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Housing and Social Work

The Housing and Social Work service is our second largest service. It has a revenue budget of £135.4m gross (£107.7m net of income) for Social Work and the Housing General Fund, and £57.6m gross (£14.9m net of income) for the Housing Revenue Account.

It employs 2,384 staff: 1,888 in Social Work and 496 in Housing.

Housing and Social Work policies and strategies

 

Housing

New Council Housing at ElrickHousing owns and maintains 12,909 houses for rent throughout Aberdeenshire - approximately 12% of all housing in the area (as at 19 September 2010).

The number of council houses has been reducing each year due to council house sales. There were 7,271 people on the council waiting list as at 1 October 2010. In 2009 / 10 applications from 1,705 homeless individuals or households were considered.

The Housing service has produced a Tenant Handbook - with help from tenant representatives.

Housing Services

Housing provides a range of services including:


Social Work

Male Home Carer Helping a Lady at HomeSocial work supports people in need of care or protection to help them lead safe, independent, healthy lives. Social work has a statutory responsibility to assess an individual's need for care or protection and to make arrangements to meet those needs in an appropriate and holistic way. To meet its responsibilities, social work directly provides a range of services for people and also commissions services from voluntary and private care companies.

Our eligibility criteria establish different levels of priority for access to care. Eligibility criteria provide transparency about the basis on which decisions are made by social work practitioners when giving services to those in greatest need or at most risk.

Social work works in partnership with NHS Grampian, Grampian Police and the Courts, as well as with others such as Housing, Education, Learning and Leisure, to meet the needs of children and adults who need care, support and protection.

A comprehensive database of support services for people who have health, disability or addiction problems is available from Grampian CareData's website or call Grampian CareData on 01651 872727.

 

Social Work Service Inspection and Improvement

The arrangements for the inspection of social work services are changing. From April 2011 a new inspection and improvement body, Social Care and Social Work Scotland (SCSWS) will take over most of the responsibilities of the Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) and the Care Commission. It will also lead on the inspection of services to protect children, in the context of increasing integration of children's services. This work is led at present by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education.

The Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) undertook an initial assessment of the performance of Social Work early in 2010. Based on this information, inspectors visited the service between 30 August to 3 September 2010, focusing their scrutiny work on the areas of the service where they needed more evidence. They found that most of the concerns raised by the initial assessment were being addressed and were reassured about those areas where they had been uncertain. SWIA made three recommendations for improvement and noted three examples of good practice. The link inspector will maintain regular contact with the social work service, working with social work staff to assist with the planned improvements in practice.

The SWIA scrutiny reports and inspection reports are available on the SCSWIS website.

 

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Community Care Services

Four Generations of Home CarersCommunity care services include:

 

Children's Services

Child Playing with BlocksChildren's services provides a range of services in relation to 'Children in Need' and 'Looked After' children including:

  • Advice and support
  • Assessments
  • Casework
  • Child protection
  • Family centre, intermediate treatment and other intensive support programmes
  • Respite care
  • Foster care
  • Residential care
  • Adoption

 

For further information on childminders, nurseries and playgroups use the Family Information Service.

Children's services also provides services to the Children's Panel and the Courts.

 

Criminal Justice Service

Stonehaven Sherriff CourtCriminal Justice services include:

  • Restriction of liberty orders - piloted at Peterhead and Aberdeen Sheriffs Court
  • Provision of Social Work service to HM Prison, Peterhead
  • Throughcare services
  • Social Enquiry Reports for people appearing in Court
  • Probation services
  • Parole and throughcare of offenders
  • Community Service Orders as an alternative to imprisonment
  • Supervised Attendance Orders

Criminal Justice is part of the Multi-Agency Community Strategy Group which is developing a Community Safety Strategy for Aberdeenshire. As part of this we are working closely with the Police and other agencies in terms of the requirements of the 1997 Sex Offenders Act.

Criminal Justice in Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland and the three Island authorities, along with other relevant agencies, have formed one of eight Community Justice Authorities (CJAs) established across Scotland.

The Community Justice Authorities are headed by a Chief Officer. They:

  • adopt a partnership approach in planning processes
  • improve communication between agencies and with communities
  • provide greater integration and consistency in the development of services to manage offenders

Download the Northern Community Justice Authority's area plans:

 

Policy, Planning Strategy and Information

Policy, planning strategy and information includes:

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