6.12 Relative Carers

AMENDMENT

This chapter has been amended to reflect the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations, 2011, and should be read in its entirety.

Purpose and Scope of Guidance
Key Objectives of Care by Connected Persons
Possible Advantages of Connected Person Carers
Possible Disadvantages of Connected Person Carers
Status of Children Placed With Connected Persons
Planning Care by Connected Persons
Assessment of Connected Person Carers
Checks Before Placement
Financial Support for Connected Persons
Connected Persons as Permanent Carers

1. Purpose and Scope of Guidance

This guidance applies to children placed with a Connected Person in circumstances where the placement has been assisted or initiated by the authority and/or is supported by it, and the child would otherwise have to be Looked After, adopted or live independently.

A Connected Person is a relative, friend or other person connected with a child. The latter is someone who would not fit the term ‘relative or friend’, but who has a pre-existing relationship with the child. It could be someone who knows the child in a more professional capacity such as (for example) a childminder, a teacher or a youth worker.

This guidance sets out the issues that arise when care by a Connected Person is considered as an option for children who are being assessed by social workers and suggests ways in which it should be assessed and, where appropriate, supported.

See Permanence Planning for Looked After Children Procedure.

2. Key Objectives of Care by Connected Persons

To maintain a child or children in their own family or family network, as a better alternative to Looking After the child or children, so long as this is consistent with the local authority's duty to ensure that the child's safety and welfare are not prejudiced.
To minimise the local authority's role in caring for children, in so far as this is consistent with the child's best interests.
To provide emotional stability for children who are unable to live with their parents, in a setting where they can maintain links with family, siblings and friends; and with their racial, cultural and religious heritage.
To provide support services to those families caring for a child in a way that is most appropriate to their needs and to the child's needs

3. Possible Advantages of Connected Person Carers

It enables the child to remain in the family of their birth and maintain links with the birth parents, siblings, friends and school.
It promotes a positive self-identity for the child.
Attachments may already be strong and supportive.
Separation trauma for the child is reduced.
It avoids a Looked After status for the child.
It avoids the child having to be cared for by strangers.
It enables the promotion or maintenance of links with the child's racial, cultural and religious heritage.

4. Possible Disadvantages of Connected Person Carers

Connected Person carers are often older than traditional foster carers and may have more health problems.
Carers tend to have less of their own material resources and may suffer financial hardship.
Carers may under-report difficult behaviour presented by the child and/or be reluctant to request help.
The contact between professionals and carers is often less frequent, issues of child protection potentially more difficult to detect therefore and, given the different relationship between the social worker and the carer, more difficult to raise.
Young people of 16 and over will not have access to services provided to those leaving the looked after service.

5. Status of Children Placed With Connected Persons

A child living with a Connected Person may be living there as a result of arrangements made to avoid the need for the child to be Looked After and/or where the arrangement relates to a child who is regarded as a Child in Need, in circumstances where the placement is supported by the social worker involved with the child.

In these circumstances, the child may come within the definition of a Privately Fostered child, and if so the Private Fostering Procedure will apply.

Where a child is to be cared for by a Connected Person, and Children and Families are involved in setting up or supporting the arrangements, it is important to clarify the status of the placement before the arrangements are put into place. The status will affect the procedures that apply.

In cases where the placement has already been made before the social worker becomes involved, the status of the placement should be clarified at the earliest opportunity. The determination should be part of the Initial Assessment of the child.

An arrangement whereby a Child in Need is living with a Connected Person is significantly different from a Looked After Placement of a child with Relatives or Friends, when the Placements with Connected Persons Procedure must be followed and, where the placement lasts more than 16 weeks, there is a requirement that the carer be approved as a foster carer for the local authority.

The issues to be determined in order to be clear about the status of the carers are:

What are the objectives and timescales of the arrangements?
If the child is not Looked After when the arrangements are made, do the arrangements have the parents' consent and are they part of a Child in Need Plan in which case, the child will not be regarded as Looked After? If so, is the child Privately Fostered? Or has a decision been made that the child needs to be Looked After and the placement needs to be made as part of the child's Care Plan?
If the child is Looked After when the arrangements are made, is the placement seen as a enabling the child to leave the Looked After service? For example, this will be so where the relatives seek a Residence Order or a Special Guardianship Order. There should always be clarity as to whether the child will continue to be Looked After (either Accommodated or under a Care Order) after the arrangements are made. This will depend on the individual circumstances of each case.

N.B. Where the child is Looked After and placed with a relative or friend, this must be as part of the child's Care Plan. In these circumstances, the timescales will be crucial - where the placement is likely to last longer than 16 weeks, the assessment of the carers as foster carers must be initiated immediately. See Placements with Connected Persons Procedure.

6. Planning Care by Connected Persons

In order to make a determination about the suitability of a placement with a Connected Person when making plans for children, the following considerations may apply:

What are the child's needs which require that arrangements for alternative care are required?
Have the parents agreed to the arrangements for the child to live with Connected Persons? Have they the capacity to make such an agreement?
Has parental consent been given specifically to avoid the need for the child to be or remain Looked After?
Is it in the child's best interests to be placed with a Connected Person to prevent the need for the child to become or remain Looked After?
If so, does the placement come within the definition of a Private Fostering arrangement? For the procedures in relation to Privately Fostered children and young people, see Private Fostering Procedure
Is it necessary to meet the child's needs that the support for the arrangement is provided through a Child in Need Plan?
Can the local authority provide sufficient support through the Child in Need Plan? (The proposed carer's needs for financial support should not be the determining factor as to whether the child becomes Looked After - see Section 9; Financial Support for Connected Person Carers.)
What are the risks to the child, if any, through the arrangements being made as part of a Child in Need Plan rather than as a placement under a Care Plan?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the relationship between the proposed carer and the parents? Do any of the weaknesses expose the child to risks, which may be addressed by the legal status of the placement?
Should there be a Court Order to provide security to the placement? If so, is the carer able and willing to acquire parental responsibility through a Residence Order or a Special Guardianship Order or would it more appropriate to meet the child's needs for the local authority to acquire or retain Parental Responsibility?
Is it an appropriate placement for the child if the proposed carers are not able and willing to acquire parental responsibility for the child? This will be particularly relevant where the placement is intended as part of a Permanence Plan.
Are the proposed carers already approved as foster carers for the local authority? If not, is anything known about them which is likely to be a bar to such approval?

N.B. The placement of a Looked After child with a friend or family member must follow the Procedure set out in the Placements with Connected Persons Procedure.

7. Assessment of Connected Person Carers

Matters to be taken into account when assessing the suitability of a Connected Person includes:

The nature and quality of any existing relationship with the child
Their capacity to care for children and, in particular in relation to the child, to provide for his/her physical needs and appropriate medical and dental care; to protect the child adequately from harm or danger including from any person who presents a risk of harm to the child; to ensure that the accommodation and home environment is suitable; in relation to the child’s age and developmental stage, to promote his/her learning and development; to provide a stable family environment which will promote secure attachments for the child, including promoting positive contact with parents and other connected persons, unless this is not consistent with the child’s welfare.
State of health (physical, emotional and mental), and medical history including current or past issues of domestic violence, substance misuse or mental health problems
Family relationships and the composition of the household, including particulars of all other members of the household, their age and the nature of any relationship with the connected person and each other including any sexual relationship; any relationship with the parents; any relationship between the child and other members of the household; other adults (not members of the household) likely to have regular contact with the child; any current or previous domestic violence between members of the household, including the connected person
Their family history, including their childhood and upbringing, and the strengths and difficulties of their parents or others who cared for them; their relationship with parents and siblings and each other; educational achievement and any learning difficulty/disability; chronology of significant life events; particulars of other relatives and their relationships with the child and the connected person
Any criminal offences
Past and present employment and other sources of income
Nature of the neighbourhood and resources available in the community to support the child and the connected person.

The child’s wishes and feelings (subject to age and understanding) must be ascertained and recorded, and the views of parents / those with Parental Responsibility must be obtained

Wherever possible, an opportunity must be provided for the child to visit the home before the decision. The home must be visited by the social worker as part of the assessment of the suitability of arrangements.

This temporary approval can be extended for up to 8 weeks (if it is likely to expire before the assessment is completed) or until the outcome of the review (if the outcome of the assessment is that the connected person is not approved and seeks a review).

Before deciding whether to extend the approval, the Local Authority must consider if the placement is still the most appropriate placement available, and it must be considered by the Fostering Panel Procedure.

Arrangements for Children in Need to be cared for by a Connected Person are often made where carers have responded to pressing circumstances and have had no prior preparation.

Any assessment may be seen by Connected Persons as threatening and intrusive and needs to be sensitive to the carer's particular circumstances.

Connected Person carers often see help as interference and/or assume that they should be able to manage on their own and/or worry that asking for help may be misinterpreted as an indication that they cannot cope.

Eligibility for services to support the child and carers needs to be explained to the carers, including the availability of financial support, as soon as the arrangements are made or as soon as a social worker becomes involved.

The best possible information ensures that families are aware of what the options are.

See Children in Need - Relative Carers and Allowances Procedure and Residence Order Allowances Procedure.

8. Checks Before Placement

It is good practice, where Children and Learning is assisting a parent to make arrangements for a child to live with a Connected Person (and the child therefore will not be Looked After), that consideration is given to undertaking Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and other standard checks in respect of the proposed carers.

Where Private Fostering arrangements have been made, the procedures set out in the Private Fostering Procedure must be followed by the child's social worker.

For all arrangements, the following is a full list of matters to be considered, details of which must be recorded.

Age
Health
Personality
Marital status and particulars of any previous marriages
Criminal convictions and results of any applications to adopt, child mind, or foster
Past and present employment, leisure activities and interests
Previous experience of looking after children, and capacity to care for this child
Details of children of the household, whether living there or not
Religious, cultural, racial and linguistic factors
Details of living standards and accommodation of the household.

All arrangements to live with Connected Persons should be planned in advance as far as possible. However, emergency arrangements are sometimes inevitable, but wherever possible before these take place, the social worker should:

Meet the carers
Visit the accommodation
Obtain information about other persons living in the household

Family support services (e.g. social work support, other agency support) should also be used to help and stabilise children who are living with their extended family or with friends.

See Section 9, Financial Support for Connected Person Carers.

9. Financial Support for Connected Persons

Financial support can be given to a placement with a Connected Person whether or not the child is Looked After. However, the status of the placement will determine the nature and amount of the financial support and who can authorise its payment.

Where the child is not Looked After, see Children in Need - Relative Carers and Allowances Procedure

Connected Person carers should be assisted to maximise their Income/Benefit and regular payments may adversely affect an individual's claim to income support.

There are three categories of payment, which may be considered:

1. Subsistence crisis (one-off) payments

These should be used to overcome a crisis, following the best assessment that can be achieved in the circumstances.

2. Setting-up

These are for such items as clothing, furniture, or bedding. The social worker must be satisfied that the carers' financial position justifies the payment through a financial assessment.

Assistance may be given subject to conditions, including repayment in certain situations. However, in most situations, it will be inappropriate for the Department to seek to recover money provided under these circumstances.

3. Weekly living contribution

Where Connected Persons care for a child and the child is not Looked After, such payments should be seen as a short-term measure for a set number of weeks while more appropriate permanent arrangements are made.

The following criteria should be applied to such payments:

The purpose of the payments must be to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child
A worker should be actively involved with the family at least for the duration of the payments
As part of the assessment, a view should be taken as to whether the carers need financial support based on their reasonable requirements in taking on the care of the child
There are no other legitimate sources of finance
Payments will be paid to the carer, not the parents
The payment would not place any person in a fraudulent position.

N.B. Where a Looked After child is placed with a Connected Person, the financial support is different as the carers receive payments at the basic fostering rate for the first 16 weeks and thereafter, if the placement continues, they receive an appropriate level of fostering allowance and support and supervision from the Fostering Service.

The child will continue to be the responsibility of the child's social worker.

10. Connected Persons as Permanent Carers

Where a child is placed with a Connected Person, whether or not the child is Looked After, and the placement is intended as a permanent placement, it should be borne in mind that the placement should be secured legally.

There will be a number of options depending on the needs of the particular child, for example, the appropriateness of a Residence Order, Special Guardianship Order or an Adoption Order should be considered. It will be exceptional for the child's needs to be served by remaining the subject of a Care Order.

For further guidance on this, see Permanence Planning for Looked After Children Procedure.

For financial support to those holding a Residence Order, see Residence Order Allowances Procedure. Financial arrangements for children who are the subject of Special Guardianship Orders have not been finalised yet. However the principles are the same as those outlined at the start of this section.

For financial support to adopters, see Adoption Support Procedure.

Permanent placements with Connected Persons should be considered in all cases as a way of promoting contact between the child and parents and maintaining family links in a familiar setting. The fact of the relationship is not sufficient on its own to assess a placement as suitable. There may be contra-indicators, which negate the advantages of such a placement for example:

Where difficult family relationships are likely to rule out the possibility of helpful contact between the child and parents
Where there is evidence to suggest that the child may be at risk if placed with the wider family
Where the child's wishes are not in favour of such a placement.
Where the assessment indicates that the carers will require a level of support that cannot be provided by the local authority within the time-scale needed.

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