The OPFCC Youth Service
The OPFCC Youth Service supports young people with emerging needs as they transition into adulthood. They do this in a targeted way and through creating positive and trusting relationships. Children and young people engage voluntarily with the service and are able to access education, advice, guidance and support. The Youth Service work with children and young people to identify their individual skills and interests. This helps to build a greater understanding of themselves and supports them to make informed choices. The Youth Workers offer one to one and group work sessions which include interesting, interactive, informal education relating to issues that directly impacts young people.
Who can refer?
Any professional across the county who has identified a young person between the ages of 10 and 18 years old who is struggling and needs support that can’t be offered through universal services. Without help their issues could have a longer term impact on life chances.
How do they do it?
Complete an online referral form after gaining consent from the parent/carer and or young person to request the help and check they are ok to share their information with us. The referral form can be found here
What happens to the referral?
The referral is sent via a link to a secure referral management system. All referrals are triaged for suitability by the Service Senior Practitioners. Referrals where we think we could offer help are assigned to a Youth Worker.
Then what happens?
The Youth Worker will contact the named person on the referral and introduce themselves, check the young person still wants support and arrange a time to meet, face to face or virtually. The Youth Worker will ask what help the young person thinks they need to help their situation improve. This is a person centred approach and the Youth Worker uses the Signs of Safety model of support.
What happens if the referral isn’t suitable for support?
One of the Senior Practitioner team will contact the referrer and discuss why the team are unable to offer support at this time. The Senior Practitioners will offer advice and guidance on possible options for the referrer to access the most appropriate support. They will work through the Thresholds and Pathways criteria with you to help work out the best support route for the young person.
Why would a referral not be suitable?
The Early Intervention and Youth Services work to Government criteria set out in the Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 and work at risk and need level 2. This support level is for those who can no longer be supported by schools, GP’s, Children’s Centres etc because there is need for targeted support on a specific issue. Sometimes, the referrer has referred a young person who would benefit from a more intensive service beyond the level 2 support. A more intensive and longer term support is often needed depending on the issues identified and referred. The Senior Practitioner team are very experienced at looking at the information on the referral and making sure we can offer the right support at the right time.
What happens to referrals that is not suitable?
The referral is deleted from the Referral Management System
Details of how personal data is handled, can be found here
for more information about of commitment to Safeguarding please click here
