A massive amount of effort has gone into protecting children at risk across Dumfries and Galloway over the last 18 months – but council chiefs admit there is still plenty of work to do.
Currently 226 children and 129 families are under the wing of the council’s family support team which proved to be a lifeline service during the pandemic.
However, there is a list of eight families and 11 children waiting to be seen by the family support team which is run by social workers and their colleagues.
Some financial constraints have also been highlighted in a report by the social work department which concerned several councillors at the recent social work committee meeting.
Dee and Glenkens Councillor Andy McFarlane said: “This public document would suggest that we’ve got a finite capacity to deal with this, which means that when we get to a certain level then if you’re not in, you’re out.
“That suggests to me that we need to be looking at resourcing.”
However, chief social work officer Lillian Cringles assured elected members that the council would always go into debt to make sure children were properly looked after.
She said: “At any point if I felt we weren’t able to meet that duty and make sure children were safe, I would bring an urgent item back to the council.”
The council’s family support team has been praised for its invaluable work helping children and families, many of whom are dealing with alcohol, drug, and/or mental health issues.
The report states that the family support team is following government’s national guidance for positive change with extra focus placed on keeping families together and children safe.
Stephen Morgan, senior children and families manager with social work services, said: “This service has been absolutely critical to the way children and families services has met its statutory requirements over the pandemic.
“It’s really quite exciting because research shows that, if we intervene as early as possible in people’s lives effectively, that will improve people’s outcomes.”
He went on: “When we speak about early intervention, that’s not just about intervening in people’s lives at as young an age as
possible.
“It’s as soon as we, as a council, are aware there’s an issue.
“What we’ve done in addition to this is we’ve changed the way we do our social work.
“We really ask our social workers, and all of our social work staff, to spend time with people and spend relationships with them.”
