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• Assessment and Early Intervention
• Children in Care and Care Leavers
• Early years and childcare
• Family support services
• Joint Agency Services
• Safeguarding
• Schools
• Youth offending
• Youth support
• Devon Children's Trust

Assessment and Early Intervention

What’s Devon’s approach?

Devon’s Assessment and Early Intervention service are the first point of contact for a wide range of professionals and individuals who may wish to make a referral relating to a child who is at risk of harm, or in need. Referrals may come from individuals (such as family members or people within the community), or from education, health, housing or Police colleagues. The role of the team is to ensure that:

• An initial assessment is carried out to ascertain the risk to the child, in terms of Child Protection and Child in Need criteria.
• The child’s needs are met through working with the family and/or community to find resolution to the issues, risks or concerns raised (where appropriate to do so).
• Where resolution within the family or community cannot be achieved, a core assessment is completed, which may result in a referral to one of the other specialist social worker teams, eg. Safeguarding.

We pride ourselves on building and maintaining close working relationships with families and communities to ensure that the best possible outcomes are achieved for children. We are firmly committed to keeping the child’s needs and best interests at the heart of all that we do. Work with families may last for up to three months, and if unresolved, would result in a core assessment of the child’s needs. The case is then referred to a new social worker in one of the specialist social worker teams, eg Safeguarding.

Working for Assessment and Early Intervention is an excellent place to begin, or to develop, your social work career. It offers the widest range of experience, including direct work with children, families and communities, with considerable liaison with professionals from health, housing, and education to name but a few. Undoubtedly, it is a challenging place to work, with varying and unpredictable caseloads, but we pride ourselves on the level of support and training given to staff, regardless of their level of expertise. Regular supervision sessions ensure that caseload volumes are manageable, and create one-to-one time where issues, concerns and questions can be raised. This is especially important for newly qualified workers, who we find benefit most learning from experienced social worker colleagues within their team.

As with other teams, we are a county-based team with local offices, so you’ll need to be able to travel widely to manage your caseload. Your days will be varied and busy, whether it’s preparing for a Child in Need meeting, finalising a core assessment, or discussing a case with a colleague from health, the Police, or community workers. The team works together to provide a supportive, encouraging environment within which to further develop your skills.