Looked After Children (LAC)

The ethos of the service is that mental health is 'everyone's business'. Therefore, the focus is on supporting social workers and carers to improve the young person's mental health and wellbeing, as well as undertaking specialist assessment and intervention where required.

Key features include:

• Consultations to social workers and other professionals to ensure that the needs of children/young people are understood within the context of their lived experience

• Assessments – These include carers, emotional wellbeing assessments and Initial Mental Health assessments.

• Delivery of therapeutic interventions with the child/young person following an assessment where a targeted or specialist response is required

• Consultation and training for residential staff that draws on attachment theory

• Nurturing Attachment Training for foster carers

• Foster carer drop-in sessions to support placement stability (Coventry only)

• Telephone advice and guidance for carers and professionals

• Support to social workers when they are working therapeutically with young people

Coventry

Our aim is to reduce unnecessary assessments of looked after children and to support them, their carers and families in a collaborative non-stigmatising manner. To provide this, we support professionals with a consultation meeting in the first instance.

Download a consultation request form below and email it securely (via gov.uk or nhs.net, for example) to camhs.lac@covwarkpt.nhs.uk

Rise Looked After Children Consultation Request Form 2021.docx [docx] 23KB

At the consultation meeting we will develop a joint plan for intervention where the child’s/young person’s needs are understood within the context of the people who are important to them in their lives.

Telephone number: 
024 7696 1426

Warwickshire

To refer into the service, please use the referrals form available here .

Telephone number: 
024 76631 835

The Coventry Looked After Children (LAC) service is a service developed in response to Coventry CAMHS transformation Programme. It is developed to support vulnerable young people with mental health and emotional wellbeing needs. This service is consistent with the NHS Plan for improved Mental Health set out in Future in Mind and Coventry’s Children’s Plan priority that Looked After Children (LAC) are healthy.

The service integrates staff from MIND and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust. The LAC team work with Coventry City Council Looked after Children’s social care team. This is to create an operational Team Around the Child (TAC). Our aim is to reduce unnecessary assessments of LAC children and to support them, their carers and families in a collaborative non-stigmatising manner.

To provide this we support professionals to seek consultation in the first instance. We then develop a plan for intervention where the child’s /young person’s needs are understood within the context of the people who are important to them in their lives.

To contact the LAC team please see below:

Telephone number: 
02476 961 426

Address:
Paybody Building
2 Stoney Stanton Road
Coventry
CV1 4FS

To refer please fill in the Rise referral form here.

We accept referrals for children and young people who are fostered, adopted, live in residential care, or have Special Guardianship and kinship status – (5-19).

Your referral will then be considered and once accepted an assessment will be offered that meets the need of the child/ young person. The assessment and intervention will be considered by CW Mind and NHS Rise clinicians who work in partnership to ensure the child/young person receives help. The 1:1 therapeutic support available for looked after children and young people to help them with their emotional and mental health needs include primary mental health work, counselling, Play Therapy, and for more complex mental health needs further specialist  assessments and or Psychiatric input are available. CW Mind offer a range of interventions which includes;  support for foster carers, adopters, kinship and Special guardianship carers with the focus on providing understanding in the theory and delivery of therapeutic parenting that is based on principles of attachment. We also provide attachment training, consultations for professionals, schools, and carers