PLEASE NOTE: New Standards Published

April 2011: The Standards no longer apply, Tri.x have published a web enabled version of the new Children’s Homes and Fostering Standards, please follow this link:

www.minimumstandards.org

1. Planning for Care	Size:
Placement Plans

	OUTCOME Children have their needs assessed effectively and comprehensively, and written placement plans outline how these needs will be met and are implemented. Children in the home are appropriately placed there.
	STANDARD 2
2.1	The placement plan for each child sets out clearly the assessed needs of the child, the objectives of the placement, how these are to be met by the registered person on a day to day basis, the contribution to be made by the staff of the home, and how the effectiveness of the placement is to be assessed in relation to each major element of the plan. The plan includes:
	health needs and health promotion care needs including safeguarding and promoting welfare physical and emotional needs education needs and attainment targets cultural, religious, language and racial needs and how they will be met leisure needs contact arrangements with family, friends and significant others.
	The placement plan is consistent with any plan for the care of the child prepared by the placing authority (where other plans cover the above, the placement plan may simply refer to the existing documents,without any need for duplication).
2.2	Each child’s placement plan is monitored by a key worker within the home who ensures that the requirements of the plan are implemented in the day-to-day care of that child. The key worker also provides individual guidance and support to the child and regularly makes time available to the child to enable the child to seek guidance, advice and support on any matter. Where homes do not use key working schemes, this responsibility passes to the registered person or to another member of staff nominated by the registered person.
2.3	The child’s wishes are sought and taken into account in the selection of their key worker and their wishes taken into account if they request a change of their key worker or other such person as noted in 2.2 above.
2.4	Support for disabled children with communication difficulties is provided to help them become active in making decisions about their lives.
2.5	The registered person regularly and frequently seeks the views of individual children, their parents (unless this is inappropriate) and the contact person in their placing authority on the content and implementation of the placement plan, and takes these views into account in initiating and making changes to the plan.
2.6	Children in the home know the content of their overall care plans and placement plan, according to their level of understanding. [Regulation 12]