How we help children and young people

Who we work with

• 202,419 people live in Gateshead
• 90,500 households
• 39,780 children live in Gateshead, that's 19.7%
• About 1500 children are getting support from Early Help
• About 380 children are looked after and live with foster carers, in a children's home, or with family
• About 270 children have a Child Protection Plan to keep them safe
• About 1620 children are in need of extra help and support from Social Services

What we've done to make Gateshead a better place to grow up in

1. Children in Gateshead are safe.

If children and their families need help from social workers or others, this happens quickly, and people do not wait for help and support.

2. Early help is helping.

Early Help is working. It is everyone's business (for example school, health, police). Early Help services are good at stepping in before things get worse.

3. We have good workers and managers, who work well with others when we need to.

Gateshead is a good place to work, where staff are supported by managers and councillors. To keep young people safe, we work well with the police, people in health and education and anyone else we can.

4. Children who are looked after don't have to move that often.

We try not to move children from their placements unless we really have to. Four out of every five children are happy, in long term placements.

5. Helping young people to stay at home.

We always want to try and come up with new ways to keep families together. We have some new workers, who work evenings and weekends so they can help families when they might need it the most.

6. We know our families well.

We always try to get to know our children and young people. We are proud of them. And we listen to and use their ideas to help us meet their needs, while they are growing up.

What we need to do to make it even better!

1. Better support for children who need our help.

We want to improve on the work we have already done. We want to make sure that children and families get the right help at the right time.

2. Make sure that looked after children can live in, or close to, Gateshead.

We have some young people, who we've moved a long way from Gateshead. We want to have more choice of placements closer to us, so they can grow up in their own community if they want to.

3. Listen, listen, listen.

We need to make sure we listen to what children and young people think, when decisions are being made to help them, after all, it's their right! (Article 12 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child). When children and young people tell us things, we need to get better at doing some of the things they have told us.

4. Make sure children have a good plan.

We need to make sure children and young people have a good plan for the future, which they understand. Although all the plans need to be done in the same way, they still need to be special to the child and show that they are an individual who really matters to us. Again, we need to make sure we listen to the child when we create this plan.

5. Improve how we check what we are doing.

We need to learn from information we have that tells us what we are doing well and what we are not. This can help us change things to make the help we give families better.

We have lots of staff, in different teams. We need to make sure that all of these staff are supported in the same way by their managers to make sure children and families get the best help they can.

6. Make sure we plan for the future.

We need to make sure that we make decisions as early as possible for all the children and young people. This includes decisions about where they will live and who they will live with.

7. Help young people do better at school.

We need to help young people get better grades in their GCSE's, to help with training and jobs so young people have a good life in the future.