the relevant document (rather than your general local offer, I would like the link to the specific information)

b. On request? If so, please send me as an attachment.
By eligibility criteria i mean: If a parent is struggling and feels they need support from social services, are there criteria they would have to meet in order to get this support?  Some local authorities just have one children's social services team, but others have a safeguarding side and a service for children with disabilities.  Some local authorities have other elements such as family support.  If a family needs support, they can be allocated a social worker, who will carry out an assessment to decide whether the child fits the criteria of a child in need (etc) under the Children and Families Act and is therefore eligible for social services support.  How all of this works and is set up depends on the Authority, some Authorities have a service that all referrals/calls come through to, and they are screened before being allocated to a social worker for an assessment.  This question is asking for information about this initial process for referral into the social work team is, how decisions are made about whether to proceed to full assessment, and what criteria social workers then use to make a decision as to eligibility for support from social services.

2. Do you have information about what the assessment process involves publicly available?  If so, please send this and information about how it can be accessed by the public to me also.


 By assessment: The assessment process by which the social worker decides whether a child is eligible for support from social care, to decide whether the child meets the definition of a child in need (and so on), according to the children and families act.

 
3. If the assessment and eligibility criteria are not usually publicly available, please can you send me copies of both via PDF attachment, including any other relevant details relating

to how you make decisions for families requesting support from children's social care.  For example, if eligibility and assessment information is contained within a wider policy, please share the wider policy. 
 

4. Please can you tell me how parents are able to request support or assistance from children's social care, and whether a self-referral is possible?  Can you please also include details

of the information that is sent or given to parents in your area when they request a social care assessment, either by phone or in writing.

this is asking how a parent can access social care in the first place if they, or someone working with them, feels that they are struggling and they/their child meets the definitions under the Children and Families Act.  Can they self-refer or does the referral have to be from a professional?

1. All of the information about our SEND local offer and services to children are available online on the Lincolnshire County Council Website: https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/social-care-health