A team that supports some of York’s most vulnerable children has moved to new dedicated premises in Nursey Drive in Holgate.

City of York Council’s “Looked After Children Support Team” was formed last year to help support the city’s Looked After Children, their families and carers. The team of 12 specialist support practitioners will move to the site of the old Holgate Family Centre on Nursery Drive at the end of the month.

This is a welcome move by the Council which should, in our view, undertake more devolution to help regenerate sub-urban areas.

The team liaises with partner agencies across the city to coordinate and facilitate contact between Looked After Children and their parents and other relatives, support parenting assessments and re-unification plans, as well as helping Looked After and Adopted Children understand and make sense of their own life histories.

Helen Healey, Looked After Children Support Manager, City of York Council, said:

“We are very much looking forward to developing services for Looked After Children from what will be our first ‘new home’ as a team. Much of the work we do is around helping Looked After Children understand their unique histories and make sense of the new situations they find themselves in.

We are continually evaluating our service with a group of Looked After Children and exploring what other social activities and groups they may find useful in order to maximise their participation in shaping what services are important to them”.