2.3 Care and Placement Planning

Contents

1. Care Plans
2. Placement Information Records
3. Placement Plans
4. Other Key Plans/Records
5. Child’s Return Home or to Alternative Placement
6. Records

1. Care Plans

Every Looked After child must have a Care Plan completed and updated by the Social Worker.

The Care Plan must be prepared prior to a child’s placement, or, if it is not practicable to do so, within 10 working days of the child being placed.

The Care Plan must be regularly reviewed at Looked After Reviews; it must then be redrafted./updated and circulated within 10 working days of the review.

The overall purpose of the plan is to safeguard and promote the interests of the child, prevent drift and focus work with the child and the family.

The Care Plan must be regularly reviewed at Looked After Reviews.

The Care Plan sets out its overall objectives and timescales (including, by the time of the second Looked After Review, how permanence will be achieved for the child), summarises the needs of the child, identifies the services required to meet those needs and describes the management and support of the plan by the local authority. Care Plans contain descriptions of children's needs and how these needs will be met while they are living away from home. 

Before a Court grants a Care Order it must be satisfied that a suitable Care Plan has been drawn up.

2. Placement Information Records

The Placement Information Record is the responsibility of the Social Worker.

The purpose of the Placement Information Record is to set out the arrangements for the placement of the child in residential care or foster care.

Children placed in children's homes, will also have an internal Placement Plan, as set out in the next section.

3. Placement Plans

Every child must have a Placement Plan drawn up and reviewed by the Home, which sets out the detail of the arrangements, for example, including a behaviour management plan, for the child. The Placement Plan may incorporate a detailed Behaviour Management Plan for some children.

The responsibility for completing and updating the Placement Plan rests with the manager of the home or the Keyworker.

The Placement Plan should be reviewed in the light of a Looked After Review or any change to the Child’s Care Plan and Placement Information Record.

4. Other Key Plans/Records

Also see Education Procedure.

An Individual Education Plan (IEP), should be drawn up for all Looked After Children, by the school, it sets out the day to day arrangements for educating the Child e.g. Short term strategies, strategies to be used, outcomes.

Personal Education Plans (PEPs) must be drawn up, by the child’s social worker, before the child is placed (or within 10 working days in the case of an emergency placement), and be available for the first Looked After Review.

As an element of good care planning, education is crucial to creating opportunities for children in their future lives.

In partnership with the social worker, Registered Managers should ensure each child has a Personal Education Plan (PEP), which will identify the educational needs of the child and how they should be provided for.

For children who are subject to a Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN), their IEP and/or PEP should cover their needs but there may be a separate SEN Plan.

4.1 Health Care

All children who are Looked After should have a Health Care Plan which incorporates a statement of the child's health care needs and how those needs will be addressed. Some placing authorities incorporate Health care Plans into Care Plans, some have separate Health Care Plans.

For more information see Health Care Assessment and Plans Procedure.

4.2 Leaving Care

All Children who are preparing to leave care should have a Pathway Plan setting out the route to the future for young people leaving the Looked After service and will state how their needs will be met in their path to independence. The plan will continue to be implemented and reviewed after they leave the looked after service at least until they are 21; and up to 24 if in education.

Some placing authorities incorporate Pathway Plans into Care Plans, some have separate Pathway Plans; authorities will also have their own policies for when Pathway Plans should be drawn up but most authorities start to draw them up after toward Children’s 16th birthdays.

4.3 Other Key Records

This summarises the other key records that Children ought to have, it does not address specialist records or plans:

Core Assessment Record: A core assessment provides a structured, in-depth assessment of the child's needs where their circumstances are complex. The Core Assessment Record provides a structured framework for social workers to record information gathered from a variety of sources to provide evidence for their professional judgements, and facilitate analysis, decision making and planning. A core assessment should be completed within 35 working days of its commencement. A completed Core Assessment Record is then used to develop the Child's Plan.

Chronology (or Essential Information Record Part 2): The Chronology is started as part of the process of Core Assessment. It records all significant events and changes in the life of a child or young person. The Chronology is an analytical tool designed to help social workers understand the impact, both immediate and cumulative, of events and changes on the child or young person. The Chronology replaces Essential Information Record Part Two for Looked After Children.

Assessment and Action Record (or Assessment and Progress Record): An Assessment and Progress Record (APR) should be updated by the social worker prior to each Looked After Review. Prior to the review the child, where appropriate, carer, parent(s) and social worker should meet to prepare for the review. A decision will need to be made about whether the APR reflects the child/young person's current progress and the APR should be updated as appropriate.

Looked After Review Report: After each Looked After Review, the Chair (Independent Reviewing Officer) should produce and circulate a report within 20 working days of the Review.

5. Child’s Return Home or to Alternative Placement

Planning is not just about while a child lives within the children’s home, it includes planning the discharge of the child from the home.

Staff will plan the discharge of a child in consultation with those with Parental Responsibility, the social worker and the child, so that everyone understands the process and outcome to be achieved.

Children must remain in the home until moving is in their best interests.

• No transfers or changes of placement may be made without consulting the following people, (Note: if a Child is moved in an emergency where it is impossible to notify/consult the following people, they must be notified within 1 working day. If a Child is moved out of the home temporarily, they should be treated as if they are still living at the Children’s Home in which they were placed and their placement cannot be terminated without the agreement of the placing authority as described below): the child’s Social Worker
• If the child in Key Stage 4 (year’s 10 or 11), the change of placement must be agreed by a senior manager in the placing authority; the senior manager must ensure that the child’s wishes and feelings have been obtained and that the Designated Teacher in the child’s school has been consulted
• The child’s Independent reviewing Officer (IRO), who may decide to convene a Looked After Review before any decision is made to move the Child
• The social worker should notify/consult the child’s parents

Where it appears that the young person will benefit from a transfer from one Home to another, the Existing Manager should consult with the Local Authority before any discussion takes place either with the young person or the Social Worker. Once a decision in principal has been agreed an appropriate internal placement that can meet the child's needs will be identified. At this point discussion will take place with the placing authority Social Worker outlining the reasons for the proposal. A placement move can only take place once approval from the placing authority has been received in writing. The Local Authority can give approval for a move of placement in the event of an emergency but must discuss this with the placing authority at the earliest opportunity on the next working day.

Any decision to terminate a young person's placement and request that s/he be discharged and moved to a home outside our care must be approved by the Local Authority.

Normally, young people will remain in their existing home for a minimum of 28 days after the decision to move has been reached. In exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary for a young person to move immediately, from one home to another. In such circumstances, the Existing Manager must consult the social worker but the final decision will rest with the Local Authority.

Agreement to the Transfer/discharge must be issued by the placing authority in writing.

6. Records

Registered Managers will keep information about all children who are 'looked after' and this will be the documentation utilised by the social worker. As part of planning for care, parents will be involved in completing many of these records and they will receive copies of them. The records we must keep include:

• Information about children, for example, dates of birth, vaccinations, illnesses and schools they attend

Children looked after for more than 24 hours should have a Placement Information Record and Placement Plan. They both include a full description of what children need, their routines, their likes and dislikes and confirmation from the children’s homes that they can provide continuous care for them for the period of time agreed. The difference between the Placement Information Record and Placement Plan is that the latter may be more specific and detailed for the child’s placement.

End