Service available in:
Our Children in Care nurses are specialist nurses who are passionate about assessing and responding to the health and wellbeing needs of Children in Care.
Local Authorities can use different variations for Children in Care.
These can be:
- Looked After Child (LAC)
- Child We Care For (CWCF)
- Child Looked After (CLA).
In Liverpool the team are the Children in Care (CIC) team.
The team carry out health assessments for:
- Children who are in school year 12 and year 13 who are in care
- Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and Young people who are new to the country
- Children who are living in Liverpool who are in care but are not yet allocated a school in Liverpool or attend a school in another borough
- We also support children in their transition from childhood to adulthood up until the age of 19 (or 25 if a child has Special Educational Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan in place) to empower them to access health services independently.
Their role also includes:
- Co-ordination of healthcare including Initial Health Assessments when a child is new in to care
- Quality assurance of children’s annual Review Health Assessments
- Providing advice to social care and health colleagues
- Providing training to social care and health colleagues
- Attending meetings to advocate health needs and improve children’s health outcomes
- Development of useful resources for children and young people in care around their health
- Visits to see children and young people to ensure that their health needs are being met
- Liaison with health colleagues in areas where Liverpool children are placed
- Liaison with support services where young people are living to ensure that health needs are met
- Signposting to local services, such as, dentist, GP, sexual health and opticians and support in accessing these if required
The service is for Liverpool children (up until the age of 19 or 25 if they have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)) who are in care, or children who are in care to another Local Authority but live in Liverpool. A child who has been in the care of their local authority for more than 24 hours is known as a Child in Care.
The team works closely with providers of other services in Liverpool for example education, local authority, charities as well as health professionals such as GPs, health visitors and school nurses. They also work with other Local Authorities who have placed children and young people in Liverpool and who have children and young people placed in their areas from Liverpool.
Children and young people who come into care will be allocated a specialist nurse. They will then contact you or your carer by telephone or letter to make an appointment. This appointment can be in an environment where you feel comfortable, be that at your home, your school or college or a clinic. This appointment will be face to face and will include a discussion about your health and emotional wellbeing.
Children and young people in care and carers can access our service following notification to the team from the child or young person’s social worker.
If you want to talk to a member of the team, please contact 0151 285 4811 or email lac