Children's Services work in partnership with children and young people, their families and our partners to continuously improve life for all children and young in people in Salford.
We want children growing up in Salford to see and say that their city, community and services are great.
We work to improve outcomes for children, young people and families within the city:
- Being healthy
- Staying safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Making a positive contribution
- Achieving economic well being
Whilst the service group has a core responsibility to achieve this vision, there is a clear and strong partnership dimension to our work which is closely aligned with the overall vision for The Children's Trust.
Worried about a child?
If you are worried about the welfare or safety of a child it is very important that you contact us.
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Community, Health and Social Care
Community, Health and Social Care contributes towards achieving the city council's vision and has a mission statement which focuses on its specific contribution:
'To improve the life chances of Salford citizens and to promote the independence of individuals and communities in Salford through choice and control.'
We lead on the delivery of two portfolio areas:
- Adult services and service for older people
- Adult social care
- Housing support
Since July 2016, these have been provided on the council's behalf by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.
- Health and wellbeing
- Health improvement
- Public health
- Welfare rights and debt advice
We also work in partnership with provider organisations, communities and individuals to develop and deliver services and activities that help create the best possible life for the people of Salford. Citizen involvement at all levels is central to the work of the directorate - for example through community committees and our involvement structures or through engaging in community activities.
Helping citizens maintain and improve their health and independence benefits individuals directly. Helping citizens do this in their communities makes the communities stronger and more cohesive.
Health and adult health services national context
The Care Act 2014 emphasises wellbeing and independence, prevention and early intervention to reduce individuals' needs to use health and social care services.
The shift is towards:
- Strengthening communities so that they can support more people living independently at home
- Prevention
- Public health and wellbeing
- Tackling inequalities
- More services provided outside of hospitals, closer to people
The Act continues themes of:
- integration between health services (NHS) and social care services (councils)
- increased choice and control over the services and support people use
The Act also introduces some new rules about funding, though some of these have been delayed until 2020.
Salford and Greater Manchester is at the forefront nationally of integration work, with a number of interlinked programmes:
Local context
We have successfully developed a range of preventative initiatives that provide opportunities for residents to stay active and engaged through a range of leisure, social and educational activities. Such initiatives dovetail with the strategic goals of the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, preventing debilitating poor health and empowering individuals to have greater responsibility for their own health.
We have laid the foundation for the successful extension of more personalised services, enabling individuals to have more control over their lives. If, after a period of rehabilitation and the use of equipment, people need more services, we will ask them to identify their social support needs and how they think these needs can be met. We will then work with them to deliver the support/services which will meet the needs. Crucially, there is no definition of what constitutes a service or support.
Service users are self-assessing, using a resource allocation system to calculate a cost of support that the council will agree and offering the service user a choice about how their allocation is spent - by the council arranging services on their behalf, through a direct payment where the service user is given the cash and has to arrange their own support or through a mixture of spending options.
With a growing demand for support and less money available, we are looking at how we can help residents to support themselves and each other better, which includes improving the health and wellbeing of everyone in the city.