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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Definitions
3. Situations Where These Procedures do not apply
4. Approval of Immediate Placements of Looked After Children With Family and Friends - Connected Persons
5. The Placement
6. Assessment and Approval of Family and Friends as Kinship Carers
7. Ending the Placement

1. Introduction

The following procedures cover immediate placements of looked after children with family and friends - connected persons, i.e. where the carers are not already approved as foster carers.

It sets out the checks that need to be made before such a placement can be made.

It also covers the procedure to be followed to carry out the required assessment and approval of the family and friend - connected persons as foster carers if the placement is to last longer than 16 weeks.

“Most children benefit from living with relatives and friends or other connected people known to the child because they are likely to provide more continuity than a placement with previously unknown carers. Such arrangements preserve a child’s sense of belonging to a wider family network; close attachment is more likely to exist already or to develop and there is also some evidence to suggest that relatives are less likely to reject a child if difficulties arise. However not all relatives are able to safeguard and promote a child’s welfare ,and their parenting capacity and wider family and environmental factors should be rigorously assessed before approval as local authority foster carers. Further guidance on these issues is set out in ‘Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities on Family and Friends Care’ and ‘the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services’.

Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations and Statutory Guidance England 2010 Para. 3.12.

2. Definitions

Family and friends/connected persons foster care is a formal arrangement where the child is looked after by the Local Authority, and placed with a relative, friend or connected person.

‘Relative, friend or connected person’ is defined as: a grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt (whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership), step-parent or friend of, or other person connected with, a looked after child. A person in the last category may be someone who knows the child in a more professional capacity such as a child minder, a teacher or a youth worker although these are not exclusive categories.

A Family and Friends/Connected Person  placement can therefore be defined as being an arrangement where:

• A child cannot live with their parents and is living away from the parental home with a relative, friend or connected person
  
  and
• The placement has in some way been assisted or initiated and/or is supported by Children and Young People’s Services, often with a view to securing the placement via a Residence Order or a Special Guardianship Order.
  
  and
• The child would otherwise be with foster carers, in residential care, independent living or adopted.

3. Situations Where These Procedures do not apply

These procedures do not apply where a child (under 16 yrs) goes to live with a relative or friend and this is a private arrangement between the parent/person with Parental Responsibility and carer.

If this placement continues for 28 days or more, the child may come within the definition of a Privately Fostered child, in which case the local authority's duties in relation to the placement are set out in the Private Fostering Procedure.

4. Approval of Immediate Placements of Looked After Children With Family and Friends - Connected Persons

Before any placement with a relative or friend - connected person who is not already approved as a foster carer is made, the approval of the Designated Manager (Regulation 24 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010) is required.

Any such approval can only be given for 6 weeks from the date of the placement.  After that period of time, further assessment must be carried out and further approval sought - see Section 5, Assessment and Approval of Family and Friends - Connected Persons as Kinship Carers.

Before approval for any placement with family or friends- connected persons  as carers is sought, the child's social worker must undertake a visit in order to undertake an assessment of the suitability of the placement including the level of support likely to be required and the effect of the proposed placement upon the child's contact with parents, siblings and other relatives and friends who are significant to the child.

Schedule Four of the Care Planning, Placement and Review (England) Regulations 2010 sets out the areas which must be addressed in the assessment of prospective Connected Person Carers as follows:

• The proposed carer must be interviewed to ensure they are able to provide safe and adequate care, are willing and able to work to the child's Care Plan and the proposed contact arrangements, are willing to undertake a fostering assessment (if the placement is to continue for more than 16 weeks) and understand what this will involve.
• The accommodation must be inspected, including the sleeping arrangements.
• Information must be obtained about all other persons in the household.
• The proposed carer and all members of the household aged 16 and above must be checked with the Police Public Protection Unit, the family's GP and Children's and Young People's Services records.

The proposed carer should be given information about the assessment process which will follow if the placement is to last longer than 16 weeks, including the need for CRB checks and other agency enquiries on all members of the household aged 16 and over, as well as interviews with referees, adult children and ex-partners, which will be part of any such fostering assessment.

Where the social worker is in any doubt as to the suitability of the placement, s/he should consult  the Children's Placement Service for advice before the placement is agreed.

Where the placement appears suitable and is approved by the Designated Manager (Regulation 24 Placements), a written Placement Agreement should be completed by the child's social worker with the proposed carer.

The prospective carers need to be made aware that any approval is only temporary and does not imply continued approval beyond the 16 weeks.

The placement may only continue after sixteen weeks if the carer is approved as a foster carer - see Section 5, Assessment and Approval of Family and Friends as Kinship Carers.

5. The Placement

A Placement Planning Meeting should be held before the placement or, where this is not possible because of the urgency of the placement, within 5 working days.

On the placement of the child, the child's social worker will ensure the child's Care Plan and the written Placement Agreement is given to the carer. The carer should assist the child to understand the plans and contribute to their reviews and the child and carers’ views should be canvassed as a part of the placement planning process. (Standard 31 Placement plan and Review The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011, Associated Guidance and National Minimum Standards.

If the child was not previously Looked After, the child's social worker will send a notification of the child's placement and a request for the child's first Looked After Review to the Safeguarding Children Service.

The child's social worker must visit and see the child alone in the placement (unless she/he refuses) each week. The visits are to be fully recorded as statutory visits.

The child's social worker will update the electronic record with the details of the placement and notify the finance section of the placement to trigger payments to the carer.

Notification of the placement will also be sent by the child's social worker to the relevant local Children's Social Care Services Department if the placement is in a different local authority area.

The child's social worker will notify all family members consulted and involved in the decision-making process of the placement.

These notifications must be made in writing, advising of the placement decision and the name and address of the person with whom the child is to be placed.

The child's social worker should also notify - preferably in writing but it may be verbally - all those involved in the day to day arrangements for the child, including nursery/school, GP and any health professional or YOS worker actively involved with the child.

It will be necessary for the child's social worker to ensure the child is registered with a GP, Dentist and Optician, either retaining practices known to him or her (which is preferable) or in the area where they are placed.

In relation to a first Looked After placement it will also be necessary for the social worker to arrange a Health Assessment prior to the Review- see Health Care Assessment and Health Action Plan Procedure

The social worker must also arrange for the completion of a Personal Education Plan - see the Education of Looked After Children Procedure. Every effort should be made to enable the child to remain at the same school unless there are reasons which would be detrimental to his or her well being. If a child is at Key Stage 4 (year's 10 or 11), a senior Designated manager within Bexley Borough Council must approve any change of placement, as it may disrupt the child's education.

6. Assessment and Approval of Family and Friends as Kinship Carers

If the plan is for the placement to last longer than 6 weeks, the fostering assessment process should commence.

The relevant Child Care team should carry out the viability assessments followed by completing Part 1 of the assessment process. This should be booked in for Panel within 6 weeks of the placement. At the beginning of the part 1 process the relevant checks for the prospective Kinship carers should be initiated by the child’s social worker at the earliest opportunity. The Child Care team should complete  the signed consent form and  then complete the CRB’s for prospective carers and members of the household aged 16 and over and start the medical process.

The children’s social worker should then give the Children’s Placement Service administrative staff the signed checks consent form, and they will then send off for the necessary checks set out in Section 3, Checks and References of Assessment and Approval of Foster Carers Procedure.

Part 2 of the assessment following approval from the panel of Part 1 will then be allocated to an assessing social worker in the Children’s Placement Service for completion within 6 months.

The allocated social worker will explain the assessment process to the carers and provide them with written information.

The procedure for the assessment and approval is as for all applicants - see Assessment and Approval of Foster Carers Procedure.

If and when the carers are approved as Kinship carers they will receive the appropriate level of support, supervision and review.

7. Ending the Placement

When the placement ends, the child's social worker must update the child's electronic record and send notification to the finance section so that payments to the carer/provider will cease.

The social worker will also send copies to those notified when the placement was made.

Where appropriate, consideration may be given to holding a Disruption Meeting in which case the procedure set out in Placement Planning and Disruption Meetings Procedure should be followed.

End