Care Planning Procedure - Care Proceedings
Scope of this chapter
This procedure aims to assist social workers and their managers to identify and pursue a permanency plan in a timely way for children and young people for whom there is such a high level of concern that the Local Authority initiates care proceedings. The timescale will usually be 26 weeks unless the Court determines a different timescale.
Permanence is the framework of emotional permanence (attachment), physical permanence (stability) and legal permanence (the carer has parental responsibility for the child) which gives the child a sense of security continuity, commitment and identity. The object of planning for permanence is therefore to ensure that children have a secure, stable and loving family to support them through childhood and beyond.
A range of options for permanence exists, all of which can deliver good outcomes for individual children:
- For many children permanence is achieved through a successful return to their birth family, where it has been possible to address the factors in family life which led to the child becoming Looked After.
- For others the route to permanency may include family and friends care, particularly where this can be supported by a legal order such as a Child Arrangements Order or special guardianship order.
- Another important route to permanence is long term foster care where attachments have been formed and it is agreed through the care planning and review process that this is where the child or young person will remain until adulthood.
- For children unable to return to their birth or wider family, adoption offers a lifelong and legally permanent new family. Twin track or parallel planning, including concurrent planning may provide a means of securing permanence at an early stage for some children.
In order to plan effectively for children once proceedings have commenced it is essential that, wherever possible, information regarding children and their families has already been gathered, collated and assessed. This information should be obtained from all other professionals working with the family. Therefore this procedure begins with an over-view of work to be completed before proceedings are initiated.
Section 1 outlines what work should be undertaken in the pre-proceedings phase.
Section 2 gives the procedure for commencing the care proceedings under the Public Law Outline.
Section 3 is the care planning phase which commences when the care proceedings have been issued or when a child is accommodated under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989.
Please note that the concerns for a child or children's safety may be so great that the child has been removed on a Police Protection Order, Emergency Protection Order or that Care Proceedings are initiated immediately and the child is already removed from the family home for their own safety. In such circumstances the pre-proceedings phase is not relevant and workers should refer to the care planning procedures in Section 3.
In many cases where proceedings are commenced there will have been a period when significant concerns for a child's safety and well-being will have led to an assessment being completed, the outcome of which is to work with a family under a child in need or child protection plan. The effectiveness of interventions and the progress the carers are making towards the desired outcomes must be systematically monitored and where progress is slow or limited or circumstances change in a way that adversely affects the child, an assessment must be undertaken to ascertain whether the threshold of Significant Harm is reached.
The detailed work will include an assessment of parenting capacity and motivation and capacity to change; contingency planning for the possibility that the child or children may need to be removed from the family home; collation of information from other agencies working with the family; completion of a chronology of significant events and genogram.
Assessment of parenting capacity and concerns about a child's developmental needs are explored during the assessment and intervention with the family. This may include use of questionnaires and scales; task focused plans or agreements which are entered into between the parents and social worker; and the provision of services which support change in the family situation. The assessment should include any non-resident parent and include any assessment from other professionals working with family members including Community Drug and Alcohol Team workers, psychologists, psychiatrists or other health professionals.
A Family Group Meeting may assist extended family members to contribute to the protection plan for the child. It may also be used to develop a contingency plan. The meeting should consider who within the birth family or child's network may be able to care for the child or children should it be required.
If this is not done at Family Group Meeting information about family relationships and connected persons should be gathered at an early stage
The Intensive Family Intervention Team (I-FIT) should be considered in the pre-proceedings phase as a resource to which a family can be referred to address specific concerns of Significant Harm. The intensive programme of work last for six weeks and has been shown to effect change in difficult and intractable family circumstances. Referral to I-FIT is through the Early Intervention Panel.
Any child who:
- Following a deterioration in their circumstances is considered by a team manager and social worker not to be sufficiently protected by the current intervention; or
- At the second review of their Child Protection Plan is still deemed to be in need of protection.
must be referred by the social worker to the Service Manager Panel for consideration. If the child is in immediate danger it should be referred to the Service manager for an immediate decision on protective action.
Under local procedures children aged under 24 months and their siblings will be reviewed 3 months after their first review; older children within 6 months.
Providing sufficient protection it will recommend that the Public Law Outline (PLO) should be followed i.e. a letter before proceedings issued. A Legal Gateway/Planning meeting must be convened within 7 days of this recommendation to consider whether the threshold for care proceedings has been met and that the PLO should be followed. In the case that the Legal Gateway/Planning meeting does not agree with the recommendation from the Service Manager Panel the matter needs to be referred to the Strategic Lead for Safeguarding for immediate consideration.
If the case is held by a social worker on the Advice and Assessment team and the decision is to follow the PLO then the current social worker will issue the letter before proceedings and the case will be transferred to the Safeguarding Team at the PLO meeting. If the plan is to immediately apply for a Care Order then the case will transfer at Care Planning Meeting 1 and the reader should move to Section 3.
Once agreed a 'Letter before Proceedings' must be drafted by the allocated social worker. The letter must include details of the concerns and support that is being offered, must be written in a way and language that can be understood by the parents, and have a date for a PLO meeting. The letter must be checked and countersigned by the relevant manager and be sent to legal section for their consideration and agreement on the date for the PLO meeting. The letter should be sent no later than one week after the legal meeting has been held. The date for the PLO meeting should be planned so as to give parents sufficient time to give them to arrange attendance with a solicitor. It should be explicitly stated that failure to make the changes identified or to reject the interventions offered will result in the case being put before the court and a permanency plan developed. Where appropriate it should be stated that this plan could be adoption.
The PLO meeting will be chaired by a Safeguarding Team Manager and a file note made by the Local Authority Solicitor. If the parents do not attend the PLO meeting then the social workers and Local Authority solicitor must decide whether to rearrange the meeting or to initiate care proceedings at this stage.
A plan will be agreed at this meeting for further work to be undertaken to safeguard the child(ren). A framework assessment will be undertaken during this period that will update the assessment and be presented in a format that can, if necessary, be placed before the court. If IFIT has not previously worked with the family a referral to the service should be made.
The review date for the agreed plan will be set and in most cases will be three months from the date of the PLO meeting. The Safeguarding Team Manager will write (using the agreed template) and send out to all parties the agreed plan from the meeting and the review date.
Early in the three months a family meeting should be held to identify potential alternative family members to care for the child or children. A referral should be made to the Fostering Team for a worker to attend the family meeting to share information with the family about fostering. The family meeting should be chaired by the Safeguarding Team Manager.
During this period the Fostering Team will undertake viability assessments of potential kinship carers that are identified at this meeting. Every encouragement should be given to families, at the family meeting to put forward no more than two potential carers for consideration. These should be people whom the majority of the family would support as carers. The children's social worker will be responsible for referring the potential carers to the Fostering Team. The contingency plan for where the child will live if staying at home is not an option should be firmed up at this point.
Every attempt should be made at this stage to contact absent parents so that they can be informed and engaged in the process.
The social workers and Local Authority solicitor will meet at 9 weeks to discuss their position regarding progress against the objectives of the plan. The PLO review meeting will be held with the parents and their advocates, and a file note will be made by the Local Authority Solicitor. The purpose of the meeting is to review the progress of the plan and the meeting has three potential outcomes:
- A further review period is agreed because some progress is made but some concerns remain. An updated plan will be issued if necessary.
- It is agreed the family is no longer "before proceedings" as progress has been made and the child or children are adequately safeguarded.
- It is necessary to make an immediate application for care proceedings as there has been little or no progress with the plans.
If the case remains under the Public Law Outline then a further review will be held in three months with similar potential outcomes to those above. If the case has been under the PLO for 6 months then it should be referred back to Service Manager Panel for further consideration to prevent drift.
This checklist will assist in social worker in the Pre-Proceedings phase:
- Is there an up-to-date assessment?
- Has a family meeting been convened to consider alternative care for the children and the kinship care assessment been commenced?
- Have you collated previous reports and any court orders and judgements e.g. supervision orders' section 7/37 reports?
- Have you collected joint, single or interagency materials together such as CP conference reports; health and education reports, immigration reports
- Have you completed a genogram and updated your chronology of significant events?
- Have you completed your letter before proceedings, held the advocates meeting and worked together with the family on an agreed plan for 3 months?
In addition to the above to commence proceedings you will need to complete:
- Initial Social Work statement;
- Interim Care Plan;
- The Local Authority Solicitor has prepared an allocation record and timetable for the child.
It is important to plan, in detail, for the admission of a child into the care system and to ensure that once the child is Looked After, decisions regarding permanent arrangements for the child's care are made in a timely way, based on good assessments and in the child's best interests. For children in proceedings the Court will direct the timetable for decision making; this will usually be in line with the 26 weeks protocol.
Care Planning Meeting One
This meeting will be convened by the child's social worker, immediately following a decision that a child should become Looked After. The decision will have been made by a service manager following either a legal gateway/planning meeting at which proceedings are agreed or an assessment that indicates that it is in the child's best interests to become Looked After.
If care proceedings have been or are about to be issued the first care planning meeting should, wherever possible, be held before the First Appointment Hearing.
The meeting should be attended by the current social worker, the allocated safeguarding social worker, a representative from the Fostering Service, the Adoption Team Manager (if appropriate) and the Contact Centre Manager. It will be chaired by a Safeguarding Team Manager.
The Meeting will address what needs to be done to put in place an initial care plan for the child and the actions and information that is required to plan for the child's future:
- Placement - Regulation 24 or mainstream carer?
- CoramBAAF medical forms (if parents will not sign consent for release of medical information this must be requested from the court);
- An early alert to the adoption team if adoption is a likely outcome;
- Contact arrangements;
- Family Meeting;
- Viability assessments of connected persons;
- Genogram;
- Assessment of parents - what further information is required?
- Local Authority evidence (see pre proceedings checklist);
- Date of placement planning meeting and whether all the information for PIR is available or who will gather it. At the very least a skeleton PIR must always be available in particular the medical consent is required;
- Ensure that:
- A date for 1st LAC review has been requested;
- An initial medical has been booked;
- A PEP has been initiated (if required).
Placement Planning Meeting
The Fostering Team supervising social worker will arrange and chair this meeting, which will be held within 5 working days of the child being placed if it has not been possible to do so before placement. For placements made with Independent Fostering Agencies the child's social worker will arrange and chair the meeting.
The meeting will be attended by the carers, the child's social worker and the parents (unless there is a contra-indication). The child's social worker will invite the parents.
The meeting will complete the PIR and ensure suitable arrangements are in place in respect of contact, medical consent and delegated responsibility.
First Statutory Review
This will be arranged by the Independent Reviewing Officer and will be held within 15 working days of the child coming into care.
The review will consider the initial care plan to ensure that:
- Appropriate arrangements have been made in respect of the child's placement, contact, health and education;
- Appropriate assessments have been or are being undertaken to assure that a robust permanency plan can be achieved;
and
- Determine whether at this stage adoption should be considered as a likely outcome. If it is considered that adoption is likely to be the outcome the review must recommend that the CPR is started and a proposed date for the agency decision is timetabled by the Adoption Team Manager. It is imperative that forms M/B are sent for completion to the appropriate hospital and the adoption medical is requested.
Case Management Conference
For a case in proceedings; the social worker will attend the CMC with legal representation and will inform the court of the arrangements that have been made.
At this meeting other assessments may be requested by other parties and directed by the Court.
Care Planning Meeting Two
The child's social worker has responsibility for arranging this meeting not more than 5 weeks after CMC to ensure that the case is progressing as per the Court's timetable. The meeting will be chaired by the Safeguarding Team Manager.
Attendance is:
- Safeguarding social worker, foster carer's supervising social worker, social worker undertaking connected person's assessment, Adoption Manager (if required) Contact Centre Manager and other relevant persons.
The meeting will address the following:
- Assessment of parents and connected people - check timescales are being met and consideration of any issues that have arisen;
- Issues relating to permanence outside of the family e.g. CPR completed, pre-adoption medical completed, date for consideration by Agency Decision Maker is set;
- Contact arrangements and issues.
Second Statutory Review
To be held within 12 weeks of the initial review
This review will ensure that permanency planning is progressing and that where a case is in proceedings the directions of the Court are being adhered to.
Care Planning Meeting Three
The allocated social worker has responsibility for arranging this meeting once the LA assessment is completed and any expert assessments have been received and discussed at a professionals' meeting. This will usually be at week 18 of the proceedings.
This meeting will be chaired by a Service Manager.
Attendance is:
- Safeguarding social worker, CYPIC Manager, Fostering representative, Adoption Manager (if required) Contact Centre Manager any other relevant persons.
The meeting will agree proposals for the final care plan; this will include the order to be sought and other arrangements, such as placement to secure permanency. Agreement to the proposed care plan will be made after consideration of the following:
- Conclusion of Parents assessments;
- Conclusion of connected persons' assessments;
- Any issue relating to permanence outside the family;
- Proposed contact arrangements including transitional arrangements if the intention is to reduce or stop contact;
- Local Authority final evidence.
At this stage the care plan should be formulated but not filed.
Meeting with parents
Following Care Planning Meeting 3 the social worker must arrange a meeting with parents to inform them of the Local Authority's proposed care plan. Their views should be recorded on the review documentation.
Third Review
The third review will be held at week 19 to consider, amend and ratify the Local Authority's final care plan.
If the care plan is for adoption all the relevant documentation must be sent to the Adoption Team Manager for quality assurance before presentation to the Agency Decision Maker for approval of the plan.
If the care plan is for an SGO, a financial assessment must be completed and financial support (if applicable) must be agreed before the plan is filed.
The final care plan, assessments of connected people (if required) SGO report (if required) and statements will be filed on the due date.
Last Updated: September 26, 2023
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