Valuing People wanted children with learning disabilities to get the best chances in life they could.
The Valuing People Support Team does not work with Children's services, but there are other people who do help make things better for children. This page tells you a bit about them, and has other information you might find useful.
We are doing work on the change from children's to adult services - transition. Visit the Transition section of this website to find out more.
Every Child Matters: Change for Children
In 2004 the Government brought out a paper to say how they thought they could make things better for children and young people.
They wanted to make sure that all children got a good start in life, including children who get the worst deal - like children who are disabled, or are abused, or are in care.
This was a Green Paper called 'Every Child Matters: Change for Children'. A Green Paper is a paper the government brings out with ideas in, to ask what people think of them.
After the Green Paper came another paper called 'Every Child Matters: the next steps', and The Children Act 2004 which changed the law.
National Service Framework for children, young people and maternity services:
In 2004 the Government published The National Service Framework which links with The Children’s Act 2004. The National Service Framework and the Children Act 2004 both require that health, education and social services work together much more closely than they have in the past.
Services for Children in Southampton
In Southampton we have worked hard over the last year to change our services so that they work together in a much better way. The changes we have made are:-
- We have joined our health and social work teams together under one manager. The new team will officially open in March 2007 as JIGSAW.
- We have brought together the assessments that we undertake in to one document so that families don’t have to answer the same questions repeatedly.
- We are going to have one worker who will be the main contact for the family so that it is less confusing when they need help. This person will probably be called a “Lead Professional”.
- We will work with families and other professionals over the next year to identify a range of ideas that will help children and families become more involved in their care, be better informed and prepared for the future. This will lead to the setting up of a family support unit for children with learning disabilities and their families.
We have lots of work to do in working with children who have both a mental health problem and a learning disability. We want to make the work we do more joined up for these families so we are producing a range of joint jobs between children’s learning disability services and children’s mental health services which will help us to do this.