At Ceredigion County Council we are transforming the way individuals, families, communities and carers can receive help and support when they need it.

Our vision is to ensure positive access to both universal and targeted services so that children and adults can develop the skills and resilience they need to lead fulfilled lives and achieve their goals.  We are seeking to empower individuals in what matters to them and work with partner agencies to strengthen people’s independence, ensure safety and promote well-being.

Our Through Age and Well-being Strategy sets out how we will develop a skilled and innovative workforce who will provide through age services that focus on preventative support and early intervention with easy access to information, advice and assistance, proportionate assessment of need and care and support plans for those who need longer term help.

Find out more about our Through-Age and Wellbeing Model and how are teams are structured within it here.

Substance Misuse Team Overview

The Substance Misuse Service works closely with Health and 3^rd Sector specialist providers and other partners to support individuals and their families in respect of substance misuse. The Team provides support for adults and families that have complex substance misuse issues, supporting them to achieve change and promoting their wellbeing.

The roles under the Team Manager include

• Managing a multi-disciplinary team
• Social Workers
• Health Workers
• Probation Workers
• Support Workers

They are responsible for ensuring the effective delivery of services and reporting back to our statutory partners. The Welsh Government sets out the requirements and performance indicators in their Substance Misuse Delivery Plan.

Social Worker role

• To engage with the topic of substance use as part of their duty of care to support their service users, their families and dependents.
• To motivate people to consider changing their problematic substance using behaviour and support them (and their families and carers) in their efforts to do so.
• To support people in their efforts to make and maintain changes in their substance use.

To do this the Social Worker needs the skills to engage adults that often feel marginalised or unwilling to trust services in order to assess and support them.

Support Worker role

• To provide practical support
• To ensure plans agreed by the Social Worker are achieved
• To promote diversionary activities
• To contribute to assessments

The Service also includes the management of:

Youth Justice Statutory Service

The Youth Justice Service (YJS) is made up of social workers, education workers, a police officer, health worker, probation, restorative justice and case managers.  The team involves people from these different agencies to help access the services young people need to help turn them away from crime.

The YJS:

• Works with young people who have received an out of court disposal from police, or who have been to court for an offence, and the court has ordered them to work with the YJS.
• Provides reports for the court to advise on what services are available, to assist in decisions about sentencing for young people.
• Provides services to parents to help them to respond to any difficulties their children have.
• Work with victims of youth crime, offering advice and information, and an opportunity for the effect of the offence on them to be made known to the young person, either directly or indirectly.

IFSS/Edge of Care Service.

Intensive Family Support Services (IFSS) provide short-term, intensive interventions aimed at families in crisis, where there is an imminent risk of children entering care. IFFS work intensively with families to try to reduce family crisis, improve family functioning and keep children safely living at home with their birth parents.

• The service is provided for families with children at imminent risk of an out-of-home placement.
• A caseworker contacts the family within 24 hours of a referral being received.
• Support is provided in the family’s home environment for a period of 4-6 weeks.
• Caseworkers have a small caseload of 2-3 families at a time to ensure that they can provide an intensive and flexible service.

The Edge of Care, Support Workers provide practical support to ensure children are safe at home and practical support as required.