3.2.5 Placement 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 for more than 24 hours.

AMENDMENT

This chapter was significantly revised in December 2011 to reflect the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, which became effective from 1 April 2011. It should be re-read in its entirety.

1.	Planned Placements
	1.1	Consultation before Placement
	1.2	Assessment and Checks before Placement
	1.3	Placement of Child before Assessment Completed
	1.4	Relevant Plans
	1.5	Approval of the Placement
	1.6	Short Term Placements
	1.7	Notification of Placement
	1.8	Support and Monitoring of Placement
	1.9	Ending of Placement
2.	Unplanned Placements

1. Planned Placements

In exceptional circumstances a child may be placed without the immediate need for the following procedures; please see Section 2, Unplanned Placements. A child must not be placed with parents if that would be incompatible with an order as to contact under Section 34 Children Act 1989

1.1 Consultation before Placement

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

The Child;
Both Parents including a parent who is not the proposed carer of the child;
Any other member of the family who is significant to the child;
Relevant health practitioners including the child's GP;
The child's school and the local education authority;
The Foster Carer or manager of the children's home currently caring for the child;
The probation service if it has contact with the family;
The Police;
The Youth Offending Service;
The child's Independent Reviewing Officer.

The views of these people should be given by them, in writing, or should be recorded in the case file by the social worker.

1.2 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 adult members of the household with the Criminal Records Bureau, the carer's GP, and the Social Services records.

The assessment should take account of:

The parents' capacity, and the capacity of other adult members of the household, to care for children and, in particular in relation to the child;
- To provide for the child 's physical needs and appropriate medical and dental care;
- To protect the child adequately from harm or danger, including any person who presents a risk of harm to the child;
- To ensure that the home environment is safe for the child;
- To ensure that the child's emotional needs are met and he/she is provided with a positive sense of self, including any particular needs arising from religious persuasion, racial origin, and cultural and linguistic background, and any disability the child has;
- To promote the child's learning and intellectual development through encouragement, cognitive stimulation and the promotion of educational success and social opportunities;
- To enable the child to regulate his/her emotions and behaviour, including by modelling appropriate behaviour and interactions with others;
- To provide a stable family environment to enable the child to develop and maintain secure attachments to the parents and other persons who provide care for the child.
The parents' state of health (physical, emotional and mental), the parents' medical history, including current or past issues of domestic violence, substance misuse or mental health problems;
The state of health (physical, emotional and mental) of other adult members of the household and their medical history, including current or past issues of domestic violence, substance misuse or mental health problems;
The parents' family relationships and the composition of the parents' household, including:
- The identity of all other members of the household, their age and the nature of their relationship with parents and one another, including any sexual relationship; their relationship with any parent of the child;
- Other adults who are not members of the household but are likely to have regular contact with the child;
Current/previous domestic violence between household members including the parents
The parents' family history, including:
- The particulars of the parents' childhood and upbringing, including the strengths and difficulties of their parents/carers;
- The parents' relationship with their parents and siblings, and their relationships with each other;
- The parents' educational achievement, including any specific learning difficulty/disability;
- A chronology of significant life events;
- Other relatives and their relationships with the child and parents;
Criminal offences of which the parents or other members of the household have been convicted or cautioned;
Parents' past and present employment/sources of income;
The nature of the neighbourhood and resources available in the community to support the child and parents;
Any available information about the parents' previous experiences of looking after children. Where a parent has other children subject to care/adoption orders, earlier case records should be explored to ascertain the circumstances which led to social work involvement , and any indication that the capacity of the parent to bring up children has changed.

1.3 Placement of Child before Assessment Completed

Where the Nominated Officer - in Southwark, this is the Business Manager, Children Looked After - considers it necessary and consistent with the child's welfare, the child may be placed with parents before the assessment of parents' suitability to care for the child has been completed, provided:

Arrangements are made for the parents to be interviewed to obtain as much of the assessment information as can be readily ascertained at that interview;
The assessment and the review of the child's case are completed within 10 working days of the child being placed;
The decision on placement is made and approved within 10 working days of the assessment being completed; and
- If the decision is to confirm the placement, the Placement Plan is reviewed (and if appropriate amended);
- If the decision is not to confirm the placement, the placement is terminated.

See Section 2, Unplanned Placements.

1.4 Relevant Plans

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.

The Care Plan should be completed before the child is placed. If there are exceptional circumstances preventing this, the manager can authorise that the Care Plan is completed up to a maximum of seven days after the placement starts.

Prior to the placement, a Placement Plan (recorded on the Placement Information Record) must be drawn up by the child's social worker in consultation with the parent(s).

If the child has previously suffered Significant Harm when living with the parent and continues to be the subject of a Child Protection Plan, the placement must be in the Care Plan upon the recommendation of a Child Protection Review Conference.

The Placement Plan

As well as the usual contents of the Placement Plan (see Decision to Look After, Care and Permanence Planning Procedure), the following must be included:
Details of the support and services to be provided to the parents during the placement;
The obligation on the parents to notify the Local Authority of any relevant change in circumstances including any intention to change address, any changes in the household in which the child lives and and any serious incident involving the child;
The obligation on the parents to ensure that any information relating to the child or the child's family or any other person given in confidence to the parents in connection with the placement is kept confidential and that such information is not disclosed to any person without the consent of the Local Authority;
The circumstances in which it is necessary to obtain the prior approval of the Local Authority for the child to live in a household other than that of the parents;
The circumstances in which the placement of the child with the parents pending completion of the assessment of suitability will be terminated if the decision following completion of the assessment is not to confirm the placement.

NB The Local Authority must provide such services and support to the parents as appear to be necessary to safeguard and promote the child's welfare, and record details in the Care Plan and Placement Plan.

The social worker must ensure that the child is registered with a GP, Dentist and Optician; and that a Health Care Assessment takes place.

1.5 Approval of the Placement

Before the placement is made, approval must be obtained from the Designated Manager (Placement with Parents).

The Designated Manager must be satisfied that:

The child's wishes and feelings have been ascertained and given due consideration;
The assessment of parents' suitability to care for the child (see Section 1.2, Assessment and Checks Before Placement) has been completed;
The placement will safeguard and promote the child's welfare;
The Independent Reviewing Officer has been consulted

If approval is given, consideration should be given to whether the Care Order is still required. The Local Authority and parents may agree to apply to discharge the Care Order and if so, such an agreement must include the level of support and supervision to be provided by the Local Authority after the Care Order has been discharged, and the level of co-operation by the parents.

The manager will require evidence that the consultation, enquiries and checks required under this procedure have been carried out. The minutes of the Looked After Review or Child Protection Review Conference will be taken as evidence of the consultation with those present.

The manager must also be satisfied of the following:

That the Care Plan has been completed, or that it will be within seven days of the placement;
That a Placement Information Record has been drawn up and agreed by the parent who is the proposed carer.

1.6 Short Term Placements

Where the relevant Plan or Plans 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 or the child is returned to the parent's full-time care.

1.7 Notification of Placement

Notification of the placement will be sent by the child's social worker to the Designated Nurse for LAC, the relevant person in the education service, the local Children's Services (if the placement is in the area of a different local authority) and the child's GP.

The child's social worker will notify all family members consulted and involved in the decision-making process of the placement, as well as all those involved in the day to day arrangements for the child, including school and any health professional or YOT worker actively involved with the child.

The child's social worker must also notify the allocated Independent Reviewing Officer.

The notifications should be before the start of the placement or within 5 working days.

Where the child is to be placed with a parent who lives outside Southwark, notification should also be sent to Children's Social Care Services and the education service for the area where the parent lives, as well as the relevant health trust.

The notification must be made in writing, advise of the placement decision, the name and address of the person with whom the child is to be placed, details relating to the child's contact with others and the arrangements related to the care and welfare of the child.

1.8 Support and Monitoring of Placement

The child's social worker must visit the child in the placement within one week of the placement and thereafter at intervals of no more than 6 weeks.

If the child is placed with parents pending assessment, social work visits must take place at least once a week until the first Looked After Review, thereafter at intervals of not more than 6 weeks.

If there is a series of short-term placements, the child's social worker must visit the child at least once every week either during the placement or before the next placement occurs.

Wherever possible, the child must be seen with the carer and alone. If this is not possible, a further visit must be made at short notice in order that the child can be seen alone and observed with the carer.

The social worker must also ensure that Placement Plan Reviews are conducted; see procedures contained in Placement Plan Review Procedure.

1.9 Ending of Placement

All those notified of the placement should be notified also when a placement is ended.

2. Unplanned Placements

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

There are exceptional circumstances which justify an unplanned placement;
There has been an interview with the proposed carer who agrees to the placement, and provides as much of the assessment information as can be readily ascertained at the interview;
The accommodation has been inspected; and
Information has been obtained about and the social worker seeks to meet the other people in the household. (This is particularly relevant to identifying issues such as domestic violence and substance misuse which may impact on the child's safety);
The assessment and the review of the child's case are completed within 10 working days of the child being placed;
The decision on placement is made and approved within 10 working days of the assessment being completed; and
- If the decision is to confirm the placement, the Placement Plan is reviewed (and if appropriate amended);
- If the decision is not confirm the placement, the placement is terminated.

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 file.

In these circumstances, a Placement Plan should be completed at the time or within a maximum of five working days of the placement.

Social work visits must take place at least once a week until the first Looked After Review, and thereafter at intervals of not more than 6 weeks.

Thereafter, the full requirements of the procedure for planned placements must be completed within 6 weeks of the placement.

End