1.1.3 ICS Detailed Guidance |
This chapter should be read in conjunction with Working Together (2010). This chapter has not been revised in response to changes in Working Together which have been incorporated into the chapters covering Assessment and Planning.
Contents
Introduction
This booklet has been reproduced in an electronic format and it has been integrated into the Knowsley electronic manual of procedures. It has links to and from the main body of the manual.
PART 1 - Demographics
a) Demographic Information
Click here to view demographic information screen shot
Demographics - basic, factual information about a child, their family and the agencies who are involved with them - sit outside the case management elements of Protocol, but a lot of the information you will record here will copy forward automatically into referrals, assessments and reports. For all open cases it is essential to maintain demographic information up to date, particularly in relation to professional involvements, which tend to change regularly. For existing cases migrated from the SWIFT database it is essential to check that the information contained in the Demographics is correct in order to prevent misleading information being reproduced throughout the child's record. It is the social worker and their team managements' responsibility to ensure that the information contained in the Demographics is, and remains, accurate BUT it has been agreed with the Business Support Division that BSAs should take part in maintaining demographic information on social workers' cases.
Information can be entered or updated on the Demographics tabs by any person with access to the system, at any time, but the Case Notes tab can only be used on open cases. The social worker will receive an automatic notification in their worktray if someone else has entered demographic information or a case note on one of their open cases. Demographic information can also be entered on the record of an adult, although it is not possible to record Contact, Referral or any of the other case management elements on anyone over the age of 18.
Particular care should be taken to enter information relating to a child and a parent in the appropriate record - for example it is a common mistake to enter a Risk on a child's record where the Risk is actually the parent, and it is in the parent's record that that information should be recorded (the existence of a Risk relating to the parent will be automatically flagged up in the record of the child or anyone living at the same address).
b) The Demographics Tabs
Personal - information used in creating the child on the system appears here in name, age, gender and address. These are all mandatory fields - i.e. you can't progress any further unless you enter something in them (if not known, enter "Unknown"). Further information, such as ethnicity, religion, who the child's main carers are, telephone numbers etc. can also be added. All details can be updated - click on "Update details" on the Personal tab and it allows access to the information fields for Additional and Identity tabs also. Although Ethnicity is not a mandatory field, you will receive an automatic notification if it is not recorded. When receiving a new contact on a child, you must begin from this page, by clicking on "Create a new contact". Please refer to Section 1.0, Contact for criteria on accepting information as a Contact.
Risks - hazards which may be posed to or by the person concerned are recorded here - there is a drop down menu of hazards in the field "Type of hazard". The Hazard category of "Risk to children" should only be entered by or at the direction of the Designated Manager (QAU manager) because there are specific criteria which must be met before a person can be so categorised. In respect of other categories of Hazard, recording them against a person must always be discussed with and sanctioned by the team management. In the field "Date Hazard Started" you must record the date on which this discussion took place and the decision was made to record a hazard. Dates and details of the incident(s) which have given rise to concern must be recorded in "Details of hazard". Although it is not a mandatory field you will not be able to proceed unless a review date is entered, which must be within six months of the "Date Hazard Started". Reviewing the hazard can take the form of a discussion between social worker and team manager (with the exception of Risk to children), though other persons involved should be consulted. When other professionals or persons have been told of the hazard, this must be recorded by clicking on "Add other professional" or "Add other person". NB completing the information in this field does not of itself cause a notification to transmit to the person concerned - it is merely a means of recording the fact that that person has been made aware of the hazard. E-mail is the best means of letting the person concerned know of the hazard.
Parental factors - this relates to the parenting capacity of the person concerned - i.e. if you are in the child's record and you want to record issues concerning their parents, such as domestic violence or drug misuse, you must move into the parent's record and record them under the Parental factors tab there. A common mistake is to then forget to move back into the child's record, which you should bear in mind. The parental factors tab contains a tick box form covering a range of issues commonly affecting parenting capacity. There is no capacity to record information further to the tick box element at this point in the system, but anything recorded here must be capable of being evidenced. This tick box form feeds through to the relevant sections of the referral and assessment elements of the child's record and you will find you can record more information in it there.
Relationships - the person concerned and their relationships as recorded in Protocol (including those fed through from SWIFT) appear here. The person whose record you are in appears on the top line as "Self". When the details of all family members are recorded in the system, this screen enables you to move easily between their case records - just click on the name of the other person, and you enter their records. It is so easy to move between case records using this screen that you may forget whose record you are in momentarily, but you can always remind yourself by looking at the top left corner of the screen or the top line in the Relationships screen.
In order to add or change records of relationships, click on "Edit relationships". This enables you to record other relationships by searching the system in the conventional way, seeking possible links within the system by clicking on "Suggest relationships" or creating a new person on the system, once you are satisfied that they are not already there. NB All relationships created here must be recorded as they stand in relation to the person whose record you are in. Mutual relationships will reproduce in both persons records automatically (i.e. if in a child's record you add in their mother, you will find in her relationships screen that the child appears automatically as her son/daughter), but non-mutual relationships must be added in each person's record (i.e. if you then record the child concerned as having a brother, the mother of the first child will not automatically appear in the brother's record as the system will not presume that they have the same mother).
Involvements - allows the recording of professional and agency involvements with the person concerned. It is vital that the management of the social work team ensure that this information is kept up to date as it is this tab that contains the information enabling invitations to reviews and other meetings to be sent from Protocol. The Professionals section relates to the involvement of social workers and support workers employed within DHSC whereas the Key Agency involvements can be used to record which other agencies and those professionals employed by them are involved with the child. If you are dealing with a professional whose name cannot be found by searching the list contained within Protocol, please alert the System Administrators at the Policy and Performance Unit and they will enter those details into Protocol.
CP - this tab includes the details of all child protection registrations. Once a decision has been made to place a child's name on the child protection register as an outcome of the child protection conference the information will feed through automatically to this screen. Registrations in other local authorities must be recorded here manually. These details must be recorded by the person receiving the information, who is responsible for making sure that the records are accurate.
CLA - contains basic details of all episodes of being looked after, fed through automatically from the case management screens in which these are recorded when the child is looked after by Knowsley. Where the child is or has been looked after by another local authority there appear to be difficulties in Protocol in that recording in this screen cannot be progressed unless the person looking after the child has been set up as a carer in Protocol. This could only be done by an AIO with the sanction of the KAFS team and may affect payments to carers. For that reason, and until this has been sorted out, recording of episodes of previous episodes of care by other local authorities in the past on your current cases should take place as a Case Note.
History -all entries in Protocol relating to the child are automatically logged in this tab. This includes some entries in the records of related people, e.g. birth of parents and siblings. The History tab contains every action on a case file and is an immensely useful way of navigating the file. It can also be configured to show a selection of related entries, i.e. health, education, etc. Entries in the history tab can be used to create one or more chronologies.
Chronology - see Section 7.0, Chronology CSICS7S below
Forms - contains a list of all forms created in relation to the child in Protocol, e.g. Contact, Referral, Initial Assessment, Conference reports etc, through which both completed and draft forms can be accessed. Also contains a drop down screen allowing the creation of a number of Knowsley specific forms, such as disruption meeting, agency enquiries and risk assessment (see relevant Business process headings below). You may also click on "Create Document" to access a range of pre-designed letters and reports for various purposes, which may be amended with details relating to the child concerned and printed as Word documents.
Case Notes - the day to day recording of events. It also allows staff members other than the assigned worker to record information on the file, i.e. messages received relating to the case (which flag up automatically to the worker when they access the child's record). To record a Case Note click on the tab and then on Add Case Note. This opens up the Update Case Note screen which requires the worker to specify whether the individual is a child, whether they have been interviewed, seen, seen alone, and their bedroom seen for the purpose of the case note and whether the case note should be linked to a particular case management process i.e. an assessment or a review. Once completed click on "Update Case Note". This leads to a screen where further details can be recorded. A drop down menu "Type of Contact" gives a range of options. Once you have chosen one of these, a brief description of the event should be recorded in "Reason for Contact" - it is important not to put too much information here as it will be this information which copies forward as an entry into the History tab, and there is ample space in the Detailed Notes and Part 2 Write Up sections for detailed recording. You should then click on the "Create" tab. There is an option to add the case note to the record of another family member (as long as the relationship is recorded in Protocol and the case is open) which can be done, once the case note has been created on the first child's record, by choosing "Update Case note" then by clicking on the relationship as it appears in the case note screen, not the name of the child whose record you wish to copy the case note to. A Case Note cannot be recorded on a case which is not open.
When a case is discussed in supervision the team manager should record it as "Discussed in supervision" in Type of Contact and in Reason for Contact. Details of any decisions made can be recorded in the Detailed Notes section and any resulting actions in the Actions section of Write Up part 2. The note should be finalised by the Team Manager.
c) The Demographics Symbols
Click here to view the demographic symbols screen shot
Above the Demographics tabs you will see a row of symbols inside circles. These provide summaries of or links to information contained within the system on this young person. They are, from left to right, as follows:
Link to Basic Demographics - as contained in the demographics tabs
Link to Care Planning - a summary of care plans, dates of referrals and other significant events
Link to Family Tree - a pictorial representation of the child's relationships as they are recorded in the Relationships tab in Demographics.
Link to Case Pathways - takes you to the currently or most recently active area of the case
Link to Health details - a summary of the child's health records as contained in Protocol
Link to Education record - a summary of the child's educational record
PART 2 - Business Processes
1.0 Contact CSICS1S
ICS processes distinguish between a Contact and a Referral. This enables the Duty Social Worker to decide, on first receiving information relating to a child, whether this information meets the criteria for a Referral, or whether the enquiry can be resolved by providing information and advice, or if the information simply needs to be recorded for future reference. Contact is the first step in the system for all cases, so while all Referrals are preceded by a Contact, not all Contacts will lead to a referral. The criteria for accepting Contact information are that the information must as a minimum:
- Relate to the needs of a specific child at levels 2 to 4 of the Knowsley model of children in need; and
- Contain sufficient information to create a record of a specific child in Protocol - in practice this can be as little as an approximate age, as other details such as name and address can be entered as "unknown" - but obviously as much identifying information as is available should be recorded. The child concerned does not necessarily have to live in Knowsley, or ordinarily be resident in Knowsley.
If information received from an external source does not meet these criteria the information should not be recorded as a contact and the person providing it should be advised that it is not being recorded.
For detailed guidance regarding dealing with contacts and referrals, See Contacts and Referrals Procedure.
1.1 Receiving Information
On receiving information from an outside source the Business Support Assistant (BSA) or Duty Social Worker (DSW) should search Protocol to see if the case is known or currently open. Searching the system must be done thoroughly in order to avoid the creation of duplicate records. This should involve the use of "wild cards" where the spelling of a name or address is uncertain. Bear it in mind that even if you are confident of the spelling of a name the person before you could have got it wrong. For example Dawson is occasionally misspelled Dorson. Substituting potentially ambiguous or unknown sections of a name with a wild card (%) will enable you to search more effectively so that %D%s%n% would find me in the system whatever spelling was used, even if someone had mistakenly added an alternative surname, as sometimes does happen. Remember also when searching on forenames that people may have more than one and if this is recorded in the system and you are not aware of it you may not find them, so for example %ill% would find Bill, William or even William Francis. If you have searched and still not found anyone don't forget to take the wild card out when you do create the child's record.
It is absolutely essential that we do not create duplicate records as doing so may effectively conceal important information from the allocated worker, but if you find you inadvertently have, please inform the system administrator immediately - the less information is contained in the duplicate, the easier it will be to rectify it.
Any address within Knowsley should be in the Gazetteer - if it is not and you are sure it is correct you must contact one of the System Administrators. An address outside Knowsley which is not already recorded in Protocol will need to be created by a System Administrator and an e-mail should be sent to them as soon as possible. In these circumstances, the person taking the call should make a note of the address given in the "Further details" text box on the Contact record but will have to record the address in the Personal section of the Demographics as "Unknown". This can be amended at a later date.
1.2 Where the Service User is not Known or the Case is Closed
If a search in Protocol produces no result, the person receiving the information must create the service user in the system - see Part 1, Demographics above. In this case, or where the service user's details are already in the system but the case is closed, the BSA/DSW should record the information as a new Contact. If the recipient of the new information is a BSA, they must complete the Contact information as far as possible, then save it and reassign it to the DSW or Team Duty Tray for a decision on whether to progress to referral or not. Unless the person providing the information refuses to give it, their phone number or other details of how they may be contacted must be included in the Contact record. The DSW must pick it up and review the information, consulting if necessary with the referrer, then decide the outcome of the contact (see Section 1.4, Outcomes of contact, below) and whether information should be copied across to a sibling.
If the Contact is accompanied by documentation (e.g. letter, CAF) this should be scanned and attached to the child's record in Protocol by the BSA.
If the child has been or is currently subject to child protection registration or looked after by another local authority this information should be noted on the Contact record and the details of periods of registration/being looked after recorded in the child's Demographics (see Part 1, Demographics above)
1.3 Mandatory Fields in the Contact Record
Certain information must be input into a Contact record otherwise it cannot be progressed. Some of these are self explanatory but others necessitate choosing from a drop down menu, which may include categories not used in ICS as they are categories used in cases recorded in SWIFT or earlier systems. The headings of all mandatory fields appear in red in Protocol. The following are those where there may be some confusion with unnecessary codes.
Contact outcome code (drop down menu)
Only categories beginning CD should be used
Contact reason code (drop down menu)
Only categories beginning CD should be used
1.4 Outcomes of Contact
These are:
- Progress to referral;
- Link to existing referral;
- Provide information/advice;
- Referral to other agency;
- No further action.
The DSW should decide if the Contact information meets the Referral criteria - a request for a service, or a notification of a child in need at level three or four, where the child is ordinarily resident in Knowsley. Contact received from another agency via a CAF should always be treated as a referral, as it is a request for a service. If the referral contains evidence or allegations of abuse or neglect, the DSW should discuss this with the team management for a decision on how to proceed immediately. Other than in the above circumstances the DSW themselves should make the decision whether to proceed to referral, based on the Referral criteria. Information on an open case which may lead to reassessment should be given the outcome "Link to existing referral". See Section 1.5, Team Management Action on Receipt of a Contact or Referral below. NB responsibility for that case remains with the allocated worker. After ticking the relevant box the DSW should finalise the Contact. If the outcome ticked is Progress to Referral the DSW will be presented with a range of options as to whom the task of completing the Referral will be allocated, and in most circumstances this will be themselves. Please bear it in mind that this simply allows the Contact information to flow forward into the Referral format - the responsibility for deciding on whether to accept the Referral, and to whom the case is to be allocated if that is necessary remains with the team management (see Section 2.0, Referral below).
If the referral criteria are not met, the DSW must decide which of the other Contact outcomes is most appropriate (provision of advice, referral to another agency, or no further action), and undertake and record the appropriate actions. Before finalising a Contact which is not to progress to Referral the social worker should reassign it to the Team Duty Tray and inform the team manager or senior practitioner of this. The team management should pick this up from the Duty Tray in order to satisfy themselves that this is an appropriate outcome. They may reassign it to the social worker if they are not in agreement with the suggested outcome or feel that further information is required. Otherwise the manager should ensure that the record is finalised and if necessary any details copied across to siblings, before the Contact is closed.
Once a Contact has been finalised the social worker/team manager will be given the option to copy the information across to a related child. In order to do this the other child and their relationship to the child concerned must already be in Protocol. Contact details are not transferred in their entirety and some of these plus the outcome of the Contact will need to be entered manually by the social worker in the related child's record.
1.5 Team Management Action on Receipt of a Contact or Referral
Where a contact has progressed to referral and the outcome has been completed the task of checking and authorising it passes via Workflow to the Team Manager's worktray. The Senior Practitioner(s) will also have access to this worktray for use in the absence of the team manager. The team management should check the content of referrals. Where they agree with the DSW's initial response they too must finalise the record, then authorise the outcome. Where the outcome involves a further action the team management will assign that piece of work to a specific social worker. A standard letter acknowledging receipt of the information which has formed the content of the Contact/Referral should be produced from the Forms tab on Protocol and sent to the referrer, signed by the team management. The team management also have the option, before they have finalised the contact/referral, of requesting further information via workflow from the social worker who has initiated it. This should always be accompanied by a discussion with the social worker as to what further information is required of them.
Contacts which do not progress to Referral will not pass to the team manager's worktray via workflow but should be assigned to the team duty tray by the worker who has recorded them. They should notify the team management of the contact and the latter should review the information contained in it to check that they agree with the proposed outcome (see Section 1.4, Outcomes of contact above).
1.6 Where Information is Received on an Open Case
If the case is already open new information should be recorded as a Contact only if it appears likely to lead to a reassessment of the child's needs - examples would be an allegation of abuse, or a request for the child to be accommodated. In these cases, after recording the information as a Contact the DSW should alert the allocated worker and/or team management for an appropriate response. The outcome of the contact must then be authorised by the team management. Where information received on an open case is of a routine nature or is not likely to lead to a reassessment, see below.
Information on an open case which does not require a reassessment of the child's needs should be recorded by the receiving worker as a Case Note. This will in many instances be the equivalent of taking a routine message and may be done by the DSW or BSA. If there is any doubt on the part of the latter that they are dealing with a routine message they should seek the opinion of the DSW or team management. Protocol will flag up a new contact or case note to the allocated worker, but if they are on leave, off sick or for any other reason not in a position to read the case note within that working day, the person entering the case note or contact on the system must alert the team management to the new information.
1.7 Recording of Complaints
Where a case is not open a complaint should be recorded as a Contact, with the outcome of Provide Information and Advice, specifying that the information is now being dealt with as a complaint and who has responsibility for handling it - usually the Team Management in the first instance. Details of any siblings also subject of the complaint should be recorded in Demographic information. Unless other services are requested the Contact should then be closed, but if the complaint concerns a sibling group it should be copied across to all. If the case remains closed during this time the resolution of the complaint should be recorded as a new Contact. The receipt of a complaint on an open case should be recorded as a Case Note, and again can be copied across to other siblings where this is appropriate. It is not necessary to include all of details of the complaint in the Case Note, or to maintain a detailed record of the progress of the complaint in Protocol. These records should be held on a separate file by the person responsible for dealing with the complaint. Only the fact that there has been a complaint, the nature of the complaint and it's resolution need be recorded in the child's record in Protocol.
For detailed advice on dealing with complaints, see Complaints and Representations - to follow
2.0 Referral CSICS2S
If the Contact information meets the referral criteria (a request for a service, notification of child in need at level three or four of the Knowsley model of need relating to a child ordinarily resident in Knowsley) the DSW should record the outcome of the Contact as a Referral and assign the task of completing the referral information to him/herself. It is, though, possible to reassign the referral to another worker at this point if the circumstances require it. The contact details and any existing demographic information will flow automatically into the referral. The DSW may need to add further details, including any discussion with the person providing the information.
2.1 Mandatory Fields in the Referral Record
Certain information must be input into a Referral record otherwise it cannot be progressed. Some of these are self explanatory but others necessitate choosing from a drop down menu, which may include categories not used in ICS (and therefore not recognised by Protocol) as they are drawn from the SWIFT system. The headings of the mandatory fields appear in red in Protocol. Most of the information in the mandatory fields will have fed through from the Contact record. An exception is:
Category of need for referral (drop down menu)
It is essential to enter a category of need (categories in the drop down menu prefixed with N and a number), and no other code in this field.
2.2 Consent to Referral
The DSW should check with the referrer that the parent of the child has given consent to the referral. If not, the referrer should be asked to seek this consent before proceeding any further, unless there is reason to believe that there may be a risk of harm to the child if assessment is delayed or if the parent is made aware of the referral.
Other than in the circumstances above, if consent to a referral is withheld by the parent the outcome of the referral should be recorded as NFA by the DSW and will then pass to the team management by Workflow for authorisation.
2.3 Where there is Believed to be a Risk of Abuse or Neglect
On receiving a referral containing allegations of abuse, neglect or harm to a child the DSW should alert the team management, or in their absence another Team Manager or the Area Children's Services Manager. Information gathering should continue, using all available sources including a CAF if there is one in existence, and enquiries of other agencies made as to whether the child concerned is known to them, referring to the Agency Enquiries form on the Forms tab in Demographics. Allegations of significant harm should always have the outcome of Initial Assessment (see Section 2.6, Outcomes of Referral below). The referral should then be finalised, and will then pass by Workflow to the Team Management for authorisation. See Section 3.0, Initial Assessment.
2.4 Referrals of Unborn Children
When information is received in respect of an unborn child in a family where a previous child has become looked after, is subject of a child protection plan, or where a person assessed as a Risk to Children (see Part 1b, The Demographic Tabs above) has become a member of the household, there are clearly grounds for believing that the unborn child may be at risk of abuse or neglect, so information received at Contact will meet the referral criteria. The outcome of the Referral process should be Initial Assessment, which should in these cases always lead to a Strategy Meeting. See Section 10.3, Strategy Meetings on Unborn Children below.
2.5 Children Subject to a CP Plan by Another Local Authority
Where another local authority notifies DHSC that a child subject to a child protection plan in that area has moved into Knowsley, this should be recorded as a referral. If taken in one of the social work teams the team should inform the Area Children's Services Manager and discuss the referral with a Principal Officer (QAU).
If the move is permanent, the referral should be accepted, progressed to Initial Assessment and authorised with the outcome of Strategy Discussion. The team management should discuss the case with the relevant manager in the other local authority, and this should be recorded as the strategy discussion. The outcome of this strategy discussion should be s47 enquiries. The police VPU in Knowsley and any other relevant local agencies should be notified of the child's presence and the CP issues, and any concerns they have will form part of the S47 enquiries, which will be based on the information given by the referring authority. A core assessment should be initiated and an Initial Child Protection Case Conference recorded as the outcome of the strategy meeting. This will transfer as a request for a conference to the QAU via workflow and a conference must be arranged within 15 working days of the strategy discussion.
If the move is temporary, and the other local authority confirms that it will retain responsibility for the case, the information should be taken as a Contact and Referral which should state that the young person concerned is subject of a child protection plan, including details of the authority responsible and allocated worker. The outcome of the Referral should be NFA, (unless the other local authority has requested services for the child from Knowsley ) and the registration details - date, category, local authority and any comments added to the child's demographics under the CP tab. The relevant PO at the QAU should be informed and they should contact their counterpart in the other local authority to verify the information given in the contact.
If the Contact is received at the QAU the above information should be taken as a Contact, the demographic information available recorded and the Contact reassigned to the relevant area team's duty tray for the manager to complete the processes above.
2.6 Outcomes of Referral
There are five possible outcomes of the Referral process:
- Progress to Initial Assessment;
- Referral to another agency;
- Provide Information and advice;
- No further action;
- Other action.
These outcomes are mutually exclusive. The DSW should make a decision as to which outcome is most appropriate based on the information in the Referral. They should finalise the referral and will then be given the option to copy the referral across to a related child. In order to do this the other child and their relationship to the child concerned must already be in Protocol, and they must be at the same stage in the case management process - their referral must be open in the system. Referral details are not transferred in their entirety and some of these plus the outcome of the referral will need to be entered manually by the social worker in the related child's record.
Once the decision whether to copy across referral information to a sibling has been made, the referral will pass to the team management via workflow for authorisation. The Team Management should then review the referral and decide whether to accept the social worker's recommendation. They may send it back to the social worker for further information. Once they are satisfied with the referral they should finalise it and authorise the recommended outcome. A standard letter should be produced once this decision has been made, acknowledging the referral. N.B where Knowsley PCT, Children's Services Department (education), a Knowsley school, or a Knowsley voluntary organisation including Surestart is the source of a referral it should take the form of a CAF document or e-CAF. The receiving team is justified in refusing a referral in any other form from one of these sources unless it contains substantiated concerns of abuse or neglect.
2.7 Case Transfer to Family Centre/Flexible Support Team
A request to the Family Centre or FST is no longer to be regarded as a referral to another agency. Any case receiving services from the Family Centre or FST without the involvement of the social work team will remain open to the division in ICS. Where the duty officer feels a referral is appropriate for Family Centre/FST involvement but does not require the continued involvement of the social work team they must discuss it with their team management. If they concur they should determine the outcome of the referral to be an Initial Assessment, and this must be carried out by the social work team. The social worker should contact the Family Centre/FST management and discuss the case with them. The Initial Assessment and Initial plan should be provided to the Family Centre/FST management in a written format prior to the Assessment being finalised. This replaces the CF6 form. It cannot be emphasised enough that the transfer of a case in these circumstances should only be by agreement. If the Family Centre/FST management are not in agreement the case must remain with the team. If agreement is reached the case should be reassigned to a member of the Family Centre/FST management. If the case remains open for longer than three months the FC/FST manager must initiate a discussion with the Social work team management. The case may be reassigned to a member of the social work team if it becomes clear that a Core Assessment is required (see Section 4.0, Core Assessment below) or there is an agreement between the FC/FST management and the team management that a strategy meeting is required, (see Section 10.0, Strategy Meeting/Discussion below).
2.8 Where Disputes Arise
Occasionally disputes arise between agencies making referrals to the DHSC and the team concerned. These disputes typically concern issues where the referring agency feels that there is evidence of a risk of significant harm, or that their seeking consent from the parents of the child concerned is unnecessary due to the degree of concern and the team management disagree. It is essential to resolve these issues speedily and establish a consensus between the agencies concerned as to the needs of the child and the manner in which these should be addressed. Knowsley now has a Dispute Resolution process (see Section 15.0, Dispute Resolution below) which it is the responsibility of the referring agency to invoke.
3.0 Initial Assessment CSICS3S
Where the outcome of a Referral is Initial Assessment the Team Management must assign the task to a social worker within 24 hours of receipt of the contact. The assigned worker should make sure that all agencies currently involved with the child are correctly recorded on the system in the Involvements tab (see Part 1, Demographics above). As well as those agencies currently involved with the child and any previously involved who may have relevant information, an initial assessment should also involve the family. It is a requirement of the Children's Act 2004 to involve the child in the Initial Assessment. The child should be seen during the Initial Assessment, and where they are of sufficient age and understanding, their views should be sought and recorded, but in those cases where urgency dictates a swift conclusion, the views of another professional who has seen the child and is able to report information relevant to the referral may take the place of the social worker seeing the child personally. This should be made clear in the Initial Assessment. This applies also in those cases where the child is unusually difficult to engage or has specific communication needs. If for some reason it is not possible to see the child at all during an initial assessment (for example if the child has gone missing), the reason must be recorded in the Initial Assessment. It should be borne in mind that this amendment in the legislation was made in response to instances where the local authority's decision to close a case without the child being seen led to a child abuse tragedy. Therefore a case should on no account be closed without the child in question having been seen and their views recorded if possible.
See Initial Assessment Procedure and Framework for Assessment Procedure
3.1 Progressing the Initial Assessment
While the Initial Assessment must be completed within seven days of the referral, it should be completed more quickly where it is clear that there is a need to take action urgently. There will be certain cases where this is a clear cut decision - for example where it is demonstrated that a child has suffered or is at immediate risk of suffering significant harm. The relevant information substantiating these concerns should be recorded in the Initial Assessment, a Strategy meeting/discussion organised by telephone and then recorded as an outcome of the Initial Assessment. Even in these cases it will be possible to include information derived from the necessary processes of consultation with the agencies involved during the course of completing the referral, or from background knowledge of the family, in the Initial Assessment.
There will be other cases where there have been allegations of abuse and neglect but no evidence of immediate danger to the child, or any necessity for a criminal investigation to take place - an example of this would be where a number of referrals for domestic violence have been received over a specific period. In cases such as these, while a Strategy meeting is the proper outcome, the gathering of further information which will inform the decisions to be made by the Strategy meeting will assist the process and can take place prior to that outcome being initiated. Ultimately the decision as to how much information is required in an Initial Assessment before a strategy meeting is initiated is a social work judgement which is the responsibility of the Team Management. Two principles should, though be applied:
- The purpose of an Initial Assessment is to decide the direction in which the case needs to progress. Where there is evidence which justifies immediate protective action, there is no point in prolonging the Initial Assessment;
and - The Strategy meeting is an outcome of the Initial Assessment, and continuing an Initial Assessment beyond the Strategy meeting is not recognised as a social work process in the Integrated Children's System. See Section 10.0, Strategy meeting/Discussion.
3.2 Completing an Initial Assessment
The Assessment Framework must always guide assessment processes - the diagrammatic image of this is reproduced below but see Section 4.5, Carrying out a Core Assessment below for more detailed guidance. The framework underpins assessment at all levels, so completing it with these categories in mind will assist should the case progress further.
Click here to view the Assessment Triangle
3.3 Consulting other Agencies
Other agencies should be consulted during the course of an initial assessment. Where the referral information contains allegations of abuse and neglect or serious child care concern, it is not necessary to seek permission from parents before consulting other agencies. In other circumstances it is good practice to discuss with parents the involvement of other agencies in an assessment but if a parent were strongly opposed to a particular agency being consulted then the opportunity to carry out a useful assessment would be compromised. In these circumstances the interests of the child is the paramount consideration in deciding whether to proceed with the assessment without the parents' agreement or not. Social workers should seek advice from their team management on individual cases where this is a problem.
3.4 Outcomes of the Initial Assessment
A range of outcomes are possible, presented as a column of tick boxes as follows:
- Initiate Strategy discussion;
- Core assessment;
- Specialist assessment;
- Provide accommodation;
- Initiate legal action;
- Provide short term services;
- Referral to another agency;
- Other action;
- No further action.
Some of these outcomes can be combined with others - exceptions being No further action, Other action, Referral to another agency, and Provide short term services - the latter will remain greyed out until the Initial Plan has been completed. This option should be used where the assessment indicates that the identified needs can be met, or that outstanding issues can be resolved, within a short space of time. Once the assessment has been finalised it passes via workflow to the team management to review it and authorise it, and the manager must decide whether to reassign the tasks entailed by the outcome or pass it back to the allocated worker. "Other action" will effectively lead to case closure once details of any action undertaken are recorded.
3.5 Initial Plan
The Initial plan follows the same format as all other plans in Protocol, specifying the assessed need of the child in the terms of the Assessment Framework, what the desired outcomes of intervention are and what services are to be provided to achieve those outcomes. The Initial Plan is part of the Initial Assessment format in Protocol and can be used where a time limited intervention with the provision of short term services is required on the basis of an initial assessment. Where Strategy Meeting is the outcome of the Initial Assessment it is possible to open the Initial Plan by clicking on the box in the Pathway screen (see below). If the strategy meeting does not then lead to s47 enquiries and/or a core assessment, the case can remain open and can be managed via the Initial Plan. If the Initial Plan is not opened at this stage, the options for continued involvement are very limited should the strategy meeting not lead to s47 enquiries or require a core assessment. (Courtesy of Hugh Vint's hints and tips).
4.0 Core Assessment CSICS4S
Core assessments can be started as the outcome of an Initial Assessment or a Strategy Meeting/Discussion, but can also be initiated at any time, once an Initial Assessment has been completed. Please note that information from all earlier stages in the Business Processes can be copied forward into the core assessment in Protocol/ICS - this information can then be amended if necessary. A core assessment should always be undertaken in the following circumstances (see Sections 4.1 - 4.4 below):
See Core Assessment Procedure and Initial and Core Assessment Guidance (For detailed Social Work Procedures)
4.1 Where a Child is to Become Looked After
A core assessment should always have been undertaken when a child becomes, or is about to become looked after. It can be initiated as an outcome of an initial assessment or can be started by selecting the Core Assessment box in the main Pathway diagram. If a child becomes looked after without a core assessment having been undertaken, a core assessment should be initiated immediately. For those cases where a young person has been looked after for over 9 months, the completion of an Assessment and Progress Record (see Section 21.0, Assessment and Progress Record) supercedes the requirement for a Core Assessment.
See Decision to Look After Procedure for Social Work Procedures
4.2 As Part of S47 Enquiries
A core assessment is required whenever a strategy meeting decides that s47 enquiries should take place. This is not a workflow action and must be initiated by the social worker on the date of the strategy meeting. See Strategy Meeting Procedure for Social Work Procedures
4.3 For a Disabled Child/Young Person
All children who fall within the criteria of the children with disabilities team should have core assessments as the outcome of their initial assessment (this does not exclude other possible outcomes also). It therefore makes sense to start collecting information at an early stage so that it can be copied forward.
4.4 Where the Level of Intervention in the Life of the Child is such that a Core Assessment is Necessary
The team management should authorise a core assessment in all circumstances where there is to be involvement in the life of the child and the family which goes beyond that which can be comprehended within the initial plan (see Section 3.0, Initial Assessment for Social Work Procedures). In effect this means that all children who fall within the Child in Need processes (see Section 5.0, The Child's Plan) also require a Core Assessment.
4.5 Carrying out a Core Assessment
A core assessment is always a multi agency assessment. The agencies involved with a child who is subject of a core assessment should expect to make a significant contribution to it. Their role in doing so should be discussed at the planning meeting and the relevant part of the printed versions of the ICS core assessment should be given to them. Each agency will have a contribution document which the social worker should ensure their representative in the care planning meeting receives. It is their responsibility to complete it and they should return it within 21 days of the initiation of the Core Assessment. If this request is refused or not complied with please report this to your line manager who should query it with the agency concerned and if there are still difficulties refer the matter to their Area Children's Services Manager. The information contained in a contribution from another agency should be typed into Protocol by a BSA in the social work team, which will require the Social worker to reassign the task of completing the core assessment temporarily to the BSA. Once this task is completed, the BSA should reassign the core assessment to the social worker immediately. A core assessment should be completed within 35 days of initiation.
See Core Assessment Procedure and Initial and Core Assessment Guidance for Social Work Procedures and guidance4.6 National Assessment Framework
The Assessment Framework breaks the analysis of need down into three interrelated domains, each of which has a number of dimensions. The following are taken directly from the DoH guidance.
4.7 The Developmental Needs of the Child
Health - includes growth and development as well as physical and mental well being. The impact of genetic factors and of any impairment should be considered. It involves receiving appropriate health care when ill, an adequate and nutritious diet, exercise, immunisations and developmental checks, dental and optical care and, for older children, appropriate advice and information on issues that have an impact on health, including sex education and substance misuse.
Education - covers all areas of a child's cognitive development which begins from birth. Includes opportunities, for play and interaction with other children, to have access to books, to acquire a range of skills and interests, to experience success and achievement. Involves an adult interested in educational activities, progress and achievements, who takes account of the child's starting point and any special educational needs.
Emotional and behavioural development - concerns the appropriateness of response demonstrated in feelings and actions by a child, initially to parents and caregivers, and as the child grows older, to others beyond the family. Includes nature and quality of early attachments, characteristics of temperament, adaptation to change, response to stress and degree of appropriate self control.
Identity - concerns the child's growing sense of self as a separate and valued person. Includes the child's view of self and abilities, self image and self esteem, and having a positive sense of individuality. Race, religion, age, gender, sexuality and disability may all contribute to this. Feelings of belonging and acceptance by family, peer group and wider society, including other cultural groups.
Family and social relationships - the development of empathy and the capacity to place oneself in another's shoes. Includes a stable and affectionate relationship with parents or caregivers, good relationships with siblings, increasing importance of age appropriate friendships with peers and significant persons in the child's life and response of family to these relationships.
Social presentation - concerns the child's growing understanding of the way in which appearance, behaviour, and any impairment are perceived by the outside world and the impression being created. Includes appropriateness of dress for age, gender and culture and religion; cleanliness and personal hygiene, and availability of advice from parents or caregivers about presentation in different settings.
Self care skills - concerns the acquisition by a child of practical, emotional, and communication competencies required for increasing independence. Includes early practical skills of dressing and feeding, opportunities to gain confidence and practical skills to undertake activities away from the family and independent living skills as older children. Includes encouragement to acquire social problem solving approaches. Special attention should be given to the impact of impairment and other vulnerabilities, and on social circumstances affecting these in the development of self care skills.
4.8 Parenting Capacity
Basic care - providing for the child's physical needs and appropriate medical and dental care. Includes provision of food, drink, warmth, shelter, clean and appropriate clothing and adequate personal hygiene.
Ensuring safety - ensuring the child is adequately protected from harm or danger. Includes protection from significant harm or danger, and from contact with unsafe adults/other children and from self harm. Recognition of hazards and danger in the home and elsewhere.
Emotional warmth - ensuring the child's emotional needs are met and giving the child a sense of being specially valued and a positive sense of their own racial and cultural identity. Includes ensuring the child's requirement for secure, stable and affectionate relationships with significant adults, with appropriate sensitivity and responsiveness to the child's needs. Appropriate physical contact, comfort and cuddling sufficient to demonstrate warm regard, praise and encouragement.
Stimulation - promoting the child's learning and intellectual development through encouragement and cognitive stimulation and promoting social opportunities. Includes facilitating the child's cognitive development and potential through interaction, communication, talking and responding to the child's play, and promoting educational opportunities. Enabling the child to experience success and ensuring school attendance or equivalent opportunity.
Guidance and boundaries - enabling the child to regulate their own emotions and behaviour. The key parental tasks are demonstrating and modelling appropriate behaviour and control of emotions and interactions with others, and guidance which involves setting boundaries, so that the child is able to develop an internal model of moral values and conscience, and social behaviour appropriate for the society within which they will grow up. The aim is to enable the child to grow into an autonomous adult, holding their own values, and able to demonstrate appropriate behaviour with others rather then having to be dependent on rules outside themselves. This includes not overprotecting children from exploratory and learning experiences. Includes problem solving, anger management, consideration for others, and effective discipline and shaping of behaviour.
Stability - providing a sufficiently stable family environment to enable a child to develop and maintain a secure attachment to the primary caregiver(s) in order to ensure optimal development. Includes ensuring secure attachments are not disrupted, providing consistency of emotional warmth over time and responding in a similar manner to the same behaviour. Parental responses change and develop according to a child's developmental progress. In addition, ensuring children keep in contact with important family members and significant others.
4.9 Family and Environmental Factors
Family history and functioning - Family history includes both genetic and psycho-social factors. Family functioning is influenced by who is living in the household and how they are related to the child; significant changes in family/household composition; history of childhood experiences of parents; chronology of significant life events and their meaning to family members; nature of family functioning, including sibling relationships and their impact on the child; parental strengths and difficulties, including those of an absent parent; the relationship between separated parents.
Wider family - those people considered by the child and/or their parents to be members of the extended family. Includes related and non-related persons and absent family members.
Housing - the accommodation, it's basic amenities and it's facilities and their suitability to the age, stage of development and any disabilities which the child may have. Includes the exterior and immediate surroundings as well as the interior. Basic amenities include water, heating, lighting, sanitation, cooking facilities, sleeping arrangements, and the general standards of cleanliness, hygiene and safety and their actual or potential impact on the child.
Employment - who is working within the household, the nature and pattern of their work and the impact of this or the absence of work on the child .
Income - income available over a period of time, including benefits. Benefit entitlement and sufficiency of income to meet the family's needs. Other resources available to the family. The impact of any financial difficulties on the child.
Family's social integration - the wider context of the local neighbourhood and community and it's impact on the child and their parents. Includes the degree of the family's integration or isolation, their peer groups, friendship and social networks and the importance attached to them
Community resources - all facilities and services in a neighbourhood, including universal services of primary health care, day care and schools, places of worship, transport, shops and leisure activities. Includes availability, accessibility, and standard of resources and impact on the family including disabled members.
4.10 Outcomes of a Core Assessment
Outcomes of a core assessment are as follows:
- Initiate strategy meeting
- Provide services (s17)
- Immediate legal action to protect the child
- Specialist assessment
- Provide accommodation
- Referral to another agency
- No further action
- Other
4.11 Completing a Core Assessment
The core assessment should be the subject of regular discussion with the Team Management during it's completion. Once completed the core assessment must be finalised by the social worker, whereupon it will pass to the team management via Workflow for authorisation. The child and family concerned must be made aware of the conclusions reached by the core assessment, and their views in response recorded. A printed version can then be produced to share with the family. The implications of the core assessment for the child's plan must be considered. This may involve a revision of the planned outcomes.
5.0 The Child's Plan CSICS5S
The child's plan follows the same format as all other plans in Protocol - needs are identified on the basis of an assessment, outcomes are specified, and the services required to achieve those outcomes are described. It is to be used when services are being provided to a child/young person where the assessed needs of the child indicate involvement over a period of months rather than weeks and those needs do not involve child protection or looked after processes. Supervision orders are included among examples of a child in need process.
5.1 Initiating the Child's Plan
The child's plan may be initiated via the following routes:
- As a development of an Initial Plan which was completed as part of the Initial Assessment processes;
- As an outcome of a Core Assessment (see above - Provide Services under s17);
- As a plan to provide continuing services to a child following their removal from the Child Protection Register or the cessation of a period of being Looked After.
5.2 Writing and Updating the Child's Plan
The Child's plan follows basically the same format as the other plans in ICS/Protocol. The advice concerning the completion of the Care Plan. When writing or updating the child's plan the social worker should always be mindful of whether it is meeting the child's identified needs. The Child's Developmental Needs should be completed in full, but where there are no needs identified in the sub-sections under the headings of Parenting Capacity and Family and Environmental factors, the relevant box may be left blank. However each case is individual and needs to be thoroughly assessed. Once finalised the plan must be authorised by the team management.
See Section 3, Decision to Look After Procedure for a Care Plan in relation to a child who is Looked After and Child in Need Plans and Reviews Procedure in relation to a Child in Need (Detailed Procedures for Social Workers)
5.3 Management Authorisation
Where the services to be provided to a child have been agreed as part of the plan by the team management but require budgetary outlay the appropriate level of management should be consulted and their approval granted before the plan is authorised. This discussion should be recorded as a Case Note in Protocol and any documentation (ie CF46) attached to the child's record. The plan should then be authorised by the team management in Protocol.
Where the request is for provision by a third party (e.g. a private nursery placement) the social worker should seek the agreement of their manager who should discuss it with their ACSM (or the duty ACSM in their absence). If they agree that such a service is required, the social worker should complete form CF47 which should be approved by their manager and sent to the Children's Services Manager for a decision on whether the service should be agreed.
6.0 Child in Need Review CSICS6S
The child's plan must be reviewed on a regular basis. The review meeting should involve representatives of the agencies most closely involved. Planning meetings taking place in between reviews should be recorded in Case Notes. Where the Child in need review concerns a child subject to a supervision order the relevant Principal Officer should be consulted prior to the meeting and invited as chair.
See Child in Need Plans and Reviews Procedure for Social Work Procedures
6.1 Review Authorisation by Team Management
The social worker must complete the first part of the review record, which will pass by workflow to the team management and must be authorised. The review meeting should then take place and must be recorded as part 2 of the review record by the social worker. The outcomes of the review will then inform the updating (or creation) of the CIN plan. Consideration should be given at this stage as to whether the existing plan is meeting the child's needs. Alternatives would be to move into Child protection processes (see Section 12.0, Initial Child Protection Case Conference CSICS12S below) via the Strategy meeting or to the child becoming looked after by CLA processes (see Section 16.0, Pre-CLA Process CSICS16S below), updating or creating a Core Assessment (see Section 4.0, Core Assessment CSICS4S above) or the case closed (see Section 8.0, Case Closure CSICS8S below). NB in cases where immediate safeguarding concerns emerge during the CIN processes, proceed directly to a Strategy Meeting/Discussion following consultation with team management.
6.2 Updating the CIN Plan
The CIN plan should be updated in line with the outcomes of the CIN review following the Team Management's authorisation.
7.0 Chronology CSICS7S
In Protocol multiple chronologies can be created by selecting events from the History tab in the child's demographic information. The History tab holds details of every event recorded in Protocol on the child. Once added into the chronology from the History tab these events can be edited. A basic chronology should be initiated from the point at which it is decided to begin a core assessment.
7.1 Events to be Included in a Basic Chronology
- All contacts and referrals;
- Child protection enquiries and requests for the child to be looked after;
- Previous episodes of being looked after or child protection registration and the reasons why these began and/or ended;
- Family events such as birth of siblings, separation of parents, formation of new relationships by parents, death of significant people.
In respect of children born into families where older siblings have become looked after or placed on the child protection register, or where there has been serious concern for them, the events listed in a - d above pertaining to those siblings may not appear in the History tab of the child subject of the chronology. They should be added to the chronology as a new entry where they have a bearing on the needs of the child subject of the chronology; - School admissions, exclusions, and reasons for these, dates of statementing, academic achievements;
- Records of health events (excluding routine immunisations and developmental checks) including dates on which serious health conditions or disabilities were first noted or diagnosed.
This is not an exhaustive list. A chronology should also contain any other significant events in the life of the child. The decision as to what constitutes a significant event, over and above those events listed at (a - f above) is for the social worker to make in the context of the case, in consultation with their team management.
8.0 Case Closure CSICS8S
There is a specific case closure record in Protocol, which must be selected by the allocated social worker before the case can be closed. The child and carer should be consulted and their views recorded in the closure record. All services being provided and the involvements of ICS professionals should be closed and the record finalised by the social worker then authorised by the team management.
8.1 Transfer of Responsibility to Adult Services
Where a child is assessed as having care needs that are likely to last into adulthood the Children with Disabilities Team will make a referral to the relevant adult services team, around the time of the child's 16th birthday. They will request the allocation of the case to a specific case worker who will be invited to all future reviews and any other meetings concerning the child during the course of which arrangements will be made for responsibility for the case to transfer at or before the Child's 18th birthday. Where the child is the responsibility of the Young Persons Team, then see Section 23.0, Pathway Plan below.
8.2 Transfer of Responsibility to Another Local Authority
Where another local authority is to take over responsibility this should be agreed as part of a review process for children looked after or on the child protection register, and between the team managers of the respective local authorities for children in need. A standard letter format is available in Protocol for the transfer of the case, which should be sent to the other local authority team manager following which acknowledgement should be received before the case is closed.
8.3 Transfer of Responsibility Between Social Work Teams within Knowsley MBC
There is a transfer process within Protocol which involves confirmation by the transferring manager that the case has been appropriately dealt with and all relevant processes completed. The case may, though, be transferred between individuals by reassignment of the relevant task.
9.0 Missing Children CSICS9S
NB this process is currently under revision by a subgroup of the Knowsley SCB.
9.1 Missing Child Process - CLA/CP
Where a child who is currently looked after, or whose name is on the child protection register goes missing the police should be notified (once it is clear that the child is missing, and is not, for instance, simply late in returning home). The person notifying the police, who should be a carer or other person who can describe the child and the circumstances in which s/he went missing, must notify the social work team/EDT. Parents should be notified by the social work team or EDT if not already aware. This should be recorded as a case note. If the child does not return within 24 hours, they should be recorded as missing in Protocol in Personal details in the child's demographics and the relevant Principal Officer and Area Service Manager informed by the team management. A strategy meeting/discussion should be called after 48 hours, for which the Principal Officer is responsible, involving the social work team, the police VPU and other parties as necessary, which may include the carer/parent and Knowsley legal services. The meeting should be chaired by a Principal Officer and organised by the QAUBSA. Tasks in the enquiry should be allocated at the meeting and a further strategy meeting/discussion should be planned to take place every 48 hours to ensure the progression of the enquiries until the child is found. In circumstances where the child is thought to be at particular risk of harm, or if the child is not found after seven days, senior management should be consulted with a view to releasing information to the media.
9.2 Missing Child - CIN and Children not Currently Receiving Services
Where a child who is subject of a child in need plan or not currently open as a case to DHSC has been reported missing, the police should contact the social work team after 5 days. If the case is not open a Contact and Referral should be created by the duty officer and the team management should allocate the case to a social worker for an Initial Assessment. The parents must be consulted and their consent sought, but if it is not forthcoming then it will be necessary to proceed without it. If the child has not returned within 24 hours of the referral decision, the relevant Principal Officer and Area Children's Services Manager should be informed, and this information recorded as a Case Note, and a strategy meeting called as for the process above. The team management should record the child as missing in Protocol, and the process should then follow that described in Section 9.1, Missing Child Process - CLA/CP above.
For detailed Social Work Procedures, See Merseyside Protocol for Children Missing from Home and Care.
10.0 Strategy Meeting/Discussion CSICS10S
A strategy meeting may be called at any time on an open case where there is adjudged to be a risk of significant harm to a child but is listed as an option for the outcome of Initial and Core Assessments. It may take the form of an actual meeting or a discussion or series of discussions between professionals, co-ordinated by the team management of the relevant children and families team.
For detailed Social Work Procedures, see Strategy Discussion Procedure.
10.1 Initiating a Strategy Meeting.
The case must be open. If the case is a new case Contact and Referral must be completed and Initial Assessment started. For cases already in the system which have progressed beyond this point, a strategy meeting/discussion may be initiated at any time. If it appears that a strategy meeting/discussion is required, either on an open case or as a result of an Initial Assessment, the Team management should ensure that those to be invited are contacted as soon as possible by telephone and informed of the proposed date and time.
10.2 Recording a Strategy Meeting in ICS/Protocol
On new cases - Initial assessment and Initial plan should be completed by the social worker and the outcome authorised as Strategy meeting by Team management. On cases already open and beyond the point of Initial Assessment, Strategy meeting should be initiated in the system by the social worker by clicking the relevant box in the Case Pathway.
In all cases - the strategy meeting must be reassigned to a BSA. The BSA must then reassign the Meeting Outcomes to themselves prior to entering the date, time and meeting attendees in the system.
In all cases - Team management should ensure that a handwritten Strategy meeting ICS updated (Team) document is completed at the meeting.
Team management must give a copy of the above to the BSA who should use Strategy Meeting ICS template (BSA) to guide them as to where the information on the handwritten document is recorded in ICS/Protocol, using the corresponding numbered sections on each document and the instructions contained in the template. The template itself is purely a guide and does not need to be filled in by the BSA.
Once the information is transferred into the system and saved, but before it is finalised the Team management should use their subscription to the BSA's worktray to pick up the Strategy meeting record and finalise it.
10.3 Strategy Meeting - Unborn Child
When an unborn child is referred in a family where previous children have become looked after, are subject to a child protection plan, or where a member of the household is assessed as a Risk to Children (see Part 1b, The Demographic Tabs), a Strategy meeting should be chosen as the outcome of the Initial Assessment. It is very likely that these situations will lead to an Initial Child Protection Case Conference, unless there has been a radical change in circumstances. Unless the child is due to be born imminently, the strategy meeting should resolve to carry out a Core Assessment on the family and to reconvene at a suitable date. The decision may then be made at the next strategy meeting, depending on the findings of the Core Assessment, to progress to S47 enquiries and an Initial Child Protection Case Conference (ICPCC). In those cases where the child's expected date of delivery is within six weeks of the strategy meeting, the findings of the Initial Assessment should guide the decision to commence S47 enquiries and an ICPCC, but a Core Assessment must be initiated to accompany the S47 enquiries and inform the conference decision.
10.4 Outcomes of the Strategy Meeting
The outcomes of a strategy meeting are as follows:
- Start s47 enquiries as part of a core assessment;
- Disciplinary procedure;
- Complete core assessment under s17;
- Police investigation;
- Arrange follow up strategy discussion;
- Referral to other agency;
- No further action.
It is possible to choose more than one outcome of a strategy meeting. Wherever there is reason to believe a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, S47 enquiries should be initiated. Unless it is possible to decide that the case should progress to an initial child protection conference at the first strategy meeting, a follow up strategy meeting should be chosen as an outcome in addition to S47 enquiries, at which the outcome of those enquiries can be reviewed. This may take the form of a discussion between the parties. The due date of the Initial Child Protection Conference is set in the system as at 15 working days of the date of the last strategy meeting. Where s47 enquiries or Complete core assessment under s17 are chosen the core assessment must be initiated manually on the date of the strategy meeting. In the case of Disciplinary procedure this refers to action that may be recommended where a member of staff is deemed by the meeting to have potentially been negligent. This action should be taken up by the team manager through HR procedures and further details of any disciplinary investigation will be recorded separately.
10.5 Further Considerations
In addition to the outcomes the strategy meeting may recommend further actions and timescales for them. In this the strategy meeting document is very similar to that currently in use and is self explanatory. Where there are such actions, which will affect decisions to be made on the case, the option of holding a further strategy meeting may be chosen as the outcome of the meeting.
11.0 S47 Enquiries CSICS11S
The team management should consider whether the worker currently assigned to the case has the necessary experience and capacity to deal with it and if not should reassign the task to another worker at this stage. Agency enquiries, if not already completed as part of the previous assessment processes should be initiated now by the social worker.
11.1 Collecting Information
The social worker should record the outcome of the enquiries undertaken by the agencies involved in the Strategy meeting and discuss with the team management their implications. They should use this to formulate a judgement as to whether the child is at ongoing risk of significant harm. This should be recorded as the decision of the s47 enquiries. If there is an Initial Plan in place it should be updated at this point.
11.2 Actions to be taken as a Result of S47 Enquiries
- Initial child protection case conference;
- Other agency to monitor child's welfare;
- Core assessment;
- Initiate legal action;
- Provision of services s17;
- No further action.
These are self explanatory but it must be noted that the decision to initiate legal action can only be taken following consultation and agreement with senior management. A Core Assessment should be initiated by clicking into the box on the Pathway diagram on the day the decision is made. Where the decision is for another agency to monitor the child's welfare their agreement must have been secured and the person responsible noted in a case note on the child's file.
12.0 Initial Child Protection Case Conference CSICS12S
When the outcome of s47 enquiries is Initial Child Protection Case Conference (ICPCC) there should be a discussion between the team management/social worker and the relevant Principal Officer about the reason for the conference. Protocol will generate two worktray tasks. One, to organise the conference, goes to the QAU worktray. The other, to write the pre-meeting report (case conference report) goes to the social worker.
12.1 Conferencing the Unborn Child
The pathway to a conference for an unborn child where there is a risk of significant harm must begin with Contact, Referral, Initial Assessment and Strategy meeting. It should then progress to Core Assessment, followed by a reconvened strategy meeting which may then decide to progress to a child protection conference. Where the birth of the child is imminent however and the initial assessment indicates that there is a risk of significant harm, the initial strategy meeting should progress to S47 enquiries with core assessment, and then to conference.
12.2 Organising the ICPCC
The task must be picked up from the worktray by the QAU BSA who should let the relevant Principal Officer know. The time and date of the conference should then be agreed between the PO and the social worker/team management and the QAU BSA notified of this. The QAU BSA should contact the social worker to ask who requires an invitation and the social worker should send an e-mail attaching a conference/review invitation list. Any professional who needs to be invited and is not already recorded in the Protocol system must be added at the request of the social worker via an e-mail to ITD helpdesk (ask Project team for advice) otherwise their involvement in the conference cannot be recorded. This must be requested by the social worker to the AIO attached to their team. This does not apply to relatives, friends or other parties who the parents may wish to bring along as supporters, or to students or other professionals attending as observers. Their presence which is at the discretion of the conference chair, should be noted in the minutes by the Minute Taker. Organising the meeting uses the standard Protocol meeting organisation format.
The QAU BSA should use the Internal Process to invite all DHSC staff on the invitation list. PCT staff should be invited by e-mail using a standard format. Letters of invitation should be sent to any other parties including the parents. These may be signed by the BSA. All of those invited by internal processes will automatically receive an item in their personal diary in Protocol. The QAU BSA should also set up the conference in Central Review in Outlook as a meeting, with invitees being the social worker, the team manager, and the Principal Officer. The relevant team resource calendar (RC DHSC ....TEAM NAME) should be included as a Resource in the Invitation format in Outlook. It is absolutely essential that electronic calendar entries in Outlook and Protocol are synchronised. If there is any necessity to change the date and time of the conference, the QAU BSA should, as the conference organiser, change the date and time of the conference in both Protocol and Outlook. Any conference date entered or rearranged in Protocol must be entered or amended in Central Review, by the same person at the same time. This is a crucial link between dates arranged in Protocol and the Calendar facility in Outlook.
After completing the tasks involved in organising the conference the QAU BSA should record responses to the invitations and the receipt of reports. These reports, if held in an electronic format can be attached directly to the child's file in Protocol, or if in hard copy should be scanned by the QAU BSA and then attached. Hard copies should be passed to the social work team for inclusion on the paper file.
12.3 Conference Pre-Meeting Report (Case Conference Report)
The social worker will receive an item in their worktray "Write conference pre-meeting report". On opening this they should use the copy forward facility to select information already in the system to bring forward unless it is inappropriate to do so i.e. the information is known to be out of date or inaccurate. Please remember that any information fed through in this way can be amended/updated in the pre-meeting report until it has been authorised by the team management. The assessment of the child's needs in the conference pre-meeting report must consider the issues which have led to the conference being called in terms of the child's needs and the parents capacity to meet them. The analysis section should consider the likelihood of significant harm and must contain the report's recommendations, principally one relating to the creation of a child protection plan and the category of child protection concern. In writing the report the social worker will be given the opportunity to carry forward into it the parenting issues relating to the child's parents which is contained in the demographic information (see Part 1b, The Demographic Tabs above). Each individual child requires their own pre-meeting report. It is not possible at this stage to copy across information from one child's report to a sibling's, as it is in respect of contact, referral and initial assessment. The contents of the report must be discussed with the parents and the child (if age appropriate) and their views recorded prior to the report being finalised and authorised in Protocol (the report can be printed at any time as long as it has been saved). Once completed the social worker should finalise the report which will then transfer via workflow to the team manager for authorisation. At any stage prior to this the Team Management can see the contents of the report in the child's record, but only the social worker can change it. Once authorised the social worker must notify the Principal Officer concerned. This should be a minimum of two days in advance of the conference. Any person on the Protocol system will have the opportunity to read the report at any stage in it's preparation. The social work team BSA should print copies of the report in advance of the conference.
12.4 Recording the Conference and the Outcome
The conference chair will have been able to read the pre-conference report at any stage during it's preparation and should print it once it has been authorised by the team management. The chair should meet the parents prior to the conference to ensure that they are aware of the contents of the pre-meeting report and explain to them the conference process and possible outcomes. The meeting will be minuted by a QAU BSA and chaired by a Principal Officer. Immediately following the meeting the Principal Officer and QAUBSA will record in Protocol the conference decision and complete the conference outcomes, including decisions on the creation of a child protection plan. Where the decision has been to create a child protection plan the outcomes should contain:
- What actions the parents need to accomplish in order for the children's names to be removed from the register;
- The tasks assigned to the professional and parental roles;
- An outline child protection plan;
- Membership of the core group and date of the initial core group meeting; and
- The date of the review child protection case conference.
This document should be printed and signed by the conference chair, then distributed to the conference attendees and those who have given apologies, within 24 hours of the meeting. The distribution list should include the Service Manager for the area concerned. The Service Manager QAU must record that they have seen and approved the outcomes in a case note on the child's record. The QAUBSA should then complete the meeting minutes which must be printed and signed by the chair person and the Service Manager QAU. Following this the minutes should be distributed to the attendees within 28 days of the meeting. Where the outcome of the conference is creation of a child protection plan (see Section13.0, The Core Group Meeting in the Child Protection Process below) in the child protection process. NB in the creation of the outline child protection plan, the PO should create the elements in accordance with the National Assessment Framework categories of need, as these can later be reassigned by the social worker into the subcategories under each heading.
12.5 Conference Outcomes other than Creation of a Child Protection Plan
The child protection conference cannot of itself make a decision that a child should become looked after, so if it appears to the social worker and team management that this is what is required to safeguard the child, this should have been discussed in advance with the Area Children's Services Manager and agreed. See CLA processes below. CLA and CP processes can take place simultaneously in Protocol but please note that if there is a draft CLA care plan in existence the CP conference outcomes themselves cannot be completed. Once the care plan is finalised and authorised it will be possible to complete the conference outcomes. This provision is in place in order to prevent the creation of unco-ordinated CLA and CP plans. If there is agreement with the parents or legal action is to be initiated the creation of a child protection plan should not be necessary.
If the conference outcome is that the child does not need a child protection plan and they do not need to become looked after then they should become subject to CIN processes (see Section 5.0, Child's Plan and Section 6.0, Child in Need Review above)
13.0 The Core Group Meeting in the Child Protection Process CSICS13S
The Core group meeting in the Child Protection process has a specific format and a place in the Workflow in Protocol. There is no place in Protocol for a core group meeting in the Child Looked After process because ICS processes specify core group meetings only in the Child Protection process. This does not prevent us holding planning meetings as part of CLA or CIN processes but they will need to be recorded in another way (see those processes for details). Please remember that the Core Group meeting you see in any of the Pathway diagrams in Protocol, or about which you receive a reminder in your worktray, is a core group in the child protection process.
13.1 The Initial Core Group Meeting
The task of organising the initial core group meeting will appear in the social worker's worktray following the conference decision to create a child protection plan and follows the standard meeting organisation format. In order to maintain the link between members of a sibling group, the person organising this meeting should begin with the youngest child. A member of the team management should be assigned as chair of the Initial Core Group meeting. The date will have already been agreed at conference. The purpose of the Initial Core Group meeting is to develop the outline child protection plan which will have fed through into the Child Protection Plan part 2 (see Section 13.3, The Child Protection Plan below).
The Team management should chair the Initial core group meeting but the completion of the notes should always be undertaken by the social worker, as the notes of a core group meeting and the completed child protection plan need to be authorised by the team management. Notes should be printed and distributed to all those attendees not on the Protocol system. The team management should ensure also that the core assessment, if not already completed, is under way and is likely to be completed within agreed time scales.
13.2 Subsequent Core Group Meetings in the Child Protection Process
As soon as a core group meeting has been completed the social worker will find in their worktray a task to organise the next core group meeting, giving a due date in 28 days. This timescale is not an ICS requirement but a feature of Protocol which will hopefully be amended in the near future as it appears too rigid. It may have a value if it is taken as a reminder to do a child protection visit instead. A core group meeting should be organised as a minimum once every three months and there must be one or more during every review period, which should be used to update the child protection plan and consider it's progress.
13.3 The Child Protection Plan
The task of completing the child protection plan will also appear in the social worker's worktray. The outline child protection plan agreed at the case conference will have fed through automatically. This should be expanded on using the subsections beneath the headings "Child/young person's development needs", "Parental capacity" and "Family and Environmental factors". The elements of the child protection plan contained in the outline plan can be reassigned into the subcategories under each heading using the drop down menu which specifies the category of need. It should be completed with reference to the document "Needs, Outcomes and Services v 0.4" which is based on the National Assessment Framework. In those subsections beneath the heading "Parenting Capacity" should be specified what actions the parents will need to take in order for the Child Protection status of the child to be revoked and the plan amended to a support plan. The child protection plan follows the same pattern as the CLA Care plan (see Section 17.2, Completion of the Care Plan Part 1 below) except that it does not include any consideration of Corporate Parenting.
13.4 Child Protection Visits
Visits to children who are subject of a child protection plan must be undertaken at least once every twenty eight days. The following must be considered:
- Health/ Physical Development;
- Sleeping/Bedding Arrangements;
- Accommodation/Equipment/Personal Clothing;
- Emotional Development;
- Social Development;
- Education/Employment.
The child's bedroom should be seen by the social worker and the child spoken to alone, unless this is inappropriate because of the child's age or understanding. The visit should be recorded as a Case Note under the heading of CP visit, with the detail of the visit recorded under "Detailed notes". The team manager should check the progress of CP visits in supervision and add a case note to that effect.
14.0 Review Child Protection Case Conference CSICS14S
As for the ICPCC process, there are two tasks involved in the review process, organising the review meeting, which appears automatically in the QAU worktray following the completion of the previous conference/review, and writing the review conference report which appears in the social workers worktray.
14.1 Organising the Review Child Protection Case Conference
The date of the review conference, which will have already been agreed provisionally, should be confirmed by discussion between the team management and Principal Officer, and the meeting arranged, which follows the standard meeting organisation format in Protocol. This is the task of the QAU BSA. It is essential that the review also be organised as a meeting in the Central Review calendar in Outlook. Invitees in Outlook should be those members of DHSC/PCT involved in the case.
14.2 Where the Recommendation is that a CP Plan is no longer Needed
If the recommendation of the conference report is that a CP plan is no longer required, the social worker or team management must notify the Principal Officer in sufficient time for the review invitations to be updated by the QAUBSA to include all of those agencies represented at the original conference, and the invitation should specify the purpose of the review conference.
14.3 Review Conference Pre-Meeting Report
The social worker will have the option to copy forward information from a variety of previous reports by this stage (it is probably better to copy forward more rather than less of the available information, as it can always be amended) in completing the pre meeting report. The report should be completed in consultation with their supervisor and shared with the family, whereupon it should be finalised and authorised by the Team Management. It should contain a recommendation as to the continued necessity for a child protection plan, or any alternative if this is not recommended. It may be viewed at any stage during it's completion by the Principal Officer but the team management should notify the Principal Officer by e-mail or a phone call when it has been authorised. This must take place at least three days in advance of the review conference. The report should be made available to all of those involved, and discussed with the parents and the child where applicable in advance of the meeting.
14.4 Recording and Minuting the Review Conference
The review conference will be chaired by the Principal Officer and minuted by the QAUBSA as at present. Completion of the review outcomes and minutes are as for the Initial Child Protection Case Conference except that there is no necessity for the outcomes or minutes to be reassigned to and checked by the Service Manager QAU. The completed outcome and notes should be circulated to all parties within 28 days of completion.
14.5 Outcomes of the Review Child Protection Conference
The review conference will consider whether the child's needs are being met by the current plan and will make a decision as to whether the child should continue to have a child protection plan. If the child's needs are not being met by the plan, or if the child has been subject of a child protection plan for over 12 months, the review must consider what revision to the child's plan is necessary or what alternatives might need to be considered in terms of who is looking after the child. The date of the next review will be set by the review conference and the above factors should be borne in mind when planning it. If on the other hand the child's needs are being met or the risk of them being harmed has diminished, the conference should consider removing the requirement of having a child protection plan.
15.0 Dispute Resolution CSICS15S
Where Contact or Referral information is received by the social work team which the referring agency feels constitutes evidence of significant harm and the team management disagree, the referring agency has the responsibility of invoking the dispute resolution process (see Knowsley Safeguarding Children Board Procedures) There is no specific format for this in Protocol and information relating to dispute resolution processes should be recorded as a Case Note on the child's file, or if the case is not open, as a new Contact.
16.0 Pre-CLA Process CSICS16S
These processes are built around the presumption that senior management will be involved in all decisions involving the admission of young people into the looked after system. Except in situations where there is an immediate and unavoidable necessity for a child to become looked after (see Section 16.4, Where a Child Becomes Looked after on an Emergency Basis below) no child should become looked after without the agreement of a manager at Children's Services Manager (CSM) level or above.
16.1 Out of Borough/Third Party Placements
Where the placement request is for provision by a third party (out of borough placement) the social worker should seek the agreement of their manager who should discuss it with their ACSM (or the duty ACSM in their absence). If they agree that such a placement is required, the social worker should consult the Procurements team on x5914 for a list of approved providers or advice on reaching agreements with a provider if not on that list. Once an appropriate vacancy has been identified the social worker should complete form CF47 which should be approved by their manager and sent to the Children's Services Manager for a decision on whether the placement should be agreed. A copy, either scanned or electronically held should be kept by the team.
FOr Detailed Social Work Procedure, See Decision to Look After and Post Placement Arrangements Procedure.
16.2 Regulation 38 Placements
There is a presumption that where children cannot live with their birth parents they should be looked after by members of their family, unless safeguarding concerns are such that this would not be in the child's interests. For children subject to legal orders such as Emergency Protection Orders, Interim Care Orders, or Care Orders, placement with a family member confers on them the status of a person caring for a child on behalf of the local authority. For this reason they must be approved under regulation 38. Prior to making such a placement the longer term viability of the relatives as carers must be assessed by the social worker, agreed by their manager and approved by a senior manager in Knowsley, using the appropriate forms.
For detailed Social Work Procedure, see Placement with Connected Persons Procedure.
16.3 Recording the Decision Making Process
The decision to admit a young person to care must begin with an assessment of need. For all planned placements a core assessment should have been completed which will inform the decision to recommend that the child becomes looked after. The Pre-CLA request form (which replaces the CF36) should be completed by the social worker and finalised, on which it will pass to the Team Management for authorisation. If the team management are in agreement with the request, they should discuss it with the Area Children's Services Manager and reassign the Pre-CLA request to them for a decision on whether the child should become looked after. The ACSM will discuss this with the Children's Services Manager to seek their approval also. (Where the ACSM has not as yet been trained in using Protocol the Team Management should consult the ACSM and record this as a Case Note). If this is agreed but there is no placement available then the child should not be recorded as Looked After at this stage. Alternative forms of support should be recorded. The decision of the CSM should be recorded as a Case Note on Protocol. As soon as the child is recorded in Protocol as being 'Currently Looked After'
the following tasks appear in the social worker's worktray:
- Create CLA Care Plan;
- CLA Review - Write Meeting Review Meeting Worker's Report;
- Current Episode of Care.
In addition the task to 'Arrange CLA Review Meeting' is automatically sent to the QAU Group tray
The QAUBSA must inform the relevant Principal Officer and the Health and Education support staff at the QAU. See Section 22.0, Child Looked After Review process.
16.4 Where a Child Becomes Looked after on an Emergency Basis
Pending the training of all EDT co-ordinators in using Protocol, the admission of a child to care on an emergency basis should take place (where it is an unavoidable necessity) by arranging the placement with the carer/provider, supplying them with as much information as possible using hand written Placement Information Records (drawn up by the social worker on duty) and the Pre-CLA request form completed retrospectively by the relevant team and authorised by the ACSM as soon as possible after the child's admission to care. The placement must be recorded in Protocol and the Accommodation Panel is informed using the printed copy of the Pre-CLA request form (See Accommodation Panel Procedure).
17.0 Making a Placement CSICS17S
This process involves the completion of the Placement Information Record, which replaces the EIR and PP1 and 2, and the Care Plan, which replaces the LAC Care plan.
17.1 Completion of the Placement Information Record
The placement itself will have been identified and agreed as part of the Pre-CLA procedure above. Information in the Demographic records and Referral and Information record should be updated or corrected at this point if necessary as this will feed into the PIR. The PIR and Care Plan are comprehensive and informative but if the information required to complete them in full is not available at the time of placement they may be completed in as much detail as possible and a fuller version produced at a later date.
17.2 Completion of the Care Plan Part 1
The Care Plan is in two parts. The first gives an overview of the reasons for the child being looked after, the aim of the Care Plan, and the type of placement the child requires. See below.
Click here to view the completion care plan screen shot
17.3 Completion of the Care Plan Part 2
The Care Plan part 2 contains the detail of the child's needs, what outcomes are to be sought for the child and the services that are to be put in place in order to achieve them. This section must be completed with reference to the document "Needs, Outcomes and Services". The section "Child/Young Person's Development Needs" is a heading for the subsections beneath it and does not itself need to be completed (see below)
Click here to view the Development Needs screen shot
The subsections underneath the heading Child/Young Person's Development Needs must be completed in full (see below).
Click here to view Health Plan screen shot
Click here to view Emotional and Behavioural Development screen shot
Each identified Need can be edited to state that the Need is Unmet, Partial or Met. Each Outcome can be edited to state that it is Achieved, Partially Achieved or Unachieved and each Service can be edited to state that it is Current or not. Please note that once a Need is deemed to have been met it will not feed through into further plans. Therefore, for any service which must be provided regularly to a young person, such as health assessments for a Child Looked After, the need giving rise to it - continuing oversight of all aspects of health - should only ever be deemed to be partially met.
Under the subsections devoted to the child's developmental needs is another heading "Parental Capacity", beneath which are the subsections which provide detail to it.
Click here to view Parental Capacity screen shot
Ordinarily, as this is a heading, it should not be necessary to fill in the above screen. However, where a case is picked up from SWIFT with an ongoing care plan in which the child is placed permanently away from their family with no prospect of rehabilitation (as for instance where the parent is dead/permanently missing or incapacitated by mental/physical health or substance misuse) it is acceptable to complete the Needs/strengths in this section as a summary of the reasons why the decision has been made that the child cannot be cared for within the birth family. In these cases it is not necessary to complete each subsection under the headings of Parenting capacity (Birth Family) and Family and Environmental (Birth Family).
Equally, for a child in a short term foster placement where the care plan is for the child to return home within six weeks, the summary sections of the Parenting Capacity (Corporate Parenting) and Family and Environmental (Corporate Parenting) may be used rather than complete each subsection. For children remaining in placement longer than that time, the Corporate Parenting subsections should be completed, even where there is a plan for the child to return home.
17.4 Children Placed Outside Knowsley
Where the child is placed outside Knowsley the social worker should send standard notifications (found as letters in the forms tab in Demographics) to the social work team, and health and education representatives in the area where the child is placed, notifying them of the placement. They should also notify the Designated Manager at the QAU, or in his absence, the Information Officer. If there is any difficulty in identifying who the responsible people are in these areas, consult Jane Powell, designated nurse for CLA, or Chris Moore or Wendy Jarman in educational support at the QAU.
17.5 Placement Meeting
For a planned placement this meeting may take place prior to the child being placed, or may take place at or around the point of placement. It should be arranged by the social worker and will involve the social worker, the carer and possibly the parent, child or representative of the fostering agency. It may be used to update, agree and sign the relevant sections of the PIR and Care Plan. There is no specific format for this meeting in Protocol (so don't go looking). It should be recorded as a Care Planning Meeting group meeting with the reason for contact being Placement meeting in Case Notes.
17.6 The Care Planning Meeting for Children Looked After
Please remember that in ICS the term Core Group meeting is used only in the Child Protection process. It is one of Knowsley's idiosyncrasies to have used the term Core Group meeting to refer to Care Planning meetings in the CLA process. Within this document, those meetings formerly referred to as Core Group meetings within the CLA process are now redesignated as Care Planning meetings.
The Care Planning meeting should be arranged by the social worker, inviting the members of the group by phone or e-mail and the initial meeting should take place within 7 days of the child's placement. If the core assessment has not been completed the tasks involved in completing it should be allotted to the relevant agencies here. The team management are responsible for ensuring that core assessments are completed for all children who have become looked after. The Care Planning meeting in the CLA process should be recorded in the Case Notes and follow the format below:
Names of those present and apologies - Detailed Notes
Discussion - Write up of Analysis
Actions - task responsibility of those involved. Where the care planning meeting concerns more than one child the notes to state which child each action relates to.
These notes can be signed off by team management by adding a Case Note.
18.0 Personal Education Plan CSICS18S
The process of completing the PEP requires the Social Worker to provide certain basic information about the child. The school produce a plan about how the child's educational needs will be met. This should involve a meeting (or series of meetings) and involve the child, the parent and the social worker. In Protocol there is a pre-meeting record which the social worker should complete. There is also a version of the existing Knowsley PEP because that format contains information about the child's wishes and feelings and is more comprehensive. This should be completed as far as possible and printed by the social worker. The remaining information should be added by the person responsible in the school. The paper version can then be copy typed into Protocol by the BSA in the social work team. The relevant sections of the Knowsley PEP should be copied to the PEP record in the system, finalised by the social worker and authorised by the team management.
19.0 Health Assessment CSICS19S
The BAAF health assessment forms A, B and C are reproduced in Protocol. The form A, which replaces the CF31A, must at present be completed by the social worker though in due course most of it will be filled automatically from information already in the system. This should be printed from the record in Protocol by CLA Health at the QAU once they have been notified by the social worker that the information in it has been checked. CLA health will arrange the medical assessment and provide the form B which will be completed by the assessing doctor/health representative. The child, if of an appropriate age will also be seen by the CAMHS health representative. The information produced will be held confidentially outside of the system in paper and as a scanned copy in a confidential section of the Electronic Documentation Management system (EDM) when that system becomes available. The information in it will be used by the health staff at the QAU to produce part C, the health plan, which is then incorporated into the overall care plan by the relevant member of CLA health staff. The CLA health staff should inform the social worker of when the part C is complete, and request that the social worker reassign it to them so that the information can be entered. It should then be immediately reassigned to the social worker.
For detailed Social Work Procedures, see Education of a Child Looked After Procedure
20.0 Statutory Visit CSICS20S
"These visits are statutory requirements for all children who looked after whether they are placed in foster care, residential units or at home with their parents under a care order. They are essential in ensuring the welfare of the child. The social worker must ensure that s/he sees the child where they are living and, if appropriate, alone, and communicates with her/him in a manner suitable to their age and understanding on each visit. The child's bedroom should always be seen during a boarding out visit.
Minimum visiting requirements are:
- One visit within the first week of placement;
- Then, at intervals of not more than 6 weeks during the first year of placement;
- Thereafter, at intervals of not more than three months.
Also:
Immediately a complaint is received from the child or from another person relating to the child concerning the standard of care they are receiving.
After a child is placed with adoptive parents s/he should be visited once a week until the first CLA review and thereafter (until the making of an adoption order) at a frequency agreed at the first review, which may be revised at subsequent reviews"
The Social worker should record the Boarding Out visit as a Case Note (type of contact must state CLA visit). The reason section should also state Boarding Out visit and the content of the visit should be recorded in the Detailed Notes section. The social worker should finalise the note and the Team Manager should add a further case note confirming that it has been checked by them when this takes place. The Principal Officer (KAFS) or Residential Manager will have access to the child's file in Protocol so it is not necessary to copy information to them but if any aspect of the care afforded to a child in a Knowsley foster placement is found to be unsatisfactory, this should be drawn to the attention of the Principal Officer (KAFS), or Residential manager immediately. Any such instance and its resolution must also be included in the KAFS social worker's report to the foster carer review.
For young people placed at home with their parents under an order, or with other family members who are registered as foster carers, the same minimum visiting requirements and standards of care apply.
Beyond these minimum requirements the frequency of visits should be determined by the circumstances of the case and be agreed within the Care Plan. Monitoring of Boarding Out visits should be undertaken by the team manager in supervision.
The following should be addressed in the Detailed Notes section of the Case Note record.
- Health/ Physical Development;
- Sleeping/Bedding Arrangements;
- Accommodation/Equipment/Personal Clothing;
- Emotional Development;
- Social Development;
- Education/Employment;
- Conduct.
The social worker should record that they have considered the above issues and that these are satisfactory, and if not, what action needs to be taken.
As with any case note the record of the Boarding Out visit should be copied to any sibling also in placement and amended appropriately.
The social worker should create the note in the system and finalise it. The record of the visit should be seen by the Team Management, which may take place in supervision, and the supervising officer should complete a further case note confirming that they have read the record of the statutory visit (or a series of such visits as it is likely that more than one will have taken place during the period in question).
Child protection visits are also a statutory requirement for children with a child protection plan. They should be carried out every 28 days. See Section 20.0, Statutory Visit above.
See Social Work Visits Procedure for detailed procedures.
21.0 Assessment and Progress Record CSICS21S
Creation of an Assessment and Progress record is given as an option within the system from the time a child becomes looked after. It is to be used when the child is to remain looked after, so as a minimum standard an APR should be initiated following the second CLA review. It should be ready for presentation at the third review, and be updated on at least an annual basis. The APR ensures that the needs of the child are re-assessed at regular intervals throughout the time during which they are looked after. It should inform the care planning and review process. The necessity for any change to the care plan should be justified by reference to the APR. This applies in all circumstances and is an absolute prerequisite for children who are to return home to their parents whilst still under a Care Order. The APR is a multi-agency document and at the care planning meeting the various parts may be allotted to representatives of agencies or other arms of the DHSC (i.e. KAFS) for completion. It is the social worker's responsibility to ensure that it is completed, but not necessarily to complete it all themselves. For children receiving short breaks over a long period of time an APR may be a good way of measuring progress, but the child's parents should be consulted before beginning an APR, as they remain the child's main carers.
22.0 Child Looked After Review CSICS22S
It should be borne in mind that the purpose of a review is to consider the Care Plan and make sure that it is meeting the child's needs, and if it is not, to recommend changes which should ensure that it does.
For Detailed Social Work Procedure see
22.1 Arranging the CLA Review
The task of arranging the review will appear in the QAU worktray and so will initially be picked up by the QAUBSA. The IRO will have access to the worktray but should be informed of the review by the social worker. The QAUBSA should inform CLA health and the education support team. The IRO should agree with the social worker the time date and venue of the meeting, having regard to the needs of the child. The social worker should inform by e-mail the QAUBSA of who needs to be invited from among those involved. Those invitees on the Protocol system should be invited by internal process, those others on the e-mail system should be invited using a standard format and others should receive a letter generated from the system. The IRO should recommend the most appropriate means of consulting and inviting the child which may include supplying a consultation document to the child/carer for them to complete. The QAUBSA must also enter the review as a meeting in Central Review in order to maintain the link between Outlook and Protocol.
22.2 The CLA Review for Children Receiving Short Breaks
Knowsley has always referred to reviews for children with disabilities receiving short breaks for less than 120 days a year as Children in Need Reviews. ICS processes treat these reviews as CLA reviews, as the child has a legal status (V4). The Initial review should be held within 28 days of the first overnight stay as it is at present, and chaired by a Principal Officer/IRO (POIRO). The second review, which must follow CLA review time scales - i.e. within 3 months of the first review, should be arranged internally to the CwD team and chaired by the Team Manager or Senior Practitioner of the CwD team. This will involve the reassignment of the tasks of organising, chairing and recording the review outcomes. The third review, within 6 months of the second, will be chaired by a Principal Officer in the normal way, and responsibilities will then alternate between the team and the QAU for each 6 monthly review.
22.3 The Social Workers CLA Review Report
This task appears in the social worker's worktray when a child becomes looked after or following a review. The social worker should complete the report, carrying forward any information relevant from previous forms. This should be finalised by the social worker and authorised by the Team Management. The PIR, PEP and an APR (from the third CLA review onwards) should also be presented at the review and should be updated accordingly. The IRO should be notified when the review report is complete. This must be at least three days in advance of the review. The social work team should circulate written copies of the report to those who are to attend the meeting. The Care plan should be shared with those people who are party to it and a copy should be available to view by the whole review meeting. Following the second review the Care Plan and review report should contain a firm view on what permanent care arrangements the child requires which should inform the direction of the case. An APR should be started following the second review unless the care plan is for rehabilitation to the family under S20 during the review period.
22.4 Conducting the Review
The review must be chaired by an IRO (the exception being reviews for children receiving short breaks, see Section 22.2, The CLA Review for Children Receiving Short Breaks above). The review record of outcomes should be completed as soon as possible after the meeting. NB in Protocol v1.12 (the one you are being trained on) the due date set by the system for CLA reviews is incorrect. The due dates of the 3 month and 6 month reviews are overestimated by 1 day. This has been pointed out to the system provider (Liquidlogic) and will be rectified in a future release. The actual date for the review will be agreed and set by the Principal Officer within statutory time scales - 28 days for an initial or post adoption placement review, within 3 months for second review and within 6 months for subsequent reviews. Following the child's second CLA review, if the child is to remain looked after a permanence planning meeting should be arranged. This should be recorded as a care planning meeting in the CLA process and reason for contact given as Permanence planning meeting.
22.5 The IRO's Review Report and Outcomes
The review report will consider whether the care plan is meeting the child's needs and which aspects of it require updating. The format used currently for the review report has been incorporated into the format in Protocol and this will inform the IRO tracking process which will be recorded outside of Protocol. However discussion related to the needs of a particular child in the tracking meeting should be copied into a Case Note on the child's file in Protocol by the IRO, headed IRO tracking.
22.6 Placement with Parents Regulations
For detailed Social Work Procedures, See Placements With Parents Procedure
Children subject of an Interim Care Order who are living with parents during those proceedings and children who are subject of Care Orders and subsequently placed with parents, are subject to the Placement with parents regulations 1991. A form of agreement to the terms of these regulations should be signed by the resident parent(s) and a representative of the Department of Health and Social Care. The regulations state that in many cases where it is decided that placement with parents is the right approach, it will be as part of the progress towards discharge of the care order. The management of the placement should aim to enhance the parent's role and support the family relationship with that aim in mind.
The regulations address issues of:
Assessment including:
- Contact with family members i.e. non caring parents and siblings;
- Health care needs;
- Education;
- Religion etc.
Enquiries prior to placement including:
- Police;
- Health;
- Education.
Notifications using form CF65 including:
- Health;
- Education;
- GP;
- Other Local Authority.
The Decision
Regulation 5 requires that the Executive Director of Health and Social Care or her nominee(s) makes the decision on these placements. A Home Placement agreement form, Summary of Placement Enquiries and Notification of placement form should be completed, approved by the team management and Area Children's Services Manager and submitted to the Children's Services Manager, then attached to the child's file electronically as these forms are not yet available in ICS/Protocol.
23.0 Pathway Plan CSICS23S
23.1 The Pathway Assessment
The Pathway assessment is the responsibility of the social worker in the Young Peoples' team, who should ensure that the contributions of other members of the team concerned with health and employment, have been included. Once the Pathway assessment has been completed and finalised it will pass via Workflow to the team management. If the team management are satisfied with it, they should authorise it whereupon the task of completing the Pathway plan will appear in the social worker's worktray.
23.2 The Pathway Plan
The social worker should complete the Pathway plan and once finalised, it will pass via Workflow to the team management for authorisation. Once the Pathway plan is authorised, the process is complete.
See Section 5 of Leaving Care Procedure for detailed social work guidance.
23.3 Transfer of Cases to Adult Services
A young person's case may remain open beyond their 18th birthday in those cases where the YPT has responsibilities under the Leaving Care Act. Where an adult services worker is also involved with the young person, they should be recorded as an Involvement.
24.0 Disruption Meeting CSICS24S
Holding a disruption meeting is not part of the ICS processes but has been retained as it was a part of Knowsley's normal business processes which needs to continue. A form has been created based on the original Disruption meeting document, which can be found on the child's record in the Forms tab. A disruption meeting should be held when a permanence placement has broken down or a child/young person has had three placements within 12 months.
24.1 Notification of a Disruption Meeting
Where a permanence placement has broken down the social worker should notify the QAUBSA and request a disruption meeting. For children who have had three placements in 12 months a message will appear to this effect in the Personal tab of the Demographics.
24.2 Organisation of a Disruption Meeting
The Principal Officer in the QAU should agree a time and date for the meeting with the social worker and other agency representatives. Because it is not part of the ICS processes the meeting organisation field in Protocol cannot be used and the QAUBSA should book a room and invite the parties by phone, e-mail or letter. They should record as a case note the fact that they have done so. The task of completing the disruption document is shared between the parties, with the social worker completing those parts relevant to them in the Disruption meeting form (see Forms tab) and, for Knowsley foster placements, the KAFs worker the others. For placements outside Knowsley the form should be saved and printed when the social worker has completed their section. The hard copy should be sent to the other party who should complete it and send it back prior to the meeting. Their contribution can be copy typed into the on-screen document by the BSA in the social work team.
24.3 Recording and Distribution of Minutes
The meeting should be chaired by a Principal Officer QAU, minuted by a QAUBSA and the Disruption review record completed and distributed to all parties involved. The purpose of the meeting is not to apportion blame but to learn lessons from events such as disruption. It is the responsibility of the QAU manager to collate the outcomes of disruption meetings on a six monthly basis, draw up conclusions in consultation with the Principal Officers and present a report to the DMT.
25.0 Agency Enquiries CSICS25S
All assessments carried out in ICS processes are multi agency assessments. The Agency Enquiries form is a guide as to which agencies should be consulted and can be used to record the fact of the consultation taking place. It should be deployed at referral stage where there are concerns for abuse or neglect. If agency enquiries are not recorded at this stage, then they MUST be completed as part of the Section 47 Enquiries / Core Assessment. The agency enquiries format is to be found on the Forms tab in Demographics as it is a Knowsley addition to ICS processes. There is no authorisation process for this form but it should be checked as a matter of course by the team management during s47 enquiries.
26.0 Risk Assessment CSICS26S
As for Agency Enquiries, the Risk Assessment format is a Knowsley addition to ICS processes and is attached in the system on the Forms tab in Demographics. It should be used in all cases where a child/young person becomes looked after, or when their circumstances change substantially - e.g. where a child looked after goes missing.
Part 3 - Processes awaiting completion in Protocol
27.0 Recording Adoption Placements
Pending the development of an Adoption module in ICS (expected in summer 2008), the following process is to be used to secure adoption information.
When a child has been adopted, their record in Protocol is "locked down" and restricted to certain system users in the KAFS team. KAFS must request this action from Liquidlogic. A new record is then created for the child in Protocol under their adoptive name, with their current address, containing only these most basic details unless there are ongoing services. On the involvements tab, the involvement of the KAFs worker who dealt with the adoption is recorded as having begun and ended at the times they were involved.
28.0 Recording Temporary Placements
Temporary placements (those which need to be created during the course of a more permanent placement, for reasons such as foster carer illness) cannot be recorded in the version of Protocol currently in use in Knowsley. Pending an upgrade they must be entered into the system by an AIO using SWIFT, and a standard CF27 form at the request of the team management, in order to ensure that both sets of carers will be paid for their services.
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