About the Contact, Advice and Assessment Service (CAAS)

As the CAAS, our contribution to safeguarding is to ensure that children are safe and protected through the early identification and assessment of need and risk. We provide timely intervention, identified through assessment and planning. We work with families, services and partner agencies to identify specific services and interventions delivered by the 'Right Person and the Right Time and Right Place'. This approach enables and empowers children and their families to address challenges they may have and to achieve their full potential, making a positive difference to their lives.  

We believe that working in an open, honest and collaborative way, facilitates a well-informed process for decision-making and is the best way to improve the outcomes for our children, young people and their families at every level of need.

What do we do?

CAAS is the front door for Children and Family Services and covers all of West Berkshire. The service is directly aligned with the Early Response Hub and feeds into two Locality Safeguarding Teams, West and East.

CAAS offers a consultation and advice service to our partners, providing a helpful opportunity to discuss concerns and receive clear guidance and support. Partners consistently receive outcome letters which have been revised and improved to be informative, helpful and provide an audit trail for decision-making, leading to greater accountability and transparency.

CAAS is comprised of three main teams: Contact and Advice inc (MASH), Assessment, and the Early Response Hub.  Within the Early Response Hub, there are several sub-teams; all teams incorporate multi-agency working with partner agencies, including statutory partners and in addition partners from services within the community.

CAAS is a statutory service that incorporates the following statutory functions:

• Single Assessments
• S47 enquiries
• Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
• Emergency Protection Orders
• Private law proceedings assessments
• Care proceedings up to initial hearing

Social Workers hold a mixed caseload of:

• Children in Need
• Child Protection
• Care Proceedings
• Children in Care

You can find out more about the Threshold criteria on our 'Early Response Hub: West Berkshire threshold guidance' page.

You can find out more about our Early Response Hub, here.
 

Contact us

You can contact us during office hours (between 8:30am and 5pm Monday to Thursday, and 8:30am to 4:30pm on Friday), using the details below:

• Telephone: 01635 503090
• Email: child@westberks.gov.uk

If you have concerns outside of office hours, please contact the Emergency Duty Service on 01344 351 999, where you will be able to discuss your concerns with a social worker.