Our Vision and Purpose

Vision and Purpose

Our primary purpose is to ensure that children are protected from significant harm and their development and well-being are promoted. We do this:

• With compassion and with care;
• Through positive relationships, building on strengths;
• In collaboration with children, young people, families and partners;
• By listening, involving and including;
• In ways that are efficient and deliver value for money.

We provide a wide range of services to children, young people and families who have often experienced significant adversity, life stress, significant attachment disruption, trauma or structural inequalities. These experiences can make it difficult for people to have a felt sense of safety or trust when working with professionals or those in positions of power. We recognise that the more that we understand about the impact of these experiences and the risks they can create, the more we can proactively work together to create the counter conditions needed for positive change, resilience and recovery.

Our 'Connections Count' relationship-based practice model centres on the voice and lived experience of the child or young person, whilst recognising that children and young people do not live, grow or function in isolation. Sometimes to best support them, we may also need to support their parents and/or caregivers and work together with communities and partner agencies.

The model is underpinned by the following golden threads (core principles) which underpin how we 'be', what we do and what we achieve:

• Relationship-based, trauma informed and attachment aware;
• Providing services that are developmentally sensitive, understanding the impact of adversity on child development, recognising needs at different ages and developmental stages, and supporting special educational needs and disabilities;
• Supporting the development of new skills and existing strengths;
• Being respectful of and sensitive to issues of culture, diversity, equality and rights;
• Aiming to understand families' struggles in the context of the wider situations, communities, and systems in which they live.

We are committed to supporting children to remain within their family wherever possible. We value the importance of direct social work and family support work with families as a means of enabling change, responding through support and challenge to the diverse emotional, cultural and material needs of each child and their family.

Where it is not possible for children to live at home safely, we seek to provide high quality substitute care within family settings, wherever possible within the city, and to maintain links with birth family whenever this is in the child's best interests.

We recognise that is difficult and challenging work to bring about change and build resilience in families who are often very disadvantaged. To do this we need skilled and confident social workers and family workers, who need to be supported through good leadership and management, supervision and learning opportunities.

We have a specific responsibility to ensure that children in our care and care leavers receive stability through high quality support and care planning from us as corporate parents.

We will deliver effective services for children and families within the resource envelope allocated to us. We will eliminate inefficiency, duplication and waste and we will only fund that which is effective and adds value.