In Wolverhampton we are relentless in our ambition for people with care and support needs to live gloriously, ordinary lives, living in the place they call home, with the people and things they love, doing what matters to them. We truly believe good social care can transform lives.
We pride ourselves on taking a One Council, whole service approach to supporting people with care and support needs across our newly formed specialist areas of Early Support, Safeguarding and Ageing Well, Disability and Mental Health to ensure that those who need us receive the right support, at the right time, by the right person. We consider the person’s primary presenting needs and individual circumstances to ensure people are supported by the team that is best equipped with the knowledge, skills and expertise to support them to live their idea of a good, fulfilled life.
Our new Early Support service builds on our strong preventative offer, recognising the importance of a dynamic response at the earliest opportunity to prevent, reduce and delay needs and utilising innovative approaches and technology alongside in-person support, to promote wellbeing and dignity. We provide information, advice and support to people and carers to help them connect with their community, stay well and live independently.
When people need urgent or short-term support, we will support them to gain or re-gain control over their lives and remain in their own homes and communities for as long as possible, for example by connecting them to our inhouse reablement services, occupational therapy team, equipment stores and sensory support team, for people with visual and hearing impairments.
Our Hospital Social Work Team, part of the Early Support service, works with adults aged 18 and over who attend Accident & Emergency (A&E), the Clinical Decision Unit (CDU), or are admitted as inpatients. We operate in line with Discharge to Assess (D2A) and Home First principles, supporting timely, person-centred discharges from both acute and non-acute hospital settings. The team plays a vital role in ensuring individuals receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time — with a strong focus on promoting independence and reducing unnecessary hospital stays.
Our city wide Ageing Well specialist social work service consists of teams who will support people to live well as they age, using a Three Conversation approach, focusing on what a good life looks like for each person. The service is based on primary need rather than age and will support people where their primary presenting needs are considered to be age related. The Ageing Well service also includes a dedicated Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and Court of Protection team, and there are also dedicated social workers for No Recourse to Public Funds and Homelessness.
The Safeguarding service is responsible for leading our response to adult safeguarding concerns through a coordinated and expert-led approach and ensures timely, dignified, and safety-focused support for adults at risk of abuse / neglect. Central to this is the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), which acts as the single point of contact for triage of all adult safeguarding referrals. A Safeguarding Enquiry Team carries out all Section 42 safeguarding enquiries even for those connected to a social worker, unless they or another professional or agency is deemed more appropriate. Within the enquiry team there will be a duty rota which will respond to same day enquiries and any immediate safeguarding concerns. There are also dedicated links to Exploitation and Domestic Abuse.
Our vision in the Disabilities and Mental Health service is for young people and adults with disabilities and / or mental health difficulties in Wolverhampton to live their idea of a good, fulfilled life, in a place they call home, with the people and things they love, in communities that look out for one another, doing the things that matter to them. The Disabilities social work team will support:
The specialist Mental Health social work team will support people aged 18 years and upwards, where their primary need for care and support arises from mental health difficulties. This may include where people are:
Also
The Mental Health service also includes the 24 hour Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) hub which consists of a team of dedicated AMHPs, and a number of AMHPs from across the wider social work teams, who can respond to requests for Mental Health Act assessments in a timely way, working closely with other professionals and partners.
Ageing well, Disabilities and Mental Health also have dedicated teams to carry out scheduled Keeping in Touch conversations (Care Act reviews/reassessments), to make sure people’s care and support is kept under regular review, ensuring it is meeting their needs and supporting them to live their life to the fullest.
There is a social care response for urgent situations that arise out of office hours. The service 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 at risk, unable to protect themselves as an adult or child or those that cannot remain in the community without immediate intervention. This is not intended as an alternative means of continued day time activities. The previous Emergency Duty Team (EDT) functions have merged with the MASH Team and is now called MASH24.