Special guardianship

SGO support

Support from Birmingham Children's Trust

Introduction to the Special Guardianship Support Team

The Special Guardianship Support Team is part of Family and Friends within the Fostering Service at Birmingham Children’s Trust. The Team includes, experienced social workers, family support workers and a finance officer.

What does the team do?

The team provides special guardianship families with specialist support on issues you may face whilst on your SGO journey and your child/ren is growing up. To find out if our service is the right one for you, we will meet with you and discuss your individual situation and needs. Together we can explore what support might be available to meet your needs. This may be through our service or another agency.

What happens next?

Together we will agree one of the following options:

  • Advice and information may be all you need at this stage.
  • We may agree that the support you require would best be provided by an alternative agency or department and we will support you in accessing this service.

or

  • We will arrange an appointment so that we can complete an assessment of your support needs.
  • Once this is completed, we will discuss it with you and agree a plan of action.

What kind of support is available?

We offer a range of support services and tailor these to your specific needs.

  • Advice on issues about Special Guardianship
  • Consultation and mediation with a range of other agencies, for example, education, housing and health.
  • Advice in relation to working with birth parents and managing family time/contact
  • Access to training and support groups
  • Membership of Kinship (national charity providing independent advice and support to all kinship carers)
  • Advice in respect of financial support, financial assessments and signposting in respect of benefits
  • Signposting for therapeutic support for children
  • SGO support plan (previously written by child’s social worker) is reviewed and updated during our involvement.
  • SGO carers are entitled to an assessment of need which is undertaken by the SGO workers and identifies any needs for all children in the household.