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3.2.5 Placements with Parents

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

This procedure applies to any placement of a child, on a Care Order or an Interim Care Order, with a parent or person with Parental Responsibility or person who held a Residence Order immediately before the Care Order was made, for more than 24 hours, including a placement for residential assessment.


Contents

  1. Planned Placements
    1. Consultation Before Placement
    2. Assessment and Checks Before Placement
    3. Recommending the Plan
    4. Approval of the Placement
    5. Short term Placements
    6. Post Placement Arrangement
    7. Ending of Placement
  2. Immediate Placements


1. Planned Placements

In exceptional circumstances a child may be placed without the immediate need for the following procedures; please see Section 2, Immediate Placements.


i. Consultation before Placement

Before a child is placed, the following people must be consulted and their views accounted for:

  1. The child
  2. Both parents (including a parent who is not the proposed carer of the child)
  3. Any person with Parental Responsibility
  4. Any other member of the family who is significant to the child
  5. Relevant health practitioners including any health visitor known to the child, the child’s GP, as well as the GP and any health visitor known to the person with whom it is proposed the child will be placed (with the person’s consent)
  6. The child’s school and the local education service where the child will live
  7. The child's current foster carer and supervising social worker or the manager of the children’s home currently caring for the child
  8. The Probation Service if it has contact with the family
  9. The Police
  10. The Youth Offending Service
  11. The relevant Children’s Services Department if the child is placed in another local authority’s area.

The consultation should be formal. The persons being consulted should be written to, requesting their views on the proposed placement. It is important that those who are consulted should reply in writing; their written replies should be placed on the child's case record.

If appropriate a letter should also be sent to the child, as part of the consultation process with the child.

Minutes of a Child Protection Review Conference which recommended the child's placement can be taken as a written record of the consultation with those in attendance.


ii. Assessment and Checks before Placement

The suitability of the proposed placement should be assessed through:

  • Obtaining relevant information about the proposed main carer or carers and all members of the household
  • Inspecting the accommodation and
  • Checking the proposed carer and all members of the household aged 16 and over with the Criminal Records Bureau, the carer’s GP, NSPCC and Children's Services records.

iii. Recommending the Plan

In normal circumstances, the child’s placement with his or her parent must be part of the Care Plan, upon the recommendation of a Looked After Review. However, if the child has previously suffered Significant Harm when living with the parent, the placement may only be authorised upon the recommendation of a Child Protection Review Conference.

The recommendations of the Looked After Review or Child Protection Review Conference will then be sent to the Designated Manager (Placement with Parents), together with the Care Plan and proposed Placement Information Record and a written report covering the following:

  • summary of child’s and family’s history
  • summary of how and why the child came to be in care
  • summary of plan for the child when he/she originally came into care
  • details of proposed placement with the parent/s
  • outcome of the assessments, consultations and enquiries made, including an assessment of the parents' ability to meet the identified needs of the child
  • aims and objectives of the proposed placement (there needs to be great clarity about why this placement is being proposed) and long term plan for the child
  • any identified areas of risk involved in the placement
  • support and services to be provided to the family and child
  • details of supervision of placement
  • arrangements for the child's education
  • contingency plans in case of breakdown.

iv. Approval of the Placement

The placement can only be made after the approval of the Designated Manager (Placement with Parents) has been given, except as set out in Section 2, Immediate Placements.

The Designated Manager will require evidence that the consultation, enquiries and checks required under this procedure have been carried out - see 1 (i), (ii) and (iii).

v. Short Term Placements

Where the relevant plan provide for a series of short term placements of a child with a parent, the requirements as to consultation, enquiries and checks can be carried out once only rather than every time a placement is made, provided that

  • All the placements take place within a twelve months period
  • No single placement is for a period of more than four weeks and
  • The total duration of the placements does not exceed 90 days.

If a series of short-term placements is part of a longer-term rehabilitation plan, further consultation and approval must be obtained before the rehabilitation plan is extended and/or the child is returned to the parent’s full-time care

vi. Post Placement Arrangements

Once the child is placed, the child's social worker should undertake the notifications and other arrangements set out in Decision to Look After and Care Planning Procedure.

vii. Ending of Placement

Wherever possible the decision to end a placement should be made at a Looked After Review and the ending should take place in a planned way.

In emergencies, the social worker must discuss the case with his/her manager, who will make the decision. Legal advice should always be sought. The Care Order gives the local authority power to enable the child to be removed by the social worker but this power should only be used after obtaining legal advice; the use of other orders (e.g. a Recovery Order) might be appropriate in some circumstances.

All those notified of the placement starting should be notified, in writing, when it ends; preferably notifications should be made prior to the ending, or as soon as practicable thereafter.

A letter should also be sent to the parents and child explaining why the decision was made.


2. Immediate Placements

The Designated Manager (Placement with Parents) can approve an immediate placement without the necessary consultation and checks having been made provided that:

  1. There are exceptional circumstances which justify an immediate placement
  2. There has been an interview with the proposed carer who agrees to the placement,
  3. The accommodation has been inspected and
  4. Information has been obtained as to the other people in the household.

The reasons for a decision to place a child on this basis must be fully recorded, signed by the Designated Manager and placed on the child’s case record. In these circumstances, the Care Plan should be amended at the time or within a maximum of seven days of the placement.

A Placement Information Record should also be completed prior to the placement, but the Designated Manager may authorise that this be completed up to 7 days after the placement starts.

The required consultation, assessment and enquiries for planned placements, as set out in Section 1, Planned Placements must then be completed and presented to the Designated Manager within six weeks of the placement.

End