Placement Planning and Disruption Meetings

RELEVANT GUIDANCE

The PCFSW & Social Work England Best Practice Guide for Video Call / Contact and Virtual / Online Home Visit

AMENDMENT

In February 2024, Preventing a Disruption, was added to Section 2, Disruption meetings. This was a local amendment.

1. Placement Planning Meetings

Placement Planning meetings should be convened as part of the process of identifying and placing a child - as set out in the Placements in Foster Care Procedure and the Placements in Residential Care Procedure. The first Placement Planning Meeting in relation to a placement should be held before the placement. Where this is not possible because of the urgency of the situation, it should be held in order that the Placement Plan is prepared within 5 working days of the start of the placement.

Further Placement Planning Meetings should be held at intervals agreed with the manager of the residential home or the foster carers and their supervising social worker - or as required for example where there are issues to be resolved in relation to the day to day arrangements for the placement.

The social worker and home manager/foster carers supervising social worker will agree the best format and venue for the meeting and who will chair the meeting.

The people listed below should contribute to the meetings:

  1. The child's social worker and/or other professional associated with the child e.g. personal adviser or advocate;
  2. The child;
  3. The child's parents;
  4. For children in residential care, the child's link worker/keyworker and, where appropriate the home manager;
  5. For children in foster care, the foster carers and their supervising social worker.
Before any meeting, the chairperson should obtain or be updated on the following, if available:
  • The child's Placement Plan;
  • Any work which has been undertaken in supporting the child's placement;
  • If relevant: the child's care plan, personal education plan and pathway plan.

Where the proposed placement has the effect of disrupting the arrangements made for the child's education and training - see Supporting and Promoting the Education and Achievement of Children with a Social Worker, Looked After and Previously Looked After Children Procedure.

Where the proposed placement is out of area, see Out of Area Placements Procedure.

The chairperson should also ensure that the child, parent(s) and others who have been asked to contribute understand the purpose of the meeting, how it will be conducted and are given the opportunity to put their views and suggestions.

If children are not settling into their placement, or if there are concerns about the suitability of the placement, consideration should be given to the following:

  • Whether it is possible to sustain the placement until the next Case Review by, for example, providing additional support to the placement;
  • Bringing forward the date of the next Case Review;
  • Ending the placement.

2. Disruption Meetings

Permanence Planning requires that we promote stability of placement for all our children in care.  Placement Planning meetings at the very start of the placement are crucial in ensuring stability and should always consider support and disruption prevention.

Ideally this should only mean one change of placement for a Child in Care, from their first care placement to a permanent placement.

However, placements do sometimes breakdown. This may be a result of a change in the ability / capacity of carers to meet a child's needs or as the depth of a child's needs unfold and the placement is challenged by the changing needs of a child.

Where a child's placement is at risk of breakdown, it is expected that every effort is made to prevent the breakdown through the holding of a placement stability meeting and the provision of services to support the placement.

A Disruption Meeting is required for all adoption and long-term fostering placements if the placement subsequently ends, and this was not in the child's care plan i.e. unplanned breakdown.

N.B. A long-term foster placement must have an agreed match from Fostering Panel or a plan to match.

Purpose

The purpose of the disruption meeting is to review the sequence of events leading up to the disruption and to identify learning points. The main aims are as follows:

  • To share information and identify factors which have led to the disruption;
  • To identify learning which will inform future planning for the child;
  • To develop and improve knowledge and practice in the field;
  • To enable the process of 'healing' for the child, carers and the family.

Preventing a Disruption

A Fostering Support Meeting may be required for our foster carers and our children to provide additional stability. This could be due to a current cause or the future impact and how this can be managed or decreased by supporting services.

Purpose

The purpose of a fostering support meeting is to highlight any current and future support which may be required to assist the fostering family. The main aims are as follows:

  • Identify the current and future support needs;
  • Plan how these will be met;
  • Monitor and evaluate the provision of support.

Fostering support meetings are not utilised in the case of a crisis; this focus' on additional services which can be put into place to support the foster carer and the child or young person. Preventing a fostering support meeting begins with effective, long term care planning. This is key to highlighting potential future difficulties for our children and preparing for these incidents.

Fostering support meetings can be held in times of difficulty, prior to crisis point. Support meetings can be convened to highlight future anxieties for foster carers and our children.

In preparing for a fostering support meeting the Supervising Social Worker in collaboration with the Child's Social Worker will seek the views of:

  • Child/young person;
  • Foster carers;
  • Independent Reviewing Officer;
  • Educational professionals;
  • Other children in care and their allocated Social Worker;
  • Household members;
  • Children of foster carers;
  • Any other relevant person or service.

Practice Guidance

Examples of support opportunities and prevention methods to promote placement support include:

  • The supervising social worker (SSW) will offer support to the foster carer to identify the difficulties that are giving cause for concern about the support of the placement. The SSW will also support the carer to try to resolve, the areas of difficulties;
  • Initially the child's social worker will offer a consultation to the child/young person to enable them to express their views or to consider how the difficulties can be understood;
  • In some cases it may be appropriate to involve an advocate;
  • Drawing up of a contract between the foster carer and young person in respect of the expectations of the placement. This would include a review of the Placement Planning Meeting decisions made at the commencement of the placement;
  • Added support in the form of respite or outreach services to give the child some "time out" and the carers a period of rest from the care of the child will be considered.

Disruption Meetings

It is important to give people time to recover from the immediate trauma of a placement breakdown, feelings and emotions may be running high. The timescale should allow for these feelings to subside but to be recent enough to influence future care planning for the child and learning for the service.

A disruption meeting is not a substitute for a care planning meeting or case review. Care Planning and Case Review procedures should be followed at the point of a placement ending.

Caption: Disruption Meetings
   
Disruption Meetings
How and When will a meeting be convened At the point of disruption, the social worker will make a referral to the Safeguarding Unit, who will agree a date and organise the disruption meeting. The meeting should be held no sooner than 6 weeks but no longer than 12 weeks following the disruption. The Conference and Review Unit will then send out a Disruption Questionnaire to all those invited. This will be returned to the Safeguarding Unit by an agreed date prior to the meeting. A Conference and Review Manager should chair the meeting. This will not be the allocated IRO for the child or the Fostering Review Manager.
Who should attend
  • Child's Social Worker and their Principal Manager;
  • Foster Carer or Adopters Supervising Social Worker and their Manager;
  • Carer(s)/adopter(s) who had cared for the child;
  • Child's IRO.

Additional (where relevant):

  • School/Nursery;
  • Medical (ie Health Visitor, Community Paediatrician, School Health Advisor);
  • Current Carers;
  • CYPMHS/Therapist;
  • Psychologist;
  • NYAS;
  • Any other person with a significant contribution to make.

The Social Worker will discuss with the Chair who to invite to the meeting and provide them with a list of names and addresses. It may be appropriate to have some written contributions (via questionnaire) and/or more than one meeting.

Child's View and Feelings It is essential that the views of the child are represented at the meeting. This may be via the child's Social Worker, the current carer or an independent worker such as an advocate. Older children should be given the opportunity to express their views in writing or any other medium relevant to them. Younger children should be assisted via an age appropriate medium to share their feelings about the disruption and their views on what should happen in the future.
What is the Agenda

The Agenda of the meeting will consider the following:

  • Relevant background information on the child;
  • Significant events in the child's life;
  • Matching process;
  • Planning for Placement;
  • Preparation of the child;
  • Introductions;
  • The Placement;
  • The disruption;
  • Conclusion/recommendations;
  • Learning Points.
What preparation is required

The main preparation for all participants is to complete the Disruption Questionnaire. It should be used as a reflective thinking tool. In order to complete this questionnaire, participants need to have time to reflect on the disruption and the reasons for this. Carers should discuss this with their supervising social worker and Social Workers should be supported by their manager via reflective supervision.

The completed questionnaires will not be circulated at the disruption meeting. However, an overview of the information gathered will be shared at the disruption meeting and used by the Chair to assist them in beginning to understand the reasons for the disruption.

The Social Worker and Supervising Social Worker will need to ensure that they are able to provide all relevant information to the disruption meeting, see Agenda.
What is the role of the Chairperson
  • Ensure open discussion;
  • Summarise feedback from questionnaires;
  • Enable participants to share their views/feelings;
  • Identify and summarise key contributory factors to the disruption;
  • Summarise main findings/conclusions of meeting to inform future planning;
  • Ensure minutes and key summary points are circulated according to the appropriate timescales;
  • Send summary of key points to the Relevant Senior Managers within 6 weeks of the meeting being held;
  • Attach minutes to child/young person's file;
  • Ensure all learning points are shared with relevant managers.

In relation to the disruption of a permanent foster placement, where the foster carers are in-house approved carers, consideration should be given to holding an early Foster Carer Review to consider the foster carer's approval - see Review and Termination of Foster Carers Procedure.