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Contents

1. Decision to Look After a Child
2. The Care Plan
3. Other Plans and Arrangements

1. Decision to Look After a Child

In Luton there are a range of integrated services to support children within their own families including Multi Agency Family Support Panel's and interventions under the Common Assessment Framework. Sometimes these strategies require additional support and a referral is made to Children and Families and an Initial Assessment is completed (See Initial Contacts and Referrals Procedure and Initial Assessment Procedure.

Timely assessments will incorporate consideration of providing supports to the family and or extended family to bolster their abilities to continue safely caring for the child.

Research clearly indicates that the outcomes for those children who become Looked After are significantly poorer than those who remain in their family of origin. It is therefore important that all attempts to exhaust the Local Authority duties, under Section 17 Children Act 1989, to promote & safeguard the welfare of children within their family are made.

Assessments will consider:

• Support available from within the extended family and social network
• Family arrangements for alternative Carers within their network (see Placement with Connected Persons Procedure)
• Planned support available from other agencies
• Consideration of referral to other support agencies
• Support available from within Social Care

If placements are required, all efforts will be made to ensure joint agency planning including referral to the Care Management Panel. If an emergency placement is made outside Luton or an out of borough placement is being considered, a referral must be made to the Out of Borough Panel: Social workers making referrals to these panels must have the agreement of their manager. They must also complete the required referral form (Care Management Panel referral form or the Out of Borough Panel referral form).

The Care Management Panel meets weekly to monitor and review cases where higher levels of multi-agency intervention are required to prevent family breakdown. Only after this group believe that the range of local resources have been fully utilised and are unsuccessful can the planned placement of a child/ren take place.

Who makes the decision to Look After?

Where it has been established that the child should be Looked After, the Head of Service should be consulted and, if required, the case presented to the Care Management Panel. If a joint agency placement seems to be appropriate, it will be necessary to refer the case to the Multi Agency Funding Panel (Out of Borough).

Outside office hours, the Emergency Duty Team can make the decision to Look After a child. Any decision to place the child outside office hours must be supported by a Placement Plan which should be completed as fully as possible and communicated to the relevant team by the beginning of the next working day. The case must be referred to the next meeting of the Care Management Panel.

A decision to Look After a child may occur in the following circumstances:

• All attempts or possibilities at intervention to maintain and support the child with his or her family have broken down; or
• The child would be at risk of Significant Harm by remaining with the family

The decision should only be made if appropriate consultation has taken place on the necessity, purpose and nature of the proposed placement, and contact should be made with the Commissioning Manager.

If the decision to look after requires Care Proceedings to be initiated a legal planning meeting should be convened and the Pre proceedings checklist of the Public Law Outline should be discussed, including the need to send pre-proceedings letters to the child’s parents.

If a Core Assessment has not been completed or it is not up to date, a Core Assessment must be completed (see Core Assessments Procedure). If approval is given, the Social Worker should complete a Fostering Referral, see Placements in Foster Care Procedure.

2. The Care Plan

See Care Plans Guidance.

Where a decision is made to look after a child, the child must have a Care Plan, completed by the social worker and signed by the relevant team manager, the contents of which include:

• The child’s Placement Plan (setting out why the placement was chosen and how the placement will contribute to meeting the child’s needs)
• The child’s Permanence Plan (setting out the long term plans for the child’s upbringing including timescales)
• The Pathway Plan (where appropriate, for young people leaving care)
• The child’s Health Plan
• The child’s Personal Education Plan
• The contingency plan
• The date of the child's first Looked After Review (within 20 working days)
• The name of the Independent Reviewing Officer.

The child's Social Worker is responsible for drawing up and updating the Care Plan in consultation with:

1. The child
2. The child's Parents and those with Parental Responsibility
3. Anyone who is not a Parent but has been caring for or looking after the child
4. Other members of the child's family network who are significant to the child
5. The child's school or education authority
6. The relevant health trust
7. The Youth Offending Service, if the child is known to them
8. Any other agency involved with the child's care

One of the key functions of the Care Plan is to ensure that each child has a Permanence Plan by the time of the second Looked After Review. The Care Plan is subject to scrutiny at each Looked After Review - see Looked After Reviews Procedure.

The Care Plan should include the arrangements made to meet the child’s needs in relation to his or her:

• Emotional and behavioural development
• The child’s identity in relation to religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background
• Family and social relationships; arrangements for contact with sibling(s) accommodated by the authority or another local authority; details of any Section 8 Order, in relation to a Looked After Child; details of any order in relation to contact with a child in care; arrangements for contact with parents/anyone with Parental Responsibility/ any other Connected Person; arrangements for the appointment of an Independent Visitor for a Looked After Child.
• Social presentation
• Self-care skills.

2.1 Timescales for completion of the Care Plan

It should be completed prior to the child's first placement in accordance with the outcome of the Planning Meeting referred to in Section 1, Decision to Look After a Child.

If there are exceptional reasons that prevent the Care Plan from being drawn up prior to the child's placement, the key objectives of the child's proposed placement must still be identified and recorded. If satisfied, the Manager can then approve that the Care Plan is drawn up within a maximum of 7 days of the placement.

2.2 Approval of the Care Plan

Any Care Plan taken before the Court within Care Proceedings must be endorsed and signed by the Service Manager.

All other Care Plans must be endorsed and signed by the Social Worker's Manager.

The Care Plan can be updated by the Social Worker, with the Manager's approval, at any time.

The Care Plan is subject to scrutiny at each Looked After Review.

2.3 Circulation of the Care Plan

The Care Plan must be circulated to the following people:

• The child
• The Parent(s)
• Providers/Carers - if no Care Plan has been drawn up prior to the child's placement, the Social Worker must ensure that the providers/Carers understand the key objectives of the plan, and how the placement will help achieve these objectives
• The child’s Independent Reviewing Officer.

3. Other Plans and Arrangements

This summarises the other plans that must be drafted. For more detail see Post Placement Arrangements Procedure.

A Placement Plan/Placement Information Record must be drawn up outlining the arrangements for Looking After the child.

Where the child is placed on a planned basis, this plan/record should be completed fully, with copies circulated to the child, Parent(s), Carers/Home and other significant people/agencies.

If the child is placed out of hours or on an unplanned basis, it may not be possible to fully complete the plan/record. In these circumstances, as much of this plan/record should be completed within five working days of the start of the placement. As a minimum, the following should be recorded:

The information to be included in the Placement Plan will include:

1. How on a day-to-day basis the child will be cared for and the child’s welfare will be safeguarded and promoted by the appropriate person
2. Any arrangements for contact between the child and parents/anyone with Parental Responsibility/any other connected person, including, if appropriate, reasons why contact is not reasonably practicable or not consistent with the child’s welfare; details of any Contact Order (under Section 8 or 34 of the Children Act 1989); the arrangements for notifying any changes in contact arrangements.
3. Arrangements for the child’s health (physical, emotional and mental) and dental care, including the name and address of registered medical and dental practitioners; arrangements for giving/withholding consent to medical/dental examination/treatment;
4. Arrangements for the child’s education and training, including the name and address of the child’s school/other educational institution/provider and designated teacher; the Local Authority maintaining any statement of Special Educational Needs.
5. The arrangements for and frequency of visits by the child’s social worker; and for advice, support and assistance between visits
6. If an Independent Visitor is appointed, the arrangements for them to visit the child
7. The circumstances in which the placement may be terminated
8. The name and contact details of  the Independent Reviewing Officer, the Independent Visitor if one is appointed, the social worker who will be visiting the child, and the Personal Adviser for an Eligible Young Person.

The Placement Plan will be recorded on the Placement Information Record on the child’s electronic database.

3.1 Other Plans/Records

The Social Worker should additionally complete or update the following records immediately or within specified timescales:

• The child's Chronology.
• A Personal Education Plan (PEP) needs to be completed within 10 days of a child becoming Looked After
• A Health Care Plan: in time for the first Looked After Review

End