Family Plus Team
The Family Plus Team supports families with a Special Guardianship Order. We also support any non-parent carers with a Child Arrangements Order (CAO).
What is Special Guardianship?
A Special Guardian is someone with a close relationship to a child / young person. This can be a family member, former foster carer or family friend. Special Guardianship is for children and young people who are unable to live with their birth parents. It is a way of giving a child, who is connected to you, the love and security of family life.
A Special Guardianship Order is a legal procedure granted by the Court. When a child becomes subject to a Special Guardianship Order they become part of that family until they are 18 (or younger if the court decides this). Children who transfer to a Special Guardianship Order from a foster care placement, will no longer have a social worker.
The child / young person keeps their name
Their birth parents keep some parental responsibility
The Special Guardian gains enhanced rights and responsibilities
Supporting Special Guardianship and Child Arrangement Order Families
The Family Plus team helps improve children and young people’s experience in their relationships. These can be with:
carers
where possible, parents
their wider families, and
schools
We do this by supporting Special Guardians and CAO family carers to:
develop nurturing bonds, and
safe, settled environments
so that children in their care can thrive.
The team is managed by experienced social workers and is made up of expert professionals including:
Therapeutic family workers
Therapists
Child Psychologist
Therapeutic life story workers
Therapeutically trained Social Workers
We carry out wellbeing assessments that focus on attachment and trauma. We put in place, where appropriate, therapeutic support. Therapeutic work can be accessed using registered independent providers. This can be through:
the Adoption and Special Guardianship Fund (ASGSF), or
by using a family support worker trained in therapeutic ways of working from within the team.
We also provide:
Support groups
A dedicated email and telephone advice helpline SGODuty@cornwall.gov.uk
Training on attachment and Developmental trauma
Therapeutic parenting support
Therapeutic life story work
Mediation services
Registration to the CATCH website. This is an online support network that includes training, learning, and support