{"id":74382,"date":"2026-05-21T08:57:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T07:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/?page_id=74382"},"modified":"2026-05-21T15:43:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:43:02","slug":"keeping-children-and-young-people-safe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/send-local-offer\/social-care-support\/keeping-children-and-young-people-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping children and young people safe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Keeping all our children and young people safe in Devon (safeguarding) is at the heart of our practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a concern about a child, it is everyone\u2019s responsibility to report this &#8211; more information can be found on our children, families and education website: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/childrens-social-care\/child-protection\/\">Worried about a child&#8217;s safety<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are a young person, family member, carer, or member of the public and you want to discuss a child that you are worried about or make a self-referral you can contact our front door on <a href=\"tel:03451551071\">0345 155 1071<\/a>. Our lines are open Monday to Thursday 9am &#8211; 5pm, and Friday 9am &#8211; 4pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you need help outside of these hours or at weekends or bank holidays, please call our Emergency Duty Service on\u202f<a href=\"tel:03456000388\">0345 6000 388<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out how we work together: <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/681b42043f1c73824ee3e4f0\/Children_and_young_person_guide_to_working_together_to_safeguard_children.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\">Working Together Guidance<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"An animated guide to Working Together to Safeguard Children for children and young people\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/G4ntSqMCSUI?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Social work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In Devon, social workers may work with targeted early help teams or carry out assessments for children, young people and their families when this is needed. This decision is based on the needs of the child, young person or their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out more about <strong>how we keep children and young people safe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a number of different teams in each local area. While the teams may be called different things, they all carry out similar assessments. These assessments look at a child or young person\u2019s needs within their family and help make sure they are safe and supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We decide whether a social work assessment is needed by using our <a href=\"https:\/\/devoncc.sharepoint.com\/:b:\/s\/PublicDocs\/Education\/EawdBy5UuDxGrCOI2RM5KWEBoFwfxgCxvwSomTBETfFLJw?e=HcoeYM\" rel=\"noopener\">levels of need tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find more information about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/childrens-social-care\/childrens-social-care-guidance\/\">Child in Need and safeguarding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If an assessment shows that your child or family needs social work support, a social worker will work with you to create a support plan. They will talk with you about what you feel would help most and how to access the right support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here in Devon our social workers may work alongside our targeted early help teams or undertake assessment for children, young people and their families, where we have identified that this is necessary due to the needs of the child, young person or their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Social Work Assessment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In Devon, assessments help us understand your child or young person\u2019s needs and your family\u2019s situation. We use this information to decide what support may be helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Social workers will talk with you about your family\u2019s history and what is happening now. This helps us understand your background and any support you have had before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will also look at your child or young person\u2019s development. This includes their health, education, emotional wellbeing and social development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get a full picture, we also talk with you about wider factors that affect family life. This can include your housing, community support and financial situation. This helps us understand how you are meeting your child or young person\u2019s needs and whether extra support may be helpful. We call this \u2018parenting capacity\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your child is disabled, we can offer a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/send-local-offer\/social-care-support\/parent-carers-needs-assessment\/\">Parent Carer Needs Assessment<\/a>. This looks at your needs as a parent or carer, taking into account your views and your child or young person\u2019s views and wishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of the assessment, we summarise what we have found and what should happen next. This is called our \u2018analysis and recommendations\u2019. It looks at how your family\u2019s situation affects your child\u2019s daily life now and in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-dcc-secondary-button\"><a onclick=\"dataLayer.push({&amp;apos;buttonEvent&amp;apos;: &amp;apos;Information page&amp;apos;});\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/devoncountycouncil.outsystemsenterprise.com\/MASH\/homepage\" rel=\"noopener\">Make a request for social care support<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Keeping all our children and young people safe in Devon (safeguarding) is at the heart of our practice. If you have a concern about a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":981,"featured_media":0,"parent":74370,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-74382","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 20:06:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74382"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74496,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74382\/revisions\/74496"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}