Reviews and Meetings

Each child placed with foster carers must have a placement plan, detailing the arrangements and care for the placement of the child.

This should be drawn up by the child's social worker in conjunction with the foster carer and their supervising social worker, at the pre-placement planning meeting. Where the placement is made in an emergency, the placement plan should be drawn up within 5 working days of the placement - see Placements with Foster Carers Procedure.

The placement plan will be reviewed at the child's looked after review.

Where it is necessary to review the placement arrangements between looked after reviews, then this can be done by the child's social worker in conjunction with the foster carer and their supervising social worker as well as with the child, parents and others affected. This will usually take place at a placement plan review meeting convened by the child's social worker.

If the outcome of any review is that the placement plan is amended, then the amendment should be circulated by the child's social worker to all those participating in the review process.

Looked after reviews, sometimes called 'statutory reviews', are convened and conducted by the placing authority. Looked after reviews should normally be conducted at a meeting although this may not be required in respect of a child who has been in a designated long-term foster placement for over twelve months - The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (2015). Community Foster Care will play their part in these reviews through the foster carers and/or the supervising social workers by providing information and, if appropriate to do so under the placing authority's procedures, attending the meetings.

They are formal meetings, chaired by an independent reviewing officer (IRO). The IRO must be satisfied that the wishes and feelings of the child's parents, any person who is not a parent but who has parental responsibility and the current foster carer have been taken into account as part of the review process.

Community Foster Care will play their part in a child's looked after review through the foster carers and/or the supervising social workers by providing information and, if appropriate to do so under the placing authority's procedures, attending the meetings.

The purpose of the looked after review is to:

• Ensure that appropriate plans are in place to safeguard and promote the overall welfare of the looked after child in the most effective way and achieve permanence for him or her within a timescale that meets his or her needs;
• To monitor the progress of the plans and ensure they are being progressed effectively;
• To make decisions, as necessary, for amendments to those plans to reflect any change in knowledge and/or circumstances;
• For a young person living in foster care, the first looked after review following his or her 16th birthday should consider whether a Staying Put arrangement (whereby the young person remains in the foster home after the age of 18) should be an option.

The review should also take account of the child's placement plan and any other plans or strategies (e.g. behaviour management) ensuring that they are up to date or that arrangements are in place to update them.

Looked after reviews should normally be convened at the following intervals:

• The initial looked after review should be conducted within 20 working days of the child becoming looked after;
• The second looked after review should be conducted within three months of the initial looked after review;
• Subsequent looked after reviews should be conducted not more than six months after any previous review.

Looked after review should also be convened by the independent reviewing officer (IRO) where the circumstances of an event has a significant impact upon the child's Care Plan. Here are the types of circumstances, where an additional statutory review might be considered appropriate:

• A proposed change of Care Plan for example arising at short notice in the course of proceedings following directions from the court;
• Where agreed decisions from the review are not carried out within the specified timescale;
• Major change to the contact arrangements;
• Changes of allocated social worker;
• Any safeguarding concerns involving the child, which may lead to enquiries being made under Section 47 of the 1989 Act ('child protection enquiries') and outcomes of child protection conferences, or other meetings that are not attended by the IRO;
• Complaints from or on behalf of the child, parent or carer;
• Unexpected changes in the child's placement provision which may significantly impact on placement stability or safeguarding arrangements;
• Significant changes in birth family circumstances for example births, marriages or deaths which may have a particular impact on the child;
• If the child is charged with any offence leading to referral to youth offending services, pending criminal proceedings and any convictions or sentences as a result of such proceedings;
• If the child is excluded from school;
• If the child has run away or is missing from an approved placement;
• Significant health, medical events, diagnoses, illnesses, hospitalisations, or serious accidents; and panel decisions in relation to permanency.

_{DfE Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations volume 2: care planning, placement and case review}

This is not an exhaustive list and the IRO may judge that other events are significant and require an earlier review. The parents and child should also be consulted about the need for an additional review.

If looked after reviews are not arranged or conducted as set out above, the supervising social worker will initially raise concerns with the child's social worker. If matters are not resolved, s/he will contact the child's independent reviewing officer.

Independent reviewing officers (IRO) should be allocated to a child for the duration of the time that they are looked after. Siblings should share the same IRO.

Before the first review the IRO should meet the child and arrange to meet the child as appropriate in advance of subsequent looked after reviews.

As well as the role of chairing looked after reviews, the IRO has a duty to have effective and independent oversight of a child's case which they should monitor. The child's social worker should provide the IRO with information about the child's progress and any significant events.

As part of the monitoring function, the IRO also has a duty to identify any areas of poor practice, including general concerns around service delivery (not just around individual children).

The responsibilities of the IRO include:

• A responsibility to consult the child about his/her care plan at each review and at any time that there is a significant change to the care plan;
• Ensuring that care plans for looked after children are based on a detailed and informed assessment, up to date, effective and provide a real response to each child's needs;
• Identifying any gaps in the assessment process or delivery of service;
• Offering a safeguard to prevent any 'drift' in care planning and the delivery of services;
• Monitoring the activity of the local authority: that care plans have given proper consideration and weight to the child's current views, wishes and feelings and that he/she fully understands the implications of any changes to their care plan; and
• Ensuring that, having regard to age and understanding, the child has been informed of the steps he/she may take under the Children Act 1989, and in particular, where appropriate, of:
  • The right to apply, with leave, for a Section 8 Order/discharge of a Care Order - if the child wishes to take legal proceedings under the Children Act 1989, the IRO must establish whether an appropriate adult is able and willing to assist the child to obtain legal advice or bring proceedings on his/her behalf, and, if there is no such person, assist the child to obtain such advice;
  • The right to access representations/complaints procedures
• Making sure that the child understands how an advocate could help and his or her entitlement to one.

The IRO has the authority to refer a case to CAFCASS if he/she 'considers it appropriate to do so'.

The IRO must consider whether it is appropriate to refer a case to CAFCASS if:

• In his/her opinion, the local authority has failed in any significant respect to prepare the child's care plan; review the child's case or effectively implement any decision in consequence of a review; or are otherwise in breach of their duties to the child in any material respect; and
• Having drawn this to the attention of persons of appropriate seniority in the local authority, the issues have not been addressed to the IRO's satisfaction within a reasonable period of time.