3.1.2 Permanent Placement Policy for Children and Young People

AMENDMENT

The legislative references in 2.6 and 9.2 of this chapter were updated in July 2011 to take account of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations, 2010 and Associated Guidance.

Scope of the Policy
Definitions
Values
Aims
Assessment, Planning and Decision Making
Family Finding and Recruitment
Adoption
Long Term Fostering
Kinship / Network Carers
Special Guardianship and Residence Orders

1. Scope of the Policy

This policy will only apply to permanent placement arrangements made for children and young people Looked After by the Council under the Children Act 1989.

The policy was agreed in September 2008.

2. Definitions

2.1	Permanent placement is a family living arrangement for children and young people who are Looked After which will secure and promote the child's welfare within their extended family or within a new family for the duration of their childhood. This is when it is not in their best interests to live permanently with their birth family. It is a general term which covers a wide range of arrangements, including adoption, long term fostering, Special Guardianship and Residence Orders.
2.2	Adoption, Special Guardianship and Residence Orders are not simply placement arrangements, but are also legal arrangements through which Parental Responsibility is transferred either to the new family or shared between the new family and the child's birth parent/s. Therefore, the Department will always consider whether Adoption, Special Guardianship or a Residence Order is in the best interest of a child before supporting any such plan for permanence.
2.3	It is also a requirement of legislation and guidance that adoption is always considered as a permanent placement option for looked after children unless the plan is primarily and solely for restoration to the care of the birth parent/s or those with Parental Responsibility.
2.4	The focus of this policy is on the permanent placement of children when all appropriate and possible efforts have been considered and taken to promote children living securely with their birth parent(s) or within their birth families. Wherever possible, this should happen without legal intervention and in a time scale which is relevant to their situation.
2.5	Because the decision-making process is so important to securing the best future for a child, this policy also addresses assessment and planning for Children in Need and the assessment framework for those newly looked after children prior to the establishment of a Permanency Plan.
2.6	Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case review (England) Regulations 2010 and associated guidance, as well as in the Adoption Guidance issued under the Adoption and Children Act 2002, an appropriate permanence plan should be identified no later than at the second Looked After Review - the four month review. "This review should consider all the options for best meeting the child's welfare, including the child's need for permanence."

3. Values

This section should be read in conjunction with the 'Values' chapter accessible from the menu on the left hand side of the screen.
3.1	Children have the right to grow up as part of a loving family which can meet their needs during childhood and beyond.
3.2	It is best for children where possible to be brought up by their own birth family.
3.3	The child's welfare, safety and needs will be at the centre of the permanent placement process.
3.4	The child's wishes and feelings will be actively sought and fully taken into account at all stages.
3.5	Delays in planning for children and securing permanent placements for them can have a severe impact on their health and development and should be actively avoided.
3.6	The ethnic origin, cultural heritage, religion and language will be fully recognised and positively valued and promoted in all levels of decision making.
3.7	The needs of disabled children will be fully recognised and taken into account when decisions about them are made.
3.8	The role of all those offering a permanent family to a looked after child will be valued and respected. Applicants will not be excluded on the grounds of age, health, disability, gender, sexuality or marital status. Certain criminal convictions will lead to no further action in relation to assessment - see Assessment and Approval of Prospective Adopters Procedure and Persons Disqualified from Fostering Procedure.
3.9	The permanent placement of looked after children has lifelong implications for all involved and requires lifelong commitment from many different organisations, professionals and individuals who need to work together to meet the needs of all those affected by such placement arrangements.
3.10	The Department will work in partnership with other Council Departments, other statutory and voluntary agencies and service users to ensure that this policy, accompanying guidance and procedures, together with the National Minimum Standards for Adoption and Fostering Services are implemented and delivered.

4. Aims

4.1	The Department will aim, as far as is reasonable, to provide practical support and services which will enable the child to return to, or remain with his/her family of origin where this is requested, except in those cases where assessment has determined that this would be detrimental to the child's welfare i.e. Significant Harm is likely or has occurred.
4.2	In making plans for the permanent placement of looked after children, the Department's primary aim will be to ensure that the child's welfare is safeguarded and that the five outcomes identified in Every Child Matters are carefully considered in the context of any new placement.
4.3	In considering what is in the best interest of the child, the Department will always take the least interventionist measure to secure and promote their welfare [Children Act 1989, Section 1(5)]; and will act in accordance with the Human Rights Act 1998, particularly sections 6 and 8.
4.4	In making any decision about permanent placement for a child, the Department will, as far as reasonably possible, ascertain the wishes and feelings of the child, their parents, any person with Parental Responsibility and any other person, including extended family and friends, whose wishes and feelings the Department considers relevant. Before any placement, or before any Adoption, Special Guardianship or Residence Order application is placed before the court, the Department will ensure that the child, bearing in mind their age and level of understanding, has relevant information of what is involved and agrees freely to the action proposed.
4.5	The Department will always aim to ensure that decisions for permanence are discussed and confirmed at the child's Looked After Review, involving the birth parent/s, others holding Parental Responsibility and the child.
4.6	Before any plan for permanence is proposed for a looked after child, the Department will ensure that Initial Assessment and Core Assessment under the Assessment Framework have been completed and shared with all parties. Where the child's birth parents are relinquishing a child for adoption or where there has been abandonment, a Core Assessment may not always be practicable - see also Procedure for Relinquished Babies.
4.7	When the Department initiates Care Proceedings under the Public Law Outline, due regard must be paid to the need for parallel planning where this is appropriate and within timescales which will support the needs of the child and the expectations of the Public Law Outline. Parallel planning in permanent placement usually involves following one plan, usually reunification with birth parent/s, whilst at the same time preparing a second plan to place the child with birth relatives, adopters or long term foster carers, so as to reduce drift and avoid delay.
4.8	In seeking and selecting a permanent family for a child the Department will pay due regard to all of the child's needs, including their ethnicity, cultural and linguistic heritage, religion, education, health and any needs arising from a disability. It is recognised that matching children and permanent carers who match closely the child's identified needs makes for more successful placements. In some circumstances, it may not be possible identify permanent carers who match closely the child's needs within realistic time limits related to the child's situation. In these circumstances, a new family finding specification will be prepared, designed to identify an alternative, suitable permanent carer/s who can demonstrate respect for and understanding of the child's particular needs.
4.9	When planning a permanent placement for children, the Department will: Ensure reasons why permanent placement is being considered are clearly recorded on the case notes; Ensure that all necessary work is approached with a sense of urgency; an understanding of the importance of 'time' for the child, and within timescales set out in Guidance and Standards in order to avoid any unnecessary delay; First consider a permanent placement with relatives or important friends and if this is not possible, where the child is in a family placement, consider whether it is in the best interest of the child to approach the current carer/s about permanency; First consider adoption for all children up to eleven years of age; Place children in or near their home area where this is a safe option; Ensure that children are appropriately informed and well prepared for their new, permanent placement; Following an assessment of the child's needs for contact (post placement and post order) with members of their family and other important people in their life, give priority to maintaining the recommended level and type of contact.
4.10	The Department will aim to recruit permanent carers who can demonstrate that they are able to provide a child with love and security and provide safe and effective care for at least the duration of their childhood; meet the child's developmental needs; help the child develop a sense of identity and self worth by valuing the child and their background/heritage; support the child in developing an understanding of, and in some cases a relationship with, their birth family, whether through contact or the sensitive provision of information.
4.11	The Department will also aim to recruit permanent carers who can demonstrate that they have the health, vigour and competence to meet the many and varied demands of children throughout their childhood and will also be there for them throughout their young adulthood. Within the minimum age range of 18 (long term fostering, special guardianship, residence order), 21 (adoption) and the upper age of 65, there will be no fixed age limits for permanent carers but in considering their terms of approval, their age and health, including whether a person smokes, will be taken into account during the assessment, at Panel and in the agency decision - see Assessment and Approval of Prospective Adopters and Assessment and Approval of Foster Carers Procedure.
4.12	The Department will aim to ensure that prospective permanent carers have a thorough understanding of the permanency task through the provision of written information and individual and group based preparation in line with Standards and Practice Guidance.
4.13	The Department will aim to provide post placement and post adoption/special guardianship/residence orders support to children, their birth families and permanent carers based on individual care and placement support plans and statutory requirements - see also Adoption Support Procedure and the Applications for Special Guardianship Orders Procedure.
4.14	The Department will aim to make available through its Adoption and Fostering Teams training related to the needs of its permanent carers and support arrangements for specific groups of permanent carers.
4.15	The Department will aim to support and encourage the operation of the Croydon Foster Care Association (CFCA) through an annual grant, regular meetings with the Committee and publicising its services and activities to all Croydon foster carers.

5. Assessment, Planning and Decision Making

5.1	Prior to any consideration of permanent placement for a child, an Initial Assessment must have been completed and a Core Assessment completed or commenced.
5.2	During contact with the child and family (including where a child is Relinquished) as soon as it becomes apparent that the child can no longer live with their birth parent/s or where there is sufficient evidence to suggest that further attempts at reunification are unlikely to succeed, the child's social worker and line manager must consider all permanency options at a Permanency Planning Meeting.
5.3	As part of assessment and planning, all relevant family members and friends involved with the child must be consulted about plans for the child's future and in all cases a Family Group Conference (FGC) should be considered. If the case is being worked according to the Public Law Outline (PLO), a FGC should be held not later than 6 weeks following the Legal Planning Meeting which agrees the threshold for an application to Court is met. This should inform the first Permanency Planning Meeting in terms of which assessments are to be carried out.
5.4	The plan for permanence for a child Accommodated and placed under Section 20 or a relinquished baby must be developed no later than the child's 4 month Looked After Review. This review should consider and confirm the plan.
5.5	For a child who remains at home with birth parents under the PLO, but for whom the plan is removal, it is recommended that the FGC and the first Permanency Planning meeting takes place at 6 and 8 weeks respectively from the Legal Planning Meeting. This is so that all options are being actively considered before the matter is heard in Court.
5.6	The responsibility for assessment, planning and decision making for the child and family will rest with the relevant team.
5.7	Planning and preparation for permanency will be individual to the child and their situation. All plans of work, including Permanency Planning will be minuted. See Recording Form for Permanency Planning Meeting.
5.8	The Adoption and Fostering Panels will consider children for approval for permanent placement, the approval of permanent foster carers and adopters and the matching of children with permanent carers. The Panels will make recommendations to the Agency Decision Maker who will make the agency decision.
5.9	A Panel is to be convened to consider cases where there is a recommendation from the Department for a Special Guardianship Order to be made, including any proposed package of support.

6. Family Finding and Recruitment

6.1	Family finding for children requiring permanent placements will usually take the following forms: General recruitment of carers to a pool of approved permanent carers for the children who require or may require permanent placement (adopters and long term foster carers) Specific recruitment of carers for individual children using specialist publications, distribution of flyers, use of specialist web sites and, where necessary, the general media Where appropriate, consideration of the child's current foster carer(s) as permanent carer(s) Additionally in adoption, referrals to the Adoption Register (within seven days of the decision that the child should be placed for adoption or immediately on making a Full Care Order, if later) and to the South London Adoption Consortium are always made within agreed timescales
6.2	Wherever possible, family finding for children will be focussed on areas within one hour's travelling time of Croydon in order to facilitate ease of assessment and preparation, the provision of support and training and the promotion of any direct contact where agreed.
6.3	At, or following the Permanency Planning Meeting, a family finder will be appointed from the Adoption or Fostering Teams and they will have lead responsibility for the identification of permanent carer(s) for the child.
6.4	Active family finding will commence following the Permanency Planning Meeting and will be led by the child's needs and the principle of least delay. Wherever possible, where children are involved in Care Proceedings, it will be the aim of family finders to have identified and matched suitable permanent carers prior to the final hearing and assist the making of a Placement Order at the earliest opportunity.
6.5	New assessments of prospective adopters are the responsibility of the Adoption Service - see Assessment and Approval of Prospective Adopters Procedure. The Fostering Service is responsible for all new assessments of prospective long-term foster carers, including relatives and friends who are identified as prospective permanent kinship carers - see Assessment and Approval of Foster Carers Procedure.
6.6	An important exception is where the existing foster carers, from another fostering agency, are putting themselves forward to be the permanent carer(s). In this case, it would be expected that the foster carer's agency completes the necessary additional and updating assessment UNLESS the foster carer is making an application to be a Special Guardian, in which case an assessment would be carried out by the case worker for the child.

7. Adoption

7.1	There are broadly three routes into adoption for children and their birth families: Where a birth mother requests adoption before or after the birth of her child: Where a child is Accommodated and the plan for the child becomes permanent placement and those persons holding Parental Responsibility agree adoption would be in the child's best interests, following counselling on all placement options and future implications. Where the child is subject to legal proceedings and the subject of an Interim Care order or a full Care Order and the department considers that adoption is in the best interests of the child. This route will not always have the support of those persons holding Parental Responsibility.
7.2	The department can only consider placing a child for adoption against the wishes of those with Parental Responsibility where there are grounds for seeking a Placement Order in relation to the child. An application for a Placement Order can only be made where there is a Care Order in place or where it is considered that the threshold criteria for a Care Order are met. For the department to go against the wishes of those with Parental Responsibility, the following must apply: That the birth parents and those with Parental Responsibility have been unable to demonstrate that they can provide a safe and secure permanent home for the child That adoption is the most appropriate and effective means of promoting and securing the best outcomes for the child AND Where the child is of sufficient age and understanding, and following counselling about adoption, they wish to be adopted.
7.3	Where the child's foster carers seek to adopt a child placed with them, the department, in deciding whether to support this application, will have regard to the best interests of the child; the child's wishes and feelings; the suitability of the carers and their family, including the impact of further fostering on the child.
7.4	In all circumstances relating to adoption, written information from the Adoption Team will be available to children and their birth parents/families about the implications of adoption. The Adoption Team will also provide counselling for birth parents whose child is going to be adopted.
7.5	For the detailed procedure, please see the Placement for Adoption Procedure.

8. Long Term Fostering

8.1	There are two routes into long term fostering: Where the child is Accommodated and both the department and those persons with Parental Responsibility agree that a plan for long term fostering would be in the best interests of the child. Where the child is subject to an Interim Care Order or a full Care Order to Croydon and the department considers that long term fostering is the most appropriate way of achieving permanence for the child. Ideally, those sharing Parental Responsibility should support and be in agreement with this plan.
8.2	The permanence plan of long term fostering should not be considered for any child under 5 and only in exceptional circumstances for a child aged between 5 and 11 years of age.
8.3	All children up to the age of 14 requiring a permanent placement through long-term fostering will have a Child's Permanence Report completed which will be considered by the Adoption Panel. The Child's Permanence Report should be accompanied by Education and Health reports to allow for clear decision-making.
8.4	The views of the children will be considered as part of the decision making of Panel giving appropriate weight dependent on their age and understanding.
8.5	If a member of the extended family is not available (see Section 9, Kinship / Network Carers) the Fostering Team will allocate a family finder to identify a long-term foster family for the child. A permanent family should first be sought from the department's own resources. However, in some circumstances, placements with other statutory and voluntary agencies will be considered, subject to the approval of a senior manager.
8.6	Where the present foster carers wish to be considered as long-term carers for a child placed with them, their ability to meet the needs for permanency will be assessed and considered at the Fostering Panel for matching. This includes children over the age of 14. Any proposed match must be presented to the Fostering Panel for approval. The carer's Form F, the Child's Permanence Report and up to date assessment, Health and Education reports should be submitted to assist decision-making.

9. Kinship / Network Carers

9.1	At an early stage of planning, it must be explored whether there is a family member or someone with an important friendship with the child who is willing to be assessed as a permanent carer. This should first be considered in legal planning where the child is to be subject of an application to court. Where a child is Accommodated under Section 20, consideration to family and network carers should be addressed at the first Permanency Planning Meeting between the first and second Looked After Reviews.
9.2	The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulation 2010 specify under Regulation 24 that where a Local Authority are satisfied that the most appropriate placement of a child is with a Connected Person, notwithstanding that the Connected Person is not approved as a local authority foster carer, and it is necessary for the child to be placed with the Connected Person before his or her suitability to be a local authority foster carer has been assessed, the child may be placed for a temporary period not exceeding 16 weeks provided that they first undertake an assessment under Regulation 24(2).
9.3	For the detailed procedure, please see the Placements with Connected Persons Procedure.
9.4	Croydon is committed to carrying out these assessments to enable children to live for the necessary timescale with a friend or relative. It is also expected that other options for permanence are pursued with the carer e.g. Special Guardianship or Residence Order and they should be directed to appropriate legal advice in relation to these options.
9.5	A Family Group Conference should be convened at an early stage if it is indicated that there is any likelihood of a child not being reunified with his or her birth family. This will be with the aim of identifying any family or network member who is willing to be assessed as a permanent carer.

10. Special Guardianship and Residence Orders

10.1

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 introduced Special Guardianship which is an arrangement offering greater security than long-term fostering but without the legal severance from the birth family that is associated with adoption. Any child ceases to be Looked After upon the making of a Special Guardianship Order. The Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 introduce the new provision of special guardianship support services, similar to the provision of adoption support services.

10.2

For the detailed procedure, please see the Application for Special Guardianship Procedure.

End