S.P.O.A stands for Single Point of Access.

Whenever anyone is worried about a young person for example a teacher in your school, or the school nurse they complete a referral which describes the concerns they have and they send this in to SPOA.

SPOA also takes telephone calls from people, it may be that your family are requesting some support or that you feel you need to speak to someone about a concern you have. You or your family would contact SPOA and we would look into the concern. This is called an enquiry.

SPOA has different professionals working in the same room. In Wrexham we have 2 Social Workers, a TAC co-ordinator, Housing officer, Police, Mental Health and Drugs and Alcohol. These people are important as they have a lot of information and can point you in the right direction, this is called signposting.

When an enquiry is made to the team, the team manager looks at this and makes a decision on that day as to if the team needs to take any further action. A “what matters” discussion may take places between the social worker and family to further identify any support that may be needed.

In normal office hours you can contact the Single Point of Access (SPOA) on 01978 292039. Out of Hours the Emergency Duty Team can be contacted on 0345 053 3116.