What is the Bridges service?
Bridges is an innovative and collaborative service that aims to safely prevent and reduce the number of children and young people entering care in Devon.
Our commitment is to keep families together by strengthening and improving their relationships. We are made up of a team of specialists including:
- adolescent workers
- family workers
- speech and language therapists
- clinical psychologists
- education psychologists and
- education inclusion workers
Who is the service for?
The Bridges service is available to young people aged 11-17 who are open to social care because of a relationship breakdown at home. This means, if you have a children’s social care worker that supports you and your family already, you would be able to access this support.
What do we do?
Our aim is to provide support to families to address issues at home and help them to work together to overcome any challenges.
We support families for a maximum of six months. The initial stages are focused on writing a support agreement, which means putting a plan in place that all members of the family agree to. This is reviewed every six weeks to identify areas of progress and to look at the need for ongoing support when the six months ends.
How can I access Bridges?
If you think your family would benefit from support from our team then please talk to your social worker who will work with us to assess how we can help.