Amendments

This new procedure applies to all new applications for approval as foster carers and to all foster carers who have already been approved as foster carers.

This chapter links to statutory guidance:

• Prevention of Homelessness and Provision of accommodation for 16 and 17 year old young people who may be homeless and/or require accommodation (2018): This guidance is solely concerned with the functions of children's services and housing services when young people seek help from, or are referred to, local authorities because of homelessness or being threatened with homelessness. It incorporates judgements made in the House of Lords over several years around the duties of local authorities under Section 20 (Children Act 1989) and Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996. The guidance also reflects the duties introduced under the Homelessness Reduction Act (2017);
• Homelessness - Duty to Refer: the Homelessness Reduction Act (2017) places a duty on specified public authorities to refer service users who they think may be homeless or threatened with homelessness to local authority homelessness/housing options teams. The guidance provides helpful information and detail on the referral process.

This chapter has been updated to include additional information on parental capacity to consent, in line with High Court case-law.

Case Law - Re S (Child as parent: Adoption: consent) [2017] EWHC (Fam).

This chapter has been updated in line with the recent case law.

The Leaving Care and Transition chapter has been updated and revised throughout to reflect the provisions of the C&SW Act 2017 and 3 new statutory guidance documents which require local authorities to offer Personal Adviser support to all care leavers up to the age of 25. Also, to publish their Local Offer for care leavers; and to have regard to seven 'corporate parenting principles'.

It has also been updated to add clarification in relation to the definition of Qualifying Young People.

AND

This chapter was updated when a link to Securing British Citizenship for Looked After Children was added.

• Local Contacts;
• External Contacts;
• Plymouth Children's Centres - Cluster Contract Leads & Managers.

All local authorities have a statutory duty to respond to a request from a parent or guardian for their child to be placed for adoption, and a separate process to progress this, at least in the initial stages, outside of the Care Proceedings process is established in Part 3 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

The Regulations that currently relate to young carers are contained within the Young Carers (Needs Assessments) Regulations 2015 and came into force on 1st April 2015.

Under the Children and Families Act 2014 the definition of young carer is a person under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for another person. The concept of care includes practical or emotional support, and 'another person' means anyone within the same family, be they adult or child.

This new chapter reflects the statutory guidance 'Ceasing to look after a child' in 'Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations (2015)' as amended by the 'Care Planning and Fostering (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2015' together with Working Together to Safeguard Children.

From 1 July 2015 all schools and child care providers must have regard to the statutory guidance issued under section 29 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. Paragraphs 57-76 of the guidance are concerned specifically with schools and childcare providers [1], registered early years childcare providers and registered later years childcare providers are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have "due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism".

This chapter has been substantially updated in order to clarify:

• The role of the IRO;
• The issues relating to determining the age of the child;
• The offer of an Independent Visitor;
• Planning requirements for asylum seeking young people approaching the age of 18.

It should be reread in its entirety.

A link to the Fostering Network has been added.

Under the Public Law Outline (2014) and the Children and Families Act 2014, there is a 26-week time limit for the completion of care and supervision proceedings. This places an increased emphasis on pre-proceedings work and the quality of Assessments.

Where adoption is the permanence plan for the child and no Care Order has been made, combined care and Placement Order applications should be made, so that decisions can be made swiftly. Where there are on-going Care Proceedings, the Placement Order application should be submitted as soon as the Agency Decision Maker decision has been made. The court may make both orders, which would ensure that the child remains protected should the Placement Order be revoked (as the Care Order would automatically be reactivated).

This procedure sets out the specific provision under the Children and Families Act 2014 in relation to children and young people aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs or disabilities by:

• Extending the Special Educational Needs (SEN) system from birth to 25 and giving children, young people and their parents greater control and choice in decision-making;
• Replacing Statements of Special Educational Needs and learning difficulty assessments with birth- to-25 Education, Health and Care Plans;
• Offering families Personal Budgets - young people and parents of children who have Education, Health and Care Plans have the right to request a Personal Budget, which may contain elements of education, social care and health funding;
• Creating a duty for joint commissioning which requires local authorities and health bodies to work in partnership when arranging provision for children and young people with Special Educational Needs.

This chapter takes account of the youth remand framework under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and the Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (Supplement) (2014).

Local Authorities should have strategies that set out how they will support positive behaviour amongst Looked After children who may be at risk of offending and the measures that will protect them from 'unnecessary criminalisation', including a protocol with the police.

In July 2014, the Children and Families 2014 imposed a duty upon local authorities to consider placement with dually approved carers whenever it is considering adoption or where the decision has been made that the child ought to be placed for adoption, but where the agency does not yet have authority to place the child for adoption through either a placement order or parental consent.

These placements are foster placements. The placement will only become an adoptive placement where the Agency Decision Maker (ADM) has decided that the child should be placed for adoption and either a Placement Order has been made, or parental consent to the child's adoption is given.

This chapter replaces the previous chapter on intermediary Services. Intermediary services are defined as:

• Assisting adopted persons who were adopted before 30th December 2005 and are 18 or over, to obtain information in relation to their adoption;
• Facilitating contact between such adopted persons and their relatives; and
• Facilitating contact between persons with a Prescribed Relationship to an adopted person and relatives of the adopted person.

On 30 December 2005, legislation came into force assisting persons adopted before that date to obtain information about their adoption and to facilitate contact between them and their birth relatives.

This chapter has been substantially amended and should be read in its entirety. It now sets out the context within which Assessments should be carried out, the Purpose of Assessments and the Process by which they should be undertaken.

The chapter emphasises the Purpose of Assessments is to:

• Gather important information about a child and family;
• Analyse that information and ensure the needs of the child are being me and/or the nature and level of any risk and harm being suffered by the child is established;
• To decide whether the child is a Child in Need (Section 17) and/or is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm (Section 47); and
• To provide support to address those needs to improve the child's outcomes and to make them safe.

This chapter applies to all Looked After children. It should be read in conjunction with the following government guidance documents:

This chapter has been updated in line with the Children and Families Act 2014 and clarifies the duty of the LA to monitor the Staying Put Arrangements, to provide advice, assistance and support to the Former Relevant child and the former foster parent with a view to maintaining the Staying Put arrangement (this must include financial support), until the child reaches the age of 21.

This new chapter is based on the premise that children and young people should be cared for by either their parents or extended family if at all possible and that the social work task is to support families to enable them to provide good care for their children. However, there will be times when families are not able to continue to care for their children even with the full support of agencies and the children will need to be provided with alternative care for either a short or longer period of time.

This chapter sets out the arrangements for delegation to carers of the authority to make decisions relating to Looked After children, under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review and Fostering Services (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013 (which amend the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010), and revised Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review.

'Carer', in this context, means the foster carer or registered manager of the children's home where the child resides. This will include Connected Persons given temporary approval as foster carers, but will not include Private Foster Carers.