• Provide reliable effective social work help and intervention to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need so that children maintain a reasonable standard of health and development, receive reasonable parenting, and have a sense of permanence. Where a child is disabled take action to minimise the effect of their disabilities so they have the opportunity to lead lives as normal a life as possible.
• Identify consistently in a timely way where children are unable to live at home, take action to secure permanence for them within a timescale that meets their needs. Where children are looked after address their needs in accordance with their care plan or pathway plan, so that they make progress and have every opportunity to fulfil their potential as adults.
• Show consistent effective child centred practice with children at the centre of professional assessment, planning, intervention and review activity, and their views and wishes (appropriate to their age and understanding) are sought and used to understand the child’s world and shape the level of intervention and type of help offered.
• Provide effective professional leadership so that professionals work together to meet the needs of children in need, including those with a child protection plan, privately fostered children, and looked after children and care leavers.
• Work with parents / carers to strengthen protective factors and reduce risks to the child’s welfare, where seeking to establishing rapport and trust as a basis for parents changing their behaviour so that the child receives safe reasonable parenting, or where parental cooperation is not forthcoming and there is no other way of safeguarding the child, pursue alternative arrangements for the child’s upbringing.
• Work with foster carers, special guardians, prospective adopters and other people who are looking after someone else’s children, so that children’s needs are met and that they are able to live as normal a life as possible, understand their journey to their placement, are making good progress in terms of their health, development and education, and are prepared for their transition to adult life.