Children's Advice and Duty Service (CADS)

Getting the right support to children and families - who to call

We want all children and families in Norfolk to get the help and support they need as soon as early as possible. To achieve this, we want to ensure that our partners are contacting the best person within the council when they need advice or support. We know there are a few ways to get in touch with us and we want to make it as simple as possible to contact the right person, so we've created the flow charts below to help and would be grateful if you publicise these as widely as you can within your organisations.

Flowchart for Professionals (PDF, 114 KB)	Flowchart for families (PDF, 107 KB)

Currently we are getting lots of calls come through to CADs that don't require safeguarding advice, and we need to make sure that the experienced social workers on that line are providing support to those that need it the most. We have several other ways to reach us for other support and all phonelines are open Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm, excluding bank holidays.

If you know a child already has a social worker or practitioner, you should call that worker and not one of our other numbers. If you do not know the worker or their contact details, then please contact Customer Services on 0344 800 8020 and they will help to make sure your call gets put through to the right person.

Family Hubs

Call the Family Hub for any child or family that needs prevention or early help advice or support, including community networking.  Family Hubs bring services together to offer support to families from conception through childhood and into teenage years with access to a range of support including Start for Life Services, parenting support, debt and welfare advice, and housing advice.

Early Help Advisors provide professionals and families with information of appropriate universal and early help services available and make referrals to these services if required.  They also provide partners with information and support on the Family Network Approach and the Early Help Assessment and Plan.

• Great Yarmouth - 01493 448318
• West Norfolk - 01553 66951
• Norwich - 01603 303359
• Breckland - 01362 654584
• Broadland - 01603 303360
• South Norfolk - 01603 307703
• North Norfolk - 01263 739060

Family Hubs (Norfolk County Council

Professionals and families can also request early help information, advice and support through the webpage Request for Support Early Help Information and Consent - Privacy - Section 1 - Norfolk County Council

SEND & Inclusion Support Line​
0333 313 7165 ​

Call the support line for children with special education needs or emerging needs, at risk of exclusion or when considering a request for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

Early Help SEND Advisors provide guidance for professionals and families looking for support and advice for children with emerging SEN and can help with referrals to Schools & Communities, SEND and Inclusion Advisors and the Relocation, Ethnic Diversity and Integration (REDI) team.

You can also call the support line if you are seeking whole school support.

• The SEND and inclusion support line
• School & Community Teams - What are School & Community Teams?

Children's Advice & Duty Service (CADS)
0344 800 8021

Call if you are a professional and have safeguarding concerns for a child, the family situation is complex or if you are unsure how to respond to the situation.

Consultant Social Workers will ask all the details known to you/your agency about the child, the family composition including siblings, and where possible extended family members and anyone important in the child's life, the nature of the concern and how immediate it is, any and what kind of work/support you have provided to the child or family to date.  They will also need to know where the child is now and whether you have informed parents/carers of your concern. In conversation with you the social worker will decide the best course of action and whether this requires a more protective, preventative of early help response.

Members of the public with safeguarding concerns for a child must call the Customer Service Centre on 0344 800 8020.

We are currently providing online briefings for Working with Children's Services to manage risk, and these are now available to book through the NSCP website, more dates will be added if there is demand.