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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Strategy
3. Principles and Commitments
4. Placement Standards
5. Risk Assessments
6. Children who are a Risk to Other Children

1. Introduction

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children should be cared for properly from day-to-day and have the right to proper standards of physical care, education, health and protection from harm. Article 12 also states that all children and young people have the right to express their views on every decision that affects them and to have those views taken seriously.

See the UNICEF Website.

If a child cannot live with their birth family, the Convention states that they must be properly Looked After by another family. The child’s race, religion, culture and language must all be considered when a new home is being chosen and the child has the right to keep in contact with their birth parents unless to do so would be harmful to them.

These principles are also embodied in the Children Act 1989.

The Council uses a variety of placements for Looked After children, ranging from secure accommodation to placements with Connected Person. A number of foster care placements are also used, some provided in-house, while others are provided by independent fostering agencies.

It is important that the best placement is found for children and young people at the earliest opportunity. This ensures continuity and stability for the child or young person that, in turn, will mean less disruption to their lives, and better outcomes for them.

A sound Placements Strategy will ensure that budget management and control is maintained at times when there is increased demand and increasing cost, as the principles will give a robust framework for sound child care planning, assessment and review.

The Department has developed strategic commissioning focused on partnerships and improved preventive services which is intended to:

• Safeguard and promote the welfare of children
• Improve the Council’s work as corporate parent with improved outcomes for Looked After children
• Provide high quality, longer term support to children in need, including improved pathways to permanency
• Ensure a good range of local cost effective placements for children and young people Looked After

The commissioning strategy lists a number of priorities. Those priorities that relate specifically to Looked After children and their placements are given below:

• To prevent a deterioration or crises for children living at home by commissioning timely and appropriate services which balance support, rehabilitation and low dependency
• To intervene early by assessing and commissioning services to enable children to return home (when accommodated or Looked After) at an early stage rather then creating a dependency on care services
• To enable children to remain longer at home (in the community) by balancing the provision of care packages with risk assessments
• To develop a family support strategy that facilitates long term family support whilst at the same time speeds up permanency planning
• To seek greater contributions from Health and Education in order to ensure that the needs of children are fully assessed and responsibility for meeting their needs is shared, as appropriate
• To place more children in foster care by increasing the Borough’s own provision
• To develop the Adoption Service in order to increase the number of adoptions the Department is able to make

The Department’s values, vision and direction, supported by the Children’s Social Care policies and procedures help to create an expectation that families in the Borough will be helped and supported to remain together.

If this is not possible, then careful and detailed plans must be made for children who become Looked After as early as possible, if not before their placement begins.

At the start of a care episode, every effort must be made to help the child return to their family, if this is in accordance with their best interests. If this proves impossible to realise, then a permanent substitute family placement must be sought for them.

2. Strategy

This Placement Strategy aims to follow the principles enshrined within the Convention and the Children Act, hence its emphasis on supporting parents/carers in meeting the needs of their children.

Stability of relationship and environment are both important factors in helping children to grow to be healthy adults along with a sense of permanence in their relationships.

Our strategy seeks:

• To help parents and carers provide children with stable living arrangements, secure relationships and healthy, safe environments in which to grow and flourish and
• Where it is not possible to achieve this within the child’s birth family, timely planning should be made to secure those children within wider family networks or, if this is not possible, through the provision of substitute care

We attempt to implement this strategy by focusing on three main tenants of assessment, placement support and permanency.

Assessment

We will make an assessment of need and support to parents/carers/children in meeting the children’s needs within their own family or kinship network.

We will develop the breadth and range of supported services to children and young people in need and their families through the multi-agency family support strategy, Children’s Social Care family support strategy as well as the development of the kinship care services.

Placement Support

All children should have their views, wishes and feelings ascertained and taken account of in order to allow us to meet the child’s needs within placements and promote stability.

We will ensure clear and effective planning to achieve a permanent stable set of secure relationships, either through rehabilitation to their birth family or kinship networks or achieving permanent substitute care.

Permanency

We will ensure appropriate support to children and carers within the placement i.e. birth family, kinship care network or fostering.

We will seek to achieve permanency within clear timescales, as required by the National Adoption Standards.

3. Principles and Commitments

Children and young people deserve the chance to be part of a permanent, stable family environment (family recognises the diversity of modern families), where they feel safe secure and their emotional needs are met and where they develop their full potential.

This should normally take place within their immediate birth family network. If this is not possible, then the extended family or friendship networks should be explored.

Service Aspirations

In order to provide a service that fulfils the aspirations of our principles and meets Lambeth`s commitment to our children, young people and their families, we have set the following key aims:

• To reduce the need for a child to become or remain Looked After
• To maximise the chances of a child or young person experiencing their own birth family life and where this is not viable to seek to maximise the chances of a child or young person being Looked After by her/his kinship network
• To ensure that placement services are provided on the basis of best value
• To ensure that all Looked After children and young people in transition to adulthood are appropriately prepared and supported
• To increase the number of foster carers, both mainstream and permanent, so increasing the placement choice for children and to emphasise the recruitment of foster carers in Lambeth and the neighbouring boroughs
• To develop a recruitment and retention strategy to enhance the aim of recruiting new as well as retaining present foster carers
• To reduce the number of changes of main carers of children and young people Looked After
• To effectively encourage children and their parents in service planning in this area

Prevention Work and Risk Balancing will be Central to Our Approach

Preventive and supported work with families to achieve the above will always be the first option pursued if accommodating a child is being considered – risk balancing and the involvement of network relevant family members, in identifying ways of managing perceived risks together with the provision of/or co-ordination of support services is an integral part of this process. This process will also be influenced by the use of family group conferencing and other specialist teams throughout the Department and Lambeth i.e. the Youth Offending Team or the Mental Health Care Trust.

Clear Assessments Lead to the Planned Accommodation of the Right Type

Children and young people will not be accommodated except in a real emergency, unless an assessment of need indicates that there is no other viable set of caring arrangements within the family network or the safe community network and which indicates accommodation as an appropriate way to meet their needs.

The assessment of need will indicate whether a foster placement or residential placement is a preferred option. All children under 10 however, will be placed with foster carers – unless there is a clear assessment (usually joint agency, often specialist) indicating alternative provision is required.

Parents, children and young people will receive copies of the assessments and other relevant documentation with these being explained fully by the Social Worker in a language and ways appropriate to the child’s age and understanding. This will be common practice unless this would endanger a child. In an emergency a foster placement is the preferred placement for all children and young people.

Partnership and communication must be central to our approach; we aim to work alongside parents and children.

Parent’s wishes as well as the child’s wishes will always be sought and taken into account during the decision making process.

Placement Stability

Placement stability is vital and our aim is to place children with substitute carers who can manage their behaviour, meet their particular needs and provide them with much needed stability in their lives.

Making the right choice, once a decision to accommodate has been made, i.e. matching children with carers who can provide the stability, security and meet their identified needs, is a priority for children and must be considered carefully during the planning process. The child’s wishes and feelings should inform this process.

All children should have their needs clearly identified before a placement is sought. Potential carers should have clear and full information about children before placement.

Also see Placement Support and Disruption Meetings Procedure.

Geography

Geography will always be considered when placing children and young people. When a child or young person needs to be accommodated in a placement, they should be placed as near to home as possible, so that links with family, kinship network and their community will not be impaired.

Education and education provision must also be maintained. The child’s race and the demographic environment the child must be placed in must be considered in placement choice.

Education, Health and Development

Looked After children should enjoy a standard of education, health and development, as good as all children the same age, living in the same area.

Children should be maintained at their own school/pre-school group unless to do so would not be in their best interest.

Contact and Siblings

Sibling groups should always be placed together when this is possible, unless it is not in their individual or collective interest.

Contact between Looked After children and their birth families should be supported and promoted unless it is not in the child’s best interest.

Race, Culture, Disability and Sexuality

We recognise and value the diversity of a diverse placement choice for children. The child’s race, culture, sexuality as well as disability should always be fully assessed and integral to placement choice for the child.

4. Placement Standards

Our aim is to place children in a carefully planned way, with all the necessary information available and the agreements completed before placement, but we know that the circumstances requiring children to be placed can arise at very short notice.

Good practice should include full preparation for the child or young person before being placed (unless in an emergency), this would include written or picture information about the proposed placement, The Social Worker must ensure that a copy of the Child’s Right Guide “It’s all about me” is given to the child and that they go through this with the child. 

While the assessment and planning process will not be complete prior to placement in these situations, there should be no such thing as a completely unplanned placement. There must always be some information gathered, and baseline agreements made, as reflected in the requirement that the Referral and Information Record, and the Placement Information Record and Agreement are completed before placement in all cases.

There is also a tendency to assume that if the assessment and planning process has not been completed before placement, then it is a waste of time to do it once the child is placed. This is not only incorrect, but dangerous.

The lack of a comprehensive assessment can mean that inappropriate placements are not identified as such, making the situation worse.

Being Looked After may not even be the best way of meeting the child's needs; there may be family resources which, with support services, would make it possible for the child to stay in her/his community. The term "emergency placement” (or "unplanned placement") is therefore only used to distinguish those situations in which the normal planning process has not yet been completed at the time of placement.

The following is a summary of placement standards in Lambeth that reflect statutory and policy requirements. They apply whether a child is the subject of a Care Order or not, and whether a family or residential placement is being made. The standards apply both to planned and “emergency" placements unless otherwise indicated.

For a planned placement, a comprehensive assessment of needs and family resources must be in place before a child or young person is Looked After or in an emergency, within 6 weeks of the placement.

The Referral and Information Record must be completed as far as possible before placement, and the rest within 14 days.

A Care Plan must be made before looking after a child or young person, and updated before any change of placement.

Consideration must be given as to whether an early review is appropriate. In an emergency a review should be held within 14 days of the placement.

There must be a full health assessment before a placement or in an emergency, within 4 weeks of placement.

The Placement Information Record and Agreement must be completed before placement.

The next review date for the Placement Information Record and Agreement is to be agreed at every placement planning meeting.

The child/young person is to be visited by her/his Social Worker as often as appropriate, and in any case not less than once during the first week of placement, at least every 6 weeks for the first year of placement, and thereafter at least every 3 months.

Children/young people placed under Regulation 38 of the Fostering Services Regulations 2002 (an emergency placement with relatives or friends) must be visited at least once a week during the placement.

A child/young person's case is to be reviewed as often as necessary and in any case not less than within 4 weeks of becoming Looked After (not placed), again not more than 3 months later, and then at not more than 6 monthly intervals.

It is particularly important in residential placements that the Placement Information Record and Agreement is regularly reviewed. While it will be considered at the case reviews, it is likely to need review/revision more frequently.

When children/young people have to be placed in an emergency, it is essential to catch up with the planning as quickly as possible to ensure that alternatives to looking after the child/young person have been explored and this is the best way of safeguarding and promoting her/his welfare, and that the placement is appropriate and meets the child/young person's identified needs.

5. Risk Assessments

Social Workers must fully assess the needs of children in order to help identify an appropriate placement to meet the child’s needs. The child/young person should be fully involved in the development of the risk assessment, identifying areas which in their view might present a risk to them.

As part of this assessment, Social Workers must consider the risks to the child and others of the various placement options available.

Such risk assessments must be made available to the Access to Resources Team who will be responsible for procuring a suitable placement and shared with potential service providers including both in house and external providers.

The content of risk assessments will vary from case to case but may include some or all of the following:

• Prior abuse or neglect suffered by the child
• The risks or advantages to the child or other children of the child sharing a bedroom
• Any needs arising from a medical condition, including:
  • The need for specific medical care to be accessible in an emergency
  • The need for the placement to be accessible to children with a physical disability
  • The need for the placement to be safe for children whose condition and/or behaviour may put themselves at risk e.g. autism or self-harm
• Where a specific foster placement is being considered, the implications of the foster household safe caring guidelines for the child and members of the fostering household
• The child’s communication needs, especially where the child has communication difficulties resulting from a disability or where the child does not speak English as a first language
• The arrangements that may be needed for contact (no child placed in foster care may have contact until the Social Worker has carried out a risk assessment unless an overriding requirement such as a Court Order exists )
• Any history of violence form the child or others within the child’s network
• Any history of the child absconding
• Any history of the child offending

6. Children who are a Risk to Other Children

This procedure must be followed at all times by all Departmental staff involved in considering the fostering and residential care placement of any child who is perceived to pose a risk of abusing other children.

This procedure must be followed in all cases when any professional agency has indicated concern about the safety of any child either to be placed or already placed in foster care or residential care as a result of the perceived risk from another child or young person in or about to join the same placement.

Social Workers and supervisors must consider the appropriateness of placement where other children reside, in all cases where a request for placement is made.

When a Social Worker or other professional identifies that there is or could be a risk to other children in placement, then the Social Worker must organise a multi-disciplinary planning meeting.

The Social Worker must invite to this meeting as a minimum:

• A manager from the Fostering Team
• Their Team Manager
• The Group Manager Placements and Resources where a residential placement may be needed

Other agencies and Departmental staff should be invited as appropriate to the case.

The child or young person should be informed that this professionals meeting to consider the level of their risk to others is taking place and offered the opportunity to voice their views and have them represented at the meeting.

The meeting must consider the following:

• Whether it is appropriate and safe for the child to be placed in foster care vis-à-vis the level of risk to other children
• What additional support will be provided to the child and foster carer if so placed
• If the child is to be placed in residential care, the kind of care that would be required in placement to meet the child’s needs and to avoid or minimise risks to other children
• The organisation of a multi-disciplinary risk assessment in all cases
• The nature of information to be supplied to prospective carers

In an emergency, children who might pose a risk to others should be placed in residential placements with high levels of supervision and security.

In the event of a child being placed by the Emergency Duty Team, the fieldwork team responsible must convene an urgent planning meeting in line with the above within one working day.

End