Freedom of information response
Welfare Checks
Please see attached document. Whilst this a document from Greater Manchester Police, it is likely Essex Police hold a similar document and Children’s Social Care at your Local Authority will hold a document reflecting the welfare check arrangements agreed with Essex Police.
1) Please provide a copy of this document
2) Additionally, please provide any internal procedure or guidance available to social workers relating to determining if Welfare Checks outside of office working hours are required and how to organise them.
1) There is no document held by Thurrock Children Social Care that relates to arrangements in place in relation to Welfare checks undertaken by Essex Police
2) Our newly revised Out of Hours (OOH) service guidance currently states:
‘If welfare checks are required by the police, the expectation is that the allocated team arrange these. If OOH are contacted about concerns for a child, the OOH practitioner would advise the referrer how to contact the local police service and request these. If the OOH practitioner believes a welfare check is required by the police due to concerns they can contact 101 and arrange this. It is important to note that the police will prioritise welfare check requests and these are not responded to as emergency tasks. If the concern is an emergency for the immediate safety 999 should be used.’