Children's Services Policies, Values and Principles

All children and young people have the right to have their physical, emotional and mental health safeguarded and promoted. This includes reducing the childhood obesity level, lowering the rates of teen pregnancy in the UK and minimising the impact of suicide on young people. Where appropriate, they should be supported to develop a sense of well-being through:

• Positively understanding their identity;
• Building resilience;
• Helping them to develop their self-image and confidence;
• An approach that provides positive affirmation and encouragement.

All young people should be given the encouragement and opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle.

All children and young people have the right to be safe and secure, protected from harm and neglect, and to live in an environment that enables them to develop to their full physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social potential. This includes being safe from a range of worries and concerns. When they need help to achieve these outcomes it should be available in a timely way and delivered through effective interventions.

All children and young people have the right to family life wherever possible and to be supported to take part in community life. They have the right to a continuity of care wherever possible and to develop and preserve their own identities.

All children have a right to a loving and secure home and, where this cannot be provided by their birth parents and their network and/or wider family, children and young people should have the opportunity to experience this through adoption, special guardianship, child arrangement orders or long term fostering.

All children and young people have the right to good education and training which meets their identified needs and equips them to live full adult lives. Children and young people who are looked after should have the opportunity to attend good schools, higher education/training establishments where they make the expected or greater than expected progress and effective use is made of the additional resources available for them through the pupil premium. All children and young people, including young carers have the right to time and support to pursue appropriate leisure interests.

All children and young people should be encouraged and supported to make an age-appropriate positive contribution wherever they are living or call 'home'. They will be able to do this best where they have a continuity of care, an understanding about their identity and information which they can use to make informed decisions about themselves. Therefore, contributing to their own lives.

Children, young people and care leavers should also be encouraged to take an interest in their communities, through school, higher education/training or local clubs, and to take part in activities which contribute to these and/or support others.

We work together to achieve the best for people through the following principles;

• The Best for our Children - We want every child to be safe, have the best start in life, good health and access to good, quality education, training and employment. We will strive to be a good parent when children are looked after in our care;
• Think Family/Think Inclusion - We will work with other agencies to deliver good outcomes for all children and young people through childhood, into adulthood and independence. Wherever appropriate, there will be one lead practitioner to coordinate a whole family plan;
• Timeliness - We know that childhood is precious and that every day counts. We will work hard to ensure there is no delay for children and young people's plans as a result of our work;
• Stability - We know that moving homes or schools can be hard for children and young people and can affect their progress and wellbeing. We will work hard to minimise moves for children and support smooth transitions.

We are people focussed through ensuring we put people and communities at the heart of everything we do and value our employees through the following principles:

• Working With - We will work with children, young people, families and each other with compassion and humility. Within our work with others we will be honest but will be hugely kind to all. We will continue to offer high support, high challenge to ensure everyone receives the right support at the right time;
• Child Focused - We will ensure that we spend time with every child and young person so that we understand what life is like from their perspective to understand their daily lived experiences, to be clear what 'good' looks like for them and to help prepare them for their next steps;
• Relationships Matter - We will take responsibility for creating and maintaining effective relationships with children, young people, families and each other using language that everyone can understand. We will strive to provide consistency of workers as we know this is important in building trusting relationships. See Language that Cares document in the Durham Resource Library.

We are Empowering by ensuring that we value, trust and support each other through the following principles:

• Strengths Based - We will discuss with children, young people and families what we are worried about, ensure that we understand what is going well in their family and help them find their own solutions. We will adopt an evidence-based approach to assessing need and managing risk;
• Supporting Families and Communities - We believe that children and young people should remain living in their families and local communities with support where it is safe to do so. We want communities to be confident that our services safeguard and protect when they need to. We want to ensure that children and their families are supported primarily by the families identified network, ensuring that the safety is created by the network at the earliest point. We want to support families to create their own plans that work for them in their family.

We are iNnovative by ensuring we embrace change and look for better ways to deliver services through the following principles:

• Transparency and Accountability - We will work with partners to make sure there is clarity in who makes decisions for and with children and young people and why these decisions are made. We will regularly review situations to ensure that decisions and support remain appropriate and ensure that we spend public money wisely;
• Creative - We will be creative in finding the best way to support every individual child and family to achieve good outcomes as soon as issues are identified as well as working to reduce their reliance on services (See Signs of Safety Networks information).