Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service - For Looked After Children

As part of the support provided by Derby City Council for our Children in Care, we have commissioned the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service. The service offers support to our children and young people to ensure that they have a safe place to talk to people who can offer different types of support, conversations, groups and therapy.

This service is delivered by Action for Children.

The offer has been in place since 1 September 2020, operational since November 2020 and is contracted until 2025. This means Action for Children have been contracted and joint funded by Derby City Council and NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board to deliver Emotional Health and Wellbeing Services for our Children in Care.

The key service outcome of the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Offer is to improve the emotional health and wellbeing of our children and young people, to contribute to an overall improvement in health outcomes and to help build resilience in children and their carers.

The service provides emotional health and wellbeing support to the following groups:

• Children in the care of Derby City Council;
• Children placed in children's homes or foster care by Derby City Council;
• Children who been adopted through Derby City Council or Adoption East Midlands;
• Children who are placed under a Special Guardianship Order where the LA has been involved;
• Children in care who are living with parents/family;
• Children in care placed within Derby by other local authorities. (The provider must charge the placing local authority for this service and be able to demonstrate that this does not impact on their capacity to address the needs of children in the care of Derby or Derbyshire authorities).

Since 1 September 2020 the service has been delivered by Action for Children across Derby and Derbyshire and 25 miles beyond.

Action for Children's Emotional Health and Wellbeing service offer delivers the following services:

• Complex Assessment - complex psychological assessments, which involve, interviews, reviewing documentation and psychometric evaluation;
• Reflective Practice - Regular, dedicated support from a Clinical Psychologist or Lead Therapeutic Practitioner for residential homes, contract foster carers and Leaving Care Teams;
• Consultations - Consultations provide the opportunity for social care and residential staff to get the views of a Clinical Psychologist or Lead Therapeutic Practitioner about a specific child or family including Children with Sexually Harmful Behaviours;
• Training for social care professionals and foster carers - Regular training events delivered on issues such as: trauma informed practice, attachment-based parenting, therapeutic models, Non-Violent Resistance, and other themes as requested by social care professionals;
• Case work - Therapeutic work with children and young people, foster carers, and parents;
• WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Planning) therapeutic support – Action for Children's dedicated WRAP team will work intensively with children and foster carers to enable children in residential placements, within and outside Derby City areas, to return to their local areas;
• Group work - Provision of targeted group work for children and young people based on needs, for example: emotional regulation.

Action for Children are being measured against several key performance indicators. These include measures related to:

• Numbers of children in care placed out of area and unplanned moves;
• Improvements in emotional health and wellbeing at the end of the intervention;
• Reported confidence of families/carers/professionals with supporting CIC with emotional health and wellbeing needs and quality of the service received;
• Trajectory plans being in place in relation to outcomes;
• Numbers of young people that disengage and not reengage with services.

Professionals from social care, health and education can make a referral to the service, along with children and families. Please use the Derby & Derbyshire Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service Referral Form.

Please e-mail the referral form to the Derby & Derbyshire Emotional Health & Wellbeing Service:
Via secure e-mail or Encrypted e-mail.
derbyshireEHWCIC@actionforchildren.org.uk

Postal Address:

Derby & Derbyshire Emotional Health & Wellbeing Service, 45 Queen Street, Chesterfield, S40 4SG / 42 Leopold Street, Derby, DE1 2HF.

The service can be contacted directly through:

Caroline Bowditch
Children's Services Manager
Derbyshire Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service
Telephone: 01332 505484
E-mail: caroline.bowditch@actionforchildren.org.uk
E-mail: derbyshireEHWCIC@actionforchildren.org.uk
Address: 42 Leopold Street, Derby, DE1 2HF.

If you require further information, then please feel free to contact Derby City Council's CYP Integrated Commissioning Team Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm.
E-mail: childplacementsteam@derby.gov.uk
Telephone: 01332 642699