Looked after child

[Guest]

Does anyone have a care plan for looked after children? We adopted the pla policy re looked after children, and it in it states:

 

• At the start of a placement there is a professionals meeting to determine the objectives of the placement and draw up a care plan that incorporates the child’s learning needs. This plan is reviewed after two weeks, six weeks and three months. Thereafter at three to six monthly intervals.

• The care plan needs to consider issues for the child such as:

• their emotional needs and how they are to be met;

• how any emotional issues and problems that affect behaviour are to be managed;

• their sense of self, culture, language(s) and identity – and how this is to be supported;

• their need for sociability and friendship;

• their interests and abilities and possible learning journey pathway; and

• how any special needs will be supported.

• In addition the care plan will also consider:

• how information will be shared with the foster carer and local authority (as the ‘corporate parent’) as well as what information is shared with whom and how it will be recorded and stored;

• what contact the child has with his/her birth parent(s) and what arrangements will be in place for supervised contact. If this is to be at the setting, when, where and what form the contact will take will be discussed and agreed;

• what written reporting is required;

• wherever possible, and where the plan is for the child’s return home, the birth parent(s) should be involved in planning; and

• with the social worker’s agreement, and as part of the plan, the birth parent(s) should be involved in the setting’s activities that include parents, such as outings and fun-days etc alongside the foster carer.

I am just wondering if anyone does these, and if they do, would anyone be willing to share a blank one with me?

Thanks in advance x

 

 

[woodlands1997]

We do have a procedure in place but it has never worked out that way! We have never had a visit from the social worker, only seen them at Lac meetings that we have attended. The foster carers completed all registration forms and there was no input from the LA initially. Ideally you would want to have a meeting at the start but in reality from personal experience this is unlikely (unless we've had bad experiences!). The foster Carer shared documentation with us with regard to access from family. We do daily diaries anyway for children under two so this went home and then to contact so could be seen by the social worker, then the foster parents filled in their paperwork regarding the child. It depends also whether they are in a protected placement, this case was initially so the birth parents and family could not know where the child lived or attended nursery and we still have no idea who they are and in no way are involved directly with us. We have tried to gain support from the social worker but have never been successful, thankfully the foster carers are now the legal guardians so is a different situation. Not sure if that's any use?x

[Guest]

Lovely thank you x

[Guest]

My understanding is that all looked after children have to have a social worker and that it is their responsibility to call meetings and create personal plans. I am 99% sure this is a national requirement rather than local policy. So I really suggest you are persistent in finding out who the social worker is. I will try to remember to check tomorrow as I will be seeing someone who will definitely know!

[woodlands1997]

They have to have a social worker and I think often two, one for the family and one for the child - trying to pin that social worker down to contact though is another matter!!! We attend LAC meetings and the plan just says that we continue to take responsibility for the child's well being and development whilst in our care (as you do any child!). We just have to report back any concerns! The first meeting we had for the child we have at the moment was 7 months after they started with us for one reason and another and no fault of our own x

[Guest]

I remembered to check this one today...

By law every child must have a social worker and also the foster carers must have one of their own. However the INDEPENDENT REVIEWING OFFICER is responsible overall to make sure the placement is working well.

If you are having trouble contacting a social worker, my contact suggested you should ask for the Independent Reviewing Officer as some Authorities tend to use this title. The foster carers should be able to tell you the names of everyone involved.

It is also Social Care's responsibility to write the Personal Education Plan (PEP) - so persist, and ask to speak to a Manager if you don't get a better response.

Hope that helps - good luck.

[Guest]

We had a similar experience to woodlands1997 Foster parents and in one case, parent with access, were more than open with us, encouraged social worker to return our calls, gave us all contact info for social worker, etc, but we really struggled to make contact. We made sure we had plenty of documentation in place from day one in case a meeting was called and our input was required at the last minute, but sadly social services never saw fit to involve us or ask for input. Fortunately in the cases we had there were no concerns during the time the children were with us. We flagged up the lack of communication to LA but were told that "social services are very stretched"! Obviously had we had a concern we would have called safeguarding team as with any other child.

[Guest]

Thanks everyone x

[Pimms o'clock?]

This is the template we use from our LA, as I understand we have to put a PEP in place at the nursery. Hope it helps

EY PEP template.doc

Edited May 21, 2014 by Pimms o'clock?

[Guest]

Thank you pimms. I ended up making something similar, but called it a care plan as the social worker said the child was too young to have a pep in place. The social worker is also coming in this week, so we feel very lucky about that seeing as a lot of settings are struggling to get social worker contact x

[mightyred1]

Im actually currently looking for foster carers opinions on early education and practitioners views on looked after children in their setting.

 

This is the practitioners links: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/H9JPDV6

 

And this is the carers link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PXRTHC5

 

I would love to hear yours and your colleagues opinions and your LAC families also, if you could forward them the link that would be great.

 

Thank you

[Fredbear]

Hi out of interest might I ask why you are collating this information, and what it might be used for.

[Mouseketeer]

does this change with the status of the LAC, I have 3 (2 adopted, 1 guardianship) and no one has ever been in touch with us or invited us to any meetings ?