4.4.1 Looked After Reviews and Participation

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

This procedure details the role, purpose and all the practical arrangements for the statutory reviews of Looked After Children.

AMENDMENT

This chapter was updated in June 2011 to comply with the changes set out in the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 (Care Planning Regulations) and Associated Guidance and the Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010 and Associated Guidance, and should be read in it's entirety.

Departmental Policy
Introduction - The LAC Review Unit
A Review for Each Child - the Process
Frequency of Reviews
Venue
Help with Participation
Help with Understanding
Consultation and Contributions
Who Attends?
The Review Process
IRO Dispute Resolution

Appendix 1: Dispute Resolution Procedure for Independent Reviewing Officers Flowchart

1. Departmental Policy

Ealing takes it’s responsibility as a corporate parent of Looked After Children very seriously. We recognise that we have a “cornerstone duty” to safeguard and promote their welfare. In order to carry out this duty we need to systematically and rigorously examine the arrangements for their care and the plans for the future. We will do this primarily by ensuring that statutory reviewing requirements are fully met.

2. Introduction - The LAC Review Unit

In Ealing statutory LAC Reviews are chaired by an Independent Agency - Aidhour. A Planning and Review Administrative Officer books all reviews and liaises with Aidhour.

2.1 The roles of the LAC Review Service include:

Chairing Reviews
Quality Assurance
Data Collection
Authorisation of Review minutes
Distribution of Review minutes decisions
Highlighting Trends or Concerns Regarding Looked After Children

3. A Review for Each Child - the Process

The purpose of the review process is to consult with every child to ensure that the child or young person's welfare is safeguarded and promoted in the most effective way during the period when she/he is 'looked after' by the local authority. The review will include a number of components leading up to a meeting that discusses the plan made for a child.

The components of the review consist of consultation with the child, the parent/s and any other significant people and the gathering of information on an ongoing basis.

The review meeting itself will focus on:

Understanding the views and wishes of the child
Monitoring the tasks that have been set
Deciding what other action is necessary to progress the care plan since the last review
Making amendments to the care plan in the light of changed knowledge and circumstances

Although part of a continuous planning process, review meetings are significant in that they are the only forum at which the Care Plan/Pathway Plan for the child or young person can be amended or changed significantly.

To ensure that the review sequence begins on time the social worker should send a task on FWi to the Placement and Review Officer informing them that a child has newly become looked after and from what date this started. The social worker requests a LAC review date within 28 days of the date the child became looked after.

The Planning and Review Officer then contacts IRO’s to find one available to chair the review within the 28 day timescale and once an IRO is agreed, passes on details to the social worker who is responsible for organising the review. Further details on the process are available in the FWi Training Guide.

The National Adoption Standards for England state that, “A plan for permanence must be produced for all looked after children at the four month statutory review”, indicating the importance of good consultation, partnership arrangements and planning in the early stages of a child’s time being looked after.

At this time consideration should also be given to the child’s health needs. Medicals, dental visits and optician appointments should be highlighted. The need for substance misuse support, therapy/ counselling to meet any psychological and emotional health needs should also be considered and referrals to internal or external agencies planned for as appropriate.

For young people aged 16 or over a Pathway Plan replaces the Care Plan. This must be completed by the time the young person turns 16 years and 3 months or by their first statutory review after their 16th birthday.

The Department of Health expects that 100% of Reviews will take place on time and the success of this is reported to both the DOH and Ealing’s Corporate Parent Committee. Reviews play a crucial role in determining a child’s future and maintaining their safety and should be accorded appropriate importance.

4. Frequency of Reviews

The local authority has a duty to review the case of a child who is looked after at the following intervals:

First Review: No later than 20 working days of the child becoming Looked After
Second Review: No later than 3 months after 1st Review
Subsequent Review: No later than 6 months after the last review

This is the minimum required. The review should be brought forward if the child's circumstances alter substantially and/or there is a need to change the Care Plan/Pathway Plan. Normally when a change of placement occurs which does not alter the Care Plan/Pathway Plan it is not necessary to hold a review within 4 weeks. However Reviews should be brought forward as set out below:

As soon as practicable where a child is moved from one placement to another on an unplanned basis or a significant change in the circumstances of a child suggests his/her placement is no longer appropriate.
Where a significant change to the child's Care Plan is required
Where the Independent Reviewing Officer requests that such a review should be convened, for example, upon the request of the child, parent(s) or any other significant person.
Where, as a result of a visit, the social worker's assessment is that the child's welfare is not being adequately safeguarded and promoted;
Where a review would not otherwise occur before the child ceases to be detained in a YOI or secure training centre, or accommodated on remand;
Where the local authority proposes to cease to provide accommodation for a looked after child.

The Adoption Regulations require that the review sequence at point 5.1 is started again after placement of a child for adoption.

Any request for an additional review from a parent or child should be given serious consideration.

5. Venue

The review will normally be held at the child/young person's placement. However young people should be consulted about the review venue and their views taken into account when deciding on it. The venue and timing of review meetings should facilitate the involvement of children and parents and take place in a setting where relaxed participation is possible. Children should not be removed from school to attend a review, either the review be held after school or the child attends after returning home from school.

6. Help with Participation

The social worker will ensure that parents/carers are enabled to participate in the review, if necessary by providing the following:

Financial help
Help with transport
Help with child care arrangements
Help with work commitments

Funds will be provided through relevant team budget - travel and subsistence for Parents/Guardians.

7. Help with Understanding

The Department will provide an interpreter if the child's or parent's first language is not English. Other appropriate assistance, such as a signer, will be provided where there are communication difficulties. Interpreters can be arranged via each team administrator once authorisation is obtained from a team manager and a booking form completed.

8. Consultation and Contributions

Consultation is an essential key to the review process. The case accountable social worker is responsible for obtaining the views and wishes of all those relevant to the review process prior to the meeting either by speaking to them personally or by obtaining a written report.

The results of all consultation should be kept on the child or young person’s case record. The views and information from the following should be taken into account;

The child
The parents
Residential social worker/foster carer
Any persons who is not present but who has parental responsibility
The GP and relevant health care professionals
School and relevant educational professionals, usually the Designated Teacher for looked after children
A Personal Adviser, if the child is over the age of 16
The officer with lead responsibility for implementing the authority's duty to promote the educational achievement of its looked after children
Any other person whom the social worker considers ought to be consulted
Any other person whom the child/young person wishes to attend or to be consulted

If the postponement of a review would take it outside of statutory timescales an Operations Manager’s approval must be sought. Without this consent the review cannot be changed.

The social worker and/or the child's carers should help the child/young person to prepare for the review by explaining its function and raising likely areas of discussion with the child/young person. The child should also be assisted in making a written contribution, or if this is not possible, be assisted in making his/her views known in other ways such as by preparing an audio tape.

The Supervising Social worker/Support worker will assist the foster carer in preparing for the review.

9. Who Attends?

The child's views should be sought regarding who they wish to attend the review. They may want to ask a friend to accompany them to the meeting (or their independent visitor if they have one, or their personal adviser).

Invitation to the review meeting should be reserved for those people who are necessary to make good decisions at the review. Every effort should be made to prevent the review meeting becoming large and impersonal. Unless the grounds for exclusion detailed below apply, the review meeting should consist of a core group made up of:

The Child
Parent or anyone with parental responsibility
Carer or Residential Social Worker
Social Worker
Independent Visitor (If the child/young person requests it).
The Chair

Any exclusion from this core group should be carefully considered. The decision to exclude can only be made in consultation with the Chair of the meeting.

In rare cases the attendance of the child will not be appropriate or practicable:

When information vital to the discussion would cause the child distress
When the child decides to exclude her/himself from the meeting

In these circumstances, it may be possible to plan in advance for the child to attend at least part of the meeting or their views could be put forward by a representative or by a written or tape recorded contribution.

In some cases the attendance of the parent will not be appropriate or practicable:

Where the parents attendance would mean that the child would not attend and the child's attendance is judged more important
Where the parent’s attendance is thought likely to lead to violence or intimidation
Where information held by a professional or the child is essential to the discussion and cannot be disclosed to the parent without endangering the child or the placement
Where the parent decides to exclude themselves by being unwilling to attend
Where a child is placed in a permanent substitute family

In these circumstances, alternative arrangements should be made to seek the views of the parent by letter or by meeting with an appointed representative e.g. IRO. Parents should receive a copy of the decisions of the Review.

An independent visitor may need to be appointed for a child who does not have frequent contact with their parent/s or a person with parental responsibility or has not been visited by them within the last 12 months. Reviews should consider the appointment of an independent visitor following the 2nd Review at four months.

10. The Review Process

The full details of the review process are set out in the FWi Training Guide.

The Independent Reviewing Officers are responsible for chairing the initial and all subsequent reviews.

The social worker’s report should be completed on FWI no less than 5 days before the review to allow the IRO time to prepare.

Written information available for the review meeting will include the following:

Social Workers Report outlining progress of the Care Plan (including Pathway Plan and Permanence Plan where appropriate)
New educational information from such as SAT's results and the Personal Education Plan (PEP)
Summary sheets from Progress and Assessment Records, Pathway Plans where appropriate
New health information including dental appointments and the Health Care Plan

The purpose of the review meeting is to:

Ensure that the agreed day to day arrangements continue to meet the child's needs
Ensure the needs of children looked after as a result of a secure remand are met
Ensure that an Eligible Young Person moving into semi-independent accommodation is ready and prepared to move.
Review the overall Care Plan and amend it if necessary
Ensure that the work required to meet the objectives of the Care Plan is being undertaken and is planned for the future
The review should also take account of the child's Placement Plan (recorded on the Placement Information Record) and any other plans or strategies (e.g. behaviour management strategy), ensuring that they are up to date, or that arrangements are in place to update them

The LAC Review - Social Workers Report needs to be completed in advance by the social worker. The Chair will complete the Chair’s Report, including any disagreements and how they were resolved, the review decisions and the updated Care Plan/Pathway Plan.

The Agenda for Children Looked After Reviews covers the following:

Introductions and apologies
Decisions from the last review (if applicable)
Any issues arising from the consultation process and contribution papers
Status of the Progress and Action record/ Life history work
Current Care Plan / Pathway Plan
Health- further assessments required, dental and optician checks completed; child’s immunisations are up to date and dates are recorded
Education- Personal Education Plan’s have been completed and reviewed in preparation for this review
Placement progress including the Placement Plan
Contact and family relationships
Independent visitors /Advocates
Legal issues
Complaints
Social work visiting
Confirmation of the Care Plan/Pathway Plan
Decisions
Date, time and venue of next meeting
Additional items can be added if required

It is important that all attending the review are enabled to identify important issues for discussion at the beginning of the review meeting. Chairs have a checklist to complete for initial and subsequent reviews which record if contributions have been received, whether Social Worker’s Reports, Placement Plans, and Care Plans/ Pathway Plans are complete and if other important matters regarding the health, education and development of the child have been addressed

The checklists form an important part of the Department’s Data Collection Strategy for reporting Performance Assessment Framework Indicators and other important management information frameworks and must be completed accurately.

After the review meeting the Chair’s Report will be completed in the standard format by the IRO on FWi. The team manager will authorise the review minutes within 2 weeks of them arriving so that agreed tasks can be pursued.

All present at the Review and any other significant persons who were not at the review meeting, including parents, Children’s Placements service supervising social worker or family finder should be sent a copy of the decisions by the child’s social worker.

Where the Chair has concerns regarding a Care Plan/ Pathway Plan they should raise the matter firstly with the Team Manager or Senior Practitioner and may also raise the matter with the respective Operations Manager.

11. IRO Dispute Resolution

The Purpose of the procedure is to:

Clarify why, when and how matters of concern to an IRO, relating to a child's care plan, should be taken up through the organisation to resolve any disputes.
Establish a monitoring system of disputes and their resolution.

1.	Contained in the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Guidance and Review regulations (implemented following the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and the IRO Handbook 2010) there is a requirement that the child's IRO will contact a person of sufficient seniority if proper steps are not taken, including implementing review recommendations and decisions and notifying IRO's if this is not done.
2.	The types of issues that are likely to arise include: Not visiting frequently enough. Review recommendations not being implemented without good reason. Drift in care planning. Changes to Care Plan outside a review. IRO not being kept informed about significant changes. Disagreement about the Permanence Plan, including rehabilitation.
3.	This procedure does not apply where there are general practice concerns about a particular social worker.
4.	The child's IRO needs to ensure that in any discussion or correspondence with the social work staff, that clear expectations are set around timescales for response or resolution in order to prevent drift for the child.
5.	Where a child's IRO has concerns about the implementation of the care plan, she/he should, in the first instance, discuss this in person with a social worker and the supervisor. The IRO should record these discussions on e-mail and then case notes, copied to the team manager.
6.	Where it has not been possible to resolve the matter at this level, the IRO should first discuss this with the team manager to agree a way forward. The Team Manager has 3 working days to respond.
7.	If no resolution has been found the IRO would then inform the Operations Manager who will acknowledge receipt of the complaint and will inform the Review Administrator.
8.	At this point, the complaint should be recorded by the Review Administrator who will enter this onto a spread sheet. This will be kept in the shared drive as a record of the child, the matter in dispute and the date it was raised with the Operations Manager.
9.	The Operations manager will respond within 10 working days to the IRO. When the response is sent from the Operations Manager, they will be copy in the Review Administrator, so the spreadsheet can be updated as to a date of response/resolution.
10.	The child's IRO and the Operations Manager should then discuss whether the IRO is satisfied with the response and if not, discuss what further action is needed.
11.	The Child's IRO can progress any dispute above an Operations Manager to the Assistant Director for Commissioning and Strategy, as the non-line senior manager.
12.	The Director, Chief Executive and ultimately CAFCASS can also be contacted if the issue cannot be satisfactorily resolved. At each stage the IRO should have a discussion with the Operations Manager and set a timescale at each stage for a clear response.
13.	The procedure between the IRO and the social work services is simplified below as Appendix 1: Dispute Resolution Procedure for Independent Reviewing Officers Flowchart
14.	At any point the IRO can contact CAFCASS or the official Solicitor for legal advice.
15.	The purpose of the spreadsheet is to: Monitor the number of issues that are taken to operations manager level or above. Identify the types of matters that are being raised. Monitor responses to issues raised is to ensure improved outcomes for Looked After Children as although this process focuses on dispute resolution, it should also raise standards and improve good practice.

Data will be reviewed at the IRO /Assistant Director meetings and will be included in Corporate Parent Committee papers.

Appendix 1: Dispute Resolution Procedure for Independent Reviewing Officers Flowchart

Click here to view flowchart

End