About Sisu Services

Sisu is a creative and value based social care service, primarily providing assessments of parenting capacity via residential or community based programmes. We are passionate about using a relationship-based approach to promote a nurturing and sustainable foundation for positive change. We have a diverse team of skills, knowledge and experience at Sisu Services. 

We carefully balance a deep understanding of core issues affecting families and how to manage any potential risk, with a strengths based approach to working with families. We are aiming to make a difference.

Our management team consists of practitioners with significant relevant experience and knowledge. We have a long history of social work management in Local Authority court teams, years of child protection social work experience, Independent Social Work (ISW) practice in family courts, AMHP and management of residential settings.

The assessment practitioners and support workers bring a wealth of knowledge from backgrounds such as mental health support, substance misuse work, family support, early years, midwifery, and many other diverse but relevant experience.

With this experience behind us, we take a relationship-based practice approach to truly get to know families, treating them respectfully, kindly and responsibly. We are then able to assess risk whilst working with the families to address that and make any lasting changes that are necessary. Our robust and evidence based assessments support and inform the Local Authority to allow for careful care planning.

Having Ofsted regulation for our residential family centres gives faith in our recruitment processes for all our staff, and the ongoing expectation that they receive good quality training and supervision to ensure they are able to work meaningfully with families. Our standards are met across the service and community based assessments receive the same high standards of service,

Here's what Ofsted had to say about us.... 

'The manager and responsible individual are highly motivated and continue to develop the service to ensure that parents and their children receive an individualised and bespoke assessment. The assessing social worker plays an integral role in the completion of evidence-based assessments both at the midway point and at the final stage of the placement. This assists the local authority and the courts in making well-informed decisions.'

 ‘Professional practice, including the quality of direct-work sessions, parenting assessments, and reports, is of an exceptionally high standard and well written’.

‘Feedback from parents, past and present, and from professionals is overwhelmingly positive. The quality of assessments, children’s safety and the support parents receive is consistently complimentary’.

‘The management of risk is well documented and implemented with the safety and wellbeing of children at the forefront’.

‘The employment of staff is thorough and in accordance with safe recruitment processes. This means that all individuals are safe and fit to work with children’.

https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50215922

For the majority of our assessments, we follow the ParentAssess Framework. This was specifically designed for use in Family Proceedings and for parents with learning disabilities or additional needs, however we believe the comprehensive model is particularly useful for parents of all abilities and at any stage of Local Authority involvement. The traffic light system helps parents to understand the process and what changes they may need to work on and professionals tell us the traffic lights make the assessment outcomes clear. Find out more here: www.parentassess.com