the staying together team was an idea from the heads of service where they were realising that the children in care numbers were increasing in the local authority and it kind of identified that there was a need to work with complex families where children may be at risk of going into the care system. basically helping families before the children are sent into care. yes, to keep those children within their family home. as well long term support, amy offers critical and rapid assistance when a family is at a breaking point. tell me about the people we are going to meet. we are going to meet a mum who has had support from us from across the services. they were facing a range of issues, the young lady going missing, violent and aggressive in the home, she was at risk of being exploited in the community. we have protected the identity of the mum for the safety of her daughter.
here we are. oh, wow. i ve come to derby to find out how a local authority is trying to rent i ve come to derby to find out how a local authority is trying to prevent more children going into care by pioneering a new rapid response team. amy is one of their children practitioners. tell me about this team and the work you re doing. the staying together team was an idea from the heads of service where they were realising that the children in care numbers were increasing in the local authority and it kind of identified that there was a need to work with complex families where children may be at risk of going into the care system. basically helping families before the children are sent into care. yes, to keep those children within their family home. as well family support, amy offers critical and rapid assistance when a family is at a breaking point. tell me about the people
basically helping families before the children are sent into care. to keep those children within their family home. as well as family support, amy offers critical and rapid system assistance when a family is at a breaking point. tell me about the people we are going to meet. we are going to meet someone who has had support from across the services. they were facing a range of issues, young lady going missing, violent and aggressive in the home, at risk of being exploited in the community. we protect the identity of the mum for the safety of her daughter. what was life like for you and your family before amy got involved? it was hard, we did not know where to go for support, to access support, she was going missing regularly, getting into other things like bad crowds and drinking. education also starting to fail as well. it was a strain on our marriage,
doing this film, i ve seen so many children in care estranged from their siblings and clearly substantial change is needed before more lives get affected forever. but this can t rely only on the goodwill of people on the front line. decisive action is now crucial. going on thisjourney, i see that the system is under pressure, so much pressure and social workers i think i ve got a new level of sympathy for them because they are so stretched, they are so overworked. i think one of the most encouraging things i will take away from meeting someone like saskia is from having the brothers in the union, even though i grew up not knowing my siblings, i now have the chance to meet with my family. i now have the chance to be. and create the life i want, and sometimes it will be blood, sometimes it won t, it doesn t actually matter.
you have got a slit in your eyebrow. yeah. that is a decade old swag. jerome now works with children in care and has reconnected with his brother. when i spoke to ten years ago, you told me about your brother who, at the time, was in prison. how is he now? he s out. ah, brilliant. he s out of prison, doing really well, in terms of moving his life forward, but still struggling with the trauma of having gone through the system. he s still alive, he s still here. that is a success in itself. but it still hurts me to watch him because we both. you took very different path. yeah, with my brother, i always say the system lost him. because we had an amazing carer and she got quite ill,