Adult social care supports people who have care and support needs as a result of an illness or impairment. This could include for instance sensory loss, physical and learning disabilities, mental health difficulties, substance misuse, autism and needs associated with old age.
Adult social care also has a duty to make safeguarding enquiries where someone with care and support needs is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect and cannot protect themselves due to those care and support needs.
Predominantly adult social care teams in Wolverhampton work with people over the age of 18, but also support young people who may already be known to children’s services as part of transition planning into adulthood, as well as supporting carers.
Wolverhampton Children and Young People Services provide specialist services for disabled children which are delivered by the Disabled Children and Young People’s Team (DCYPT) – a social work team that is based under the Children’s Social Care.
The Disabled Children and Young Person’s team will support children or young people from birth up to 25 years of age who have a diagnosed disability and the primary need of the child or young person relates to their disability. In doing so the team will also consider what support is required to the individual’s parents, carers and any other children within the household, taking a whole family approach informed by a social work assessment.
The team seeks to provide a whole family approach and support a smooth transition into adulthood. All referrals to the DCYPT should be made via the MASH, this includes requests for short breaks. For young people aged between 18-25, referrals should be made via the front door via single point of contact, Customer Services.
The Emergency (out of hours) Services for Social Care provide an emergency social work service for urgent situations that arise out of office hours. They will support a situation that cannot be left with an appropriate degree of safety until the next working day. The service is for people who are in danger, unable to protect themselves as an adult or child or those that cannot remain in the community without immediate intervention. The Emergency (out of hours) Services for Social Care are not intended as an alternative means of continued day time activities.
The response service for social care and mental health emergencies, previously delivered by the Emergency Duty Team (EDT), has recently changed so that both out of hours and daytime services are provided by respective teams within Adult Services.
Mental Health emergencies will now be dealt with by an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) Hub situated within the Mental Health Team.
The remaining EDT functions (social care emergencies) have merged with the MASH Team to create MASH24.
In Adult work, individuals whose mental health deteriorates will receive a more holistic response across all hours of the day, from staff that they may have already formed a relationship with; so that the least restrictive alternative can be applied. There will be improved availability and response times compared to previous EDT arrangements during both office hours and out of hours when a person’s mental health deteriorates as the service will benefit from having dedicated AMHP workers from within the Mental Health Team and access to AMHP resources within locality teams.
The team works with citizens of Wolverhampton aged 18+ who have been brought to Accident and Emergency (A&E) / Clinical Decision Unit (CDU) or who have been admitted as inpatients to New Cross Hospital and West Park Hospital.
The team works in accordance with Discharge to Assess (D2A) policies and procedures to facilitate timely and appropriate discharge from acute (New Cross Hospital), non-acute (West Park Hospital) and discharge to assess bed based and community services. The Team offers advice, information and signposting and undertakes Care Act compliant assessments with the aim of promoting independence and enable positive risk taking.
There are three Locality Teams; East, North and West.
The Locality Teams connect with adults over the age of 18, including young people age 17 preparing for adulthood and the transition from Children’s Services to Adult Services, who may have social care needs. This includes older people, adults with physical, sensory or learning disability or autism. The citywide Forensic Team connect with adults with a learning disability who have offended or are at risk of offence behaviour. In line with the Transforming Care Programme, we are committed to reducing in-patient psychiatric admissions and facilitating timely discharges.
The teams work in line with the Care Act and Adult Social Care legislation to:
What do we do?
Who do we do it for?
People ordinarily resident in the City of Wolverhampton whose primary social care need arises from mental health difficulties. This would include, but is not limited to, people who are:
The Adult Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is the single point of contact for all new safeguarding concerns for adults with care and support needs aged 18 and over who are experiencing or at risk of abuse and neglect in Wolverhampton.
Information will be gathered from the relevant partner agencies to inform levels of risk and to determine next steps. The MASH partner agencies include West Midlands Police, Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Probation, Wolverhampton Homes, Recovery Near You, and Black Country Healthcare Foundation Trust.
