Looked After Children (LAC)
About the service
The Specialist Nursing Team for Looked After Children are a dedicated team of specialist community public health nurses, who are specifically responsible for supporting ‘looked after’ children. The team is led by the Named Nurse for Looked After Children and is part of the Starting Well Partnership service.
In England and Wales, the term ‘looked after children’ (sometimes called ‘children in care’ or ‘cared for children’) is defined in law under the Children Act 1989. A child is deemed ‘looked after’ by a Local Authority if he or she is in their care or is provided with accommodation for more than 24 hours by the local authority.
The team is based with the Integrated Service for Looked After Children, Health and Wellbeing (ISL) team, and we work closely with the other members of this multi-agency team, in addition to our social worker colleagues from Worcestershire Children First, and other members of the multidisciplinary team such as GP’s, Paediatricians, Residential Home staff, Support Workers etc.
We work with Worcestershire's cared for children aged 5 – 19 years to complete their statutory annual health assessment; a holistic assessment which aims to support and promote their physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing.
We strive to support and safeguard this very vulnerable group of children and young people and to assist them to achieve their full potential.
Our goal is to identify any outstanding health needs and to help the child and their carers to manage these by offering advice, signposting to other support services, or by making appropriate referrals.
We produce a child focussed health plan detailing how any identified needs may be addressed and this may be reviewed at the next assessment (or before if indicated) to ensure that the recommended outcomes have been achieved.
For more information on Integrated Services for Looked After Children (ISL) in Worcestershire
Contact details
Telephone number: 01905 520 032
Service hours: 8:00am-5:00pm Monday to Friday
Location: ISL Health and Wellbeing Service, County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester, Worcestershire WR5 2NP
Named Nurse: Bev Downing
Email: whcnhs.snlac@nhs.net