Eligibility Criteria – Guidance for Staff - South Ayrshire Council

South Ayrshire Council
Children and Community
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR CHILDREN’S SOCIAL WORK SERVICES IN SOUTH
AYRSHIRE- GUIDANCE FOR STAFF
“Authorities should have clear rules about who can get help. These rules (usually known as
eligibility criteria) should mean that everyone in the area gets treated fairly”
(Modernising Social Services, Chapter 1, p.2)
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The statutory definition of a “child in need” contained within the Children (Scotland) Act
1995 is wide. For the purposes of planning and providing services within South Ayrshire
Council, the following working interpretation of groups of children in need defines the
basis for determining eligibility to relevant services:
Children who are unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable
standard of health or development
Children whose health or development is likely to be significantly
impaired or further impaired
Children with a disability
Children adversely affected by the disability of any other person in
their family
1.1 Underpinning Principles:
• The response to referrals will be appropriate, proportionate and timely
• Service users will be signposted to the most appropriate service to meet their needs
• The most vulnerable children and their families will get the help they need when they
need it
• South Ayrshire Council and its partners embrace the principles and practice associated
with the Getting It Right for Every Child agenda (GIRFEC)
1.2 Referrals to Social Work Children’s Services
Referrals to children’s social work services originate from a wide variety of sources, including
the Children’s Reporter, health, education, housing, police and members of the public.
Currently, the first point of contact for most referrals is the Fieldwork Locality Team.

2.0 ASSESSMENT AND ALLOCATION
2.1 Duty referrals
When a child is referred to Social Work Children’s Services, the referral will be passed to the
duty worker who is responsible for the initial gathering of information form universal services,
any specialist service linked to the child, and previous referrals to Social Work Services.
The duty worker will then record all the relevant information on SWIS and provide an initial
assessment of the key issues/concerns and make a recommendation on what action they
assess is required. Child protection referrals are given the highest priority and when a child
protection referral is received the duty worker must discuss it immediately with the duty
manager. If the duty manager is unavailable the duty worker must locate another manager to
discuss the referral with.
2.2 Duty manager responsibility
The duty manager will prioritise referrals in accordance with the eligibility criteria
Any cases not allocated must be kept under review on a weekly basis by the Team Leader for
the relevant locality.
Any further referrals must be considered and reprioritised as required. Business meetings
between managers should consider any cases that are unallocated and decide what action is
required if delivery of service is not possible within the locality and or family centre intervention
is required.
2.3 Response Timescales
Our aims:-
Within 24 hours of the
time of referral
Within a period of 10
working days
Within a further 10
working days
Within a period of 12
weeks from the date of
allocation.
A decision will be made about the level of need, if any. It
may be determined for example that no further action is
necessary
In cases at the medium or high priority need level, an
initial assessment and accompanying work plan will be
undertaken and completed with a view to allocating or
transferring to the appropriate service thereafter. Referral
response letter will be triggered to the referring agency or
individual regarding the referral outcome.
Where it becomes apparent to the duty manager that
longer-term social work involvement is necessary, he/she
is to discuss transfer or arrange to allocate directly to a
named worker
A comprehensive social work assessment in relation to
medium and high priority need cases will be completed.
Proposed introduction of CAP as part of GIRFEC
Practice Model implementation.

3.0 THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The Eligibility Criteria are intended to provide a useful guide for social work teams in terms of
managing workloads and competing demands in an equitable manner. It is recognised that there
will continue to be tensions between managing priorities within existing caseloads on the one
hand, and new referrals on the other; the criteria provide an objective and transparent basis for
allocating resources according to priority needs.
3.1 High Priority Need
For these children, there will be serious concern about their care, health and/or
development; they will have suffered or be likely to suffer significant harm. There might
also be a serious risk of family breakdown.
The following examples are not exhaustive but rather are meant to be indicative of factors
giving rise to high priority need.
HIGH PRIORITY NEED(1)
• Children and Young People with a high level of special needs or disability
requiring constant supervision, and where there is a high risk of family
breakdown;
• Situations where the physical care or supervision of a child or young
person is severely neglected;
HEALTH
• Children and young people involved in serious substance misuse requiring
high level intervention determined by dust tool assessment.
• Children and young people who have presented at accident and
emergency as a result of substance misuse.
• Children and young people who seriously self harm (determined by
method, frequency and severity) and who experience
SOCIAL,
EMOTIONAL
BEHAVIOURAL
&
• Children with severe challenging behaviour which results in serious risk to
the child or others which parents are unable to manage and which results
in a high risk of family breakdown.
• Children and people where police assistance has been called to resolve
behavior issues at home.
• Children and young people who exhibit sexually inappropriate behavior.
• Children and young people who are involved in offending behvaiour and
are considered to be high risk or above in terms of re-offending.
• Children or young people who are involved in solemn court proceedings
and have been charged with indictable offences.
• Children and young people who are experiencing acute emotional
rejection by parents or carers including unrealistic expectations,
scapegoating and inconsistent parenting;
• Children and young people who have moved from another authority where
they are/ were subject to child protection procedures.
• Children and young people who are severely disaffected not engaged in

any educational provision.
• Children and young people needing to be looked after out with their own family;
FAMILY &
SOCIAL
RELATIONSHIPS
• Children and young people where there has been a breakdown of the
relationship with parent/carer leading to alternative provision for care
being required.
• Children and young people who are homeless.
• Child or young person with a disability where the parent/carer is unable to
cope and they are accommodated.
• The child or young person is living in an environment where there is the
presence or risk of extreme domestic violence;
CHILD’S
ENVIRONMENT
• Home environment or hygiene issues places the child or young person at
immediate risk of significant harm.
• Children and young people who are returning home from secure or
residential care settings.
PARENTAL
FACTORS
• Parents/carer are suffering from severe physical or mental health
problems or learning disability and are failing to adequately care for the
child;
• Where alcohol or drugs is significantly impacting on the ability of
parents/carers to look after the child/children.
3.2 Medium Priority Need
For children in this category, a reasonable standard of health and development is
unlikely to be maintained without family support. The child may move into the high
priority category without the provision of services.
There are identifiable factors which indicate that considerable deterioration is likely
without support. This may include children who have been assessed as high priority in
the recent past. All children referred to the Children’s Reporter will be viewed as medium
priority unless their assessed needs place them in the high priority need category.
MEDIUM PRIORITY NEED (2)
• Children and young people living in an environment which could pose a
risk to their safety or well-being;
HEALTH
• Children with a significant level of additional support/complex needs,
who require support from outside agencies to meet their need;
• The physical care or supervision of the child is inadequate;
• Children and young people who self harm;
• Child or young person whose substance misuse is assessed to be

medium risk ( Dust tool analysis.)
• Children who are not adequately protected or looked after.
SOCIAL,
EMOTIONAL
BEHAVIOURAL
&
• Children and young people with challenging behaviour whose parents
are unable to cope without the provision of support;
• Multiple school exclusion and where the child or young person needs
educational placement out with mainstream provision
• Children and young people involved in offending behaviour leading to
the involvement of the courts or Children’s Hearing;
• Children and young people with caring responsibilities for others that
are affecting their own development.
• Children and young people who have experienced acute loss and
separation through their development.
• Children who may have to be looked after out with their family;
• Children and young people who require housing support.
FAMILY & SOCIAL
RELTIONSHIPS
• Children who young people have previously been Looked After and
who now require throughcare/aftercare services;
• Children where there is a risk of family breakdown with and who require
support to mediate,
• Children experiencing several carers within their family network,
creating inconsistency and insecurity for the child.
CHILD’S
ENVIRONMENT
• The child or young person is living in an environment where there is a
history of incidents of domestic violence;
• Home environment or hygiene issues could place the child or young
person at risk of harm.
• Parent/carer has physical disability or history of mental health problems
or learning disability which affects their ability to care for the child or
young person
PARENTAL
FACTORS
• Parents/carer where alcohol or drugs is significantly impacting on their
ability to parent;
• Parents whose criminal and/or anti-social behaviour threatens the
welfare of the child or young person,

3.3 Low Priority Need
This would cover all other children including those whose needs may not be consistently
met, for whom improvements in their circumstances may be desirable but there are no
acute risks present. Input from social work staff is not essential to the child’s well being
and such concerns as there may be can be addressed through universal services e.g.
health visitor or school.
LOW PRIORITY NEED (3)
• Children and young people with some special needs who require
referral to other services e.g. Health Visitor, Speech Therapist,
Independent Travel;
HEALTH
• Children who show signs of behaviour which may place them at
risk.
• Child or young person whose substance misuse is assessed to be
low risk ( Dust tool analysis.)
• Children and young people who have little opportunity to meet and
play with other children due to parents isolation or child’s disability.
SOCIAL,EMOTIONAL
& BEHAVIOURAL
• Children and young people exhibiting behaviors which are
appropriate to age and stage of their development where the
impact of this is not significant.
• Occasional school truancy or behavioural issues.
• Children young people who are involved in anti-social behaviour..
FAMILY & SOCIAL
RELATIONSHIPS
• Children experiencing inconsistent standards of parenting but
whose development is not significantly impaired;
• Children whose parents request advice and guidance to manage
their behaviour.
CHILD’S
ENVIRONMENT
• Parent/carers have chronic relationship difficulties which may
affect the child;
• The family require advice and support regarding racial harassment.
• Parent/carer requires information or advice to aid their continuing
care of the child;
PARENTAL FACTORS
• Parents/carers have chronic debts due to their inability to manage
their finances.

4.0 ROUTES TO ALLOCATION
4.1 High Priority Need
(As stated above, child protection referrals will always be given the highest priority)
Children deemed as requiring intensive support are likely to be referred through the duty system,
although in some cases the referral may be made to an already allocated social worker. When
referred through the Duty system, the initial assessment is likely to indicate the need for a
comprehensive assessment at an early stage. When this decision is made, the work will be
allocated directly to a qualified social worker.
When allocating social worker time and other resources the focus will be on providing a service to
those whose needs have been defined as the greatest. Work in relation to medium or low priority
need will only be allocated when the team Leader responsible decides that this would not
jeopardise the interest of children and families defined as in high priority need.
Inevitably this will mean that, on occasion, work which may be a priority for others (agencies or
within our own Department) cannot be attended to immediately. There will be support from
Senior Management for the team leader and social worker who have referred to the Eligibility
Criteria and taken a professional and balanced decision about the allocation of resources. Work
with children and families in high priority need will be undertaken by qualified social
workers. Other staff may be involved in specific pieces of work as agreed in the care plan
but will be supervised by the qualified worker or team leader as appropriate.
4.2 Medium Priority Need
The most likely first point of contact will be the duty social work service. The minimum level of
intervention will be the completion of an initial assessment and, in most cases, allocation away
from the duty service would be envisaged so that a fuller assessment can be made and an action
plan devised. In the majority of cases the work arising from the care plan is likely to be time
limited, and the intervention is likely to be within a wider, multi-agency context. Work with
children and families in medium priority need would include qualified social workers and
unqualified support workers whose work is supervised by a Team Leader.
4.3 Low Priority Need
In virtually all situations outlined, a service is likely to be directly provided by the team receiving
the referral. The extent of the department’s involvement is likely to vary from merely logging the
information from the referral to the provision of short-term social work input by the duty response.
Referral on to other agencies or departments, for example to early years services, health or
sector organisations, is likely to be an important component of the work. Case allocation beyond
the duty social work service would not normally be anticipated. Work with children and families
in low priority need will be assessed by qualified social workers who will make
recommendation re appropriate interventions and services. An allocated social worker
would in most cases not be part of the care and action plan, however specific and targeted
services may be appropriate.