Child in Need Plans and Reviews

Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 imposes a general duty on Children's Social Care (CSC) to safeguard and promote the welfare of children who are 'in need' and to promote the upbringing of children in need by their families by providing a range and level of services to meet those children's needs.

Following acceptance of a referral by the Local Authority Children's Social Care (CSC) must determine the needs of a child and the support that they and their family may require. CSC will allocate a qualified social worker to carry out a single child and family framework assessment (SAF).

The assessment will involve finding out and giving due regard to the child's wishes and feelings regarding the provision of those services (age and understanding appropriate). The assessment will also involve talking to parents, other family members where relevant, and professionals involved in the child's life such as health visitor or school or early years setting.

We know that families are more likely engage in a plan they helped to develop and when they are recognised as the experts on their own lives. Working in this way means that ownership of change rests with the family and they are more likely to become confident, resilient and independent in their parenting.

The approach is characterised by an inclusive partnership approach. All plans and decisions affecting children and families are made with them and their networks together. The family's networks of support are seen as the cornerstone for sustaining safety in the longer term for children, particularly as the department reduces and withdraws support. Workers must help to build capacity in families to develop their networks of support even when children are living in challenging circumstances or where those networks are limited.

CSC works with children in need and their families on the basis of consent. From the outset those with parental responsibility should be informed of the referral to CSC and consent sought to undertake a single assessment. Children's Social Care (CSC) will firstly assess the child to see if the child is in need (Section 17, Children Act 2004) of a service and or is in need of protection (Section 47, Children Act 2004).

Information must be collected from agencies who know the child for these decisions to be made and consent is not required for this activity. These are statutory requirements under the Children Act and thus covered by the Data Protection 2018.

Parents' agreement to any social work intervention or to services for their child is necessary. Young people of an age of understanding, particularly those aged 16 or over should be asked for their consent as well.

Whilst CIN plans need to be led by a qualified social worker, the delivery of specific interventions to deliver a CIN plan should involve a range of professionals from team different teams (including targeted early help teams) as well as professionals from other agencies.

For children and families who are assessed by CSC and who do not meet the threshold for CIN, they may benefit from targeted early intervention. In these circumstances, CSC should pro-actively work with early help services to ensure that families' needs are considered and can be addressed.

All Child in Need work begins with an Assessment using the Single Assessment Framework. This should be completed, written up and signed off by a manager within 40 working days.

The Assessment should involve:

• Working with the child or children to capture their views, wishes and feelings;
• Working with the family to agree clear goals and for the family and their support network to help create a plan to achieve these goals;
• Reviewing historical information and getting information from other professionals involved (with parental consent).

The completed assessment should always be shared with the family. Language used should be plain and easily understood.

Following a social work assessment in respect of a child with disabilities, the level of visiting and review of the plan will be determined with the family, in proportion to the assessed level of need and the agreed package of support. For children with complex disabilities this may include a visiting pattern and review of the plan as outlined in section 5 above. For more settled packages, including short breaks that require a review, a proportionate response will mean that visits are less frequent. At a minimum the Reviewing Officer in the disabled children's team (DCT) will contact the family and review the package on a 6 monthly basis. The guiding principle is that the level of intervention/monitoring is proportionate to the needs of the child and family.

In many circumstances, following intervention with families' needs decrease and risks are reduced for example following a period on a child protection plan or where a child in care (section 20) returns home to their family.

In these circumstances, a child in need plan should be developed to ensure that all changes made by the family can be sustained and effectively monitored by the family network.

Children made subject to a Supervision Order to the LA are 'Children in Need'. The process followed will be the same unless there are specific circumstances set out in the court order for a different and prescribed visiting and review pattern.

Children in Need work must actively promote change. Engaging with a child and their family is critical. The work undertaken should be creative and innovative and informed by what is going to work best for this particular child in this particular family. Ultimately, the plan should be generated by the family and goals agreed by the professional network. The child in need plan should be developed with the family and involve all of the relevant agencies. The initial plan must be agreed within 10 working days of completion of the assessment (see section 6 for children with a disability). There should be no delay between developing the plan and ensuring services are in place to support the family.

The initial Child in Need plan should be discussed at a child in need planning meeting which will involve family members and their connected network of support. Practitioners from other teams or agencies (such as the children centre programme, health visitor, school nurse) contribute as part of the professional network of support. Wherever possible, the first meeting should be convened within 10 days. If the meeting cannot be convened with all of the necessary people an initial plan should be put in place and the first CIN meeting set up as early as possible. In all circumstances it must take place within one month of completion of the SAF.

The first CIN meeting is crucial in setting clear goals with an explicit time scale and therefore, this meeting should be chaired by a Team manager/ Senior Practitioner. The chair's role is in supporting the network to develop and agree a plan and trajectory. The plan for achieving change is the family's plan. They describe the steps they will take to improve their situation and extra attention needs to be paid to making sure it is 'SMART'. The professional network will contribute to the plan and monitor the family's progress. The plan may well need to be adapted and changed as it is tested in real family life.

• Specific (concrete descriptions of behaviours required, frequency required);
• Measureable (what will we all see more of or less of that tell us the plan is working?);
• Achievable (the goals are focused on the issues of need and well defined);
• Realistic (the family and the professionals are all confident the plan fits with daily life and the family's unique circumstances);
• Timely (all goals should have a timeline).

Successful child in need work is based on good assessment of need and engaging the family proactively in developing clear goals to address need and create change. It is important that all partners to the CIN plan work together to drive the plan and regularly review progress. It is highly likely that the plan will need to be refined and adapted as it is tested by real situations in family life. For a CIN plan this will be done in Family Network meetings. As a minimum these meetings, which also involve relevant professionals, should take place at 6 weekly intervals but the frequency will be determined at each CIN Review meeting and will be proportionate to the level of need and complexity of the plan.

The frequency of Child in Need Reviews will depend on the pace of progress, the scale of change required and the quality of the network support and any services identified to support the family. However, the first review should be held within the required period, see Local Information for details. of the start of the CIN plan and further reviews should take place at least every 6 months thereafter. Children who have been identified as at some level of risk and/or needing a high level of support and services may need to be reviewed more often than those who require a minimum level of intervention. The review of more settled CIN packages for children with disabilities will be reviewed at an agreed interval of 6 months by the DCT Reviewing Officer.

A review meeting should discuss and record:

• Where the family is in relation to the agreed goals;
• What the family has done so far in moving towards the agreed goals;
• What has gone well;
• How have any challenges been overcome;
• How well is the network working - how is it helping the family make and sustain changes;
• What has not gone so well;
• How did people get back on track/what needs to happen to get the plan back on track;
• How does the plan need to be changed;
• What else, if anything still needs to be done;
• How the changes are made so far impacting on children living in the home. (The review should listen to and record child and family feedback about the impact of changes made, impact of any professional intervention or services).

Each review should result in an updated CIN plan, unless the review concludes that the plan can end. Where child protection/S.47 enquiries arise resulting in a CP plan, or if a child comes into care, the CIN plan must be ended.

This section deals with children who are subject to Children in Need Plans and who move to another local authority. The principles apply to local authorities in the circumstances of both transferring out and receiving in Children in Need.

In a number of situations, children and their families moving to another local authority offers a positive option. However, and particularly where children and their families may have moved on more than one occasion in a short space of time, any assessment should consider whether the child is subject to trafficking or modern slavery (see Assessments Procedure).

For Children Looked After see Out of Area Placements Procedure.

• When a Child in Need moves from one local authority area to another, the Children Act 1989 is clear that the responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child lies with the local authority where the child is to be found;
• Given the child has already been identified as having particular needs or is vulnerable in some way, or urgent consideration / assessment should be given as to the impact of the move for the child in respect of their vulnerability, for example,  through changes in the protective factors, increased risk with known perpetrators or whether they might be subject to trafficking or modern slavery;
• Given the circumstances, and in line with the above, a timely response should be made with regard to levels of assessed risk;
• The parent/carer should be made aware of their responsibility to ensure the child receives appropriate education and health support in the area they plan to move to, together with any other specialist service required for the child;
• The social worker should assist and promote the family accessing relevant and appropriate services with regard to meeting the child's needs. Any deficits in services to meet specific needs by the receiving local authority should be noted;
• The local authority Children's Social Care Services where the child and family are moving to should be formally notified and all relevant information should be shared:
  • Social work assessment;
  • Child in Need Plan;
  • Minutes of latest Child in Need Review;
  • A summary / case report.
• Parent / carer's permission should be sought to share this information with the receiving local authority in line with Information Sharing Advice for Safeguarding Practitioners.
  
  However, the Data Protection Act should never be a barrier to 'sharing   information where the failure to do so would result in a child or vulnerable adult being placed at risk of harm' or indeed on those occasions where seeking consent might increase the risk of harm.
  
  Otherwise, the social worker or team manager, should consider seeking advice from their Caldicott Guardian or their Legal Services;
• The social worker should ensure that other agencies involved in the Child in Need Plan are made aware and prepared to ensure that their relevant information is shared as soon as possible with their respective counterparts in the area the family have moved to, (for example school and GP records, etc.);
• The social workers and team managers of the respective authorities should ensure there is clear and good communication during any transition and any risks are clearly communicated and understood.
  
  Where possible, the social worker should seek to meet their counterpart and where geography allows, to consider a joint visit and attendance at the Child in Need Meeting, so that the issues can be fully shared. The process should reflect the family's needs and any associated risks;
• Where there is dispute about case responsibility; delay in the receiving local authority accepting responsibility of the case, or a dispute about Children in Need thresholds, the team manager should promptly notify the Service Manager who should make a decision regarding next steps, including, where necessary, to take legal advice;
• The family should be kept informed of any respective responsibilities during a transition stage and when the receiving local authority, (where the family reside), take full responsibilities;
• Receiving local authorities should seek to convene a Child in Need Meeting within 20 working days of the family being resident in their area or upon the notification to the Local Authority of the family moving into their local authority area and include all relevant agencies and, where possible, the social worker and other specialist staff where the child and family have moved from;
• All actions, decisions and arrangements should be fully recorded on the child's case record during this process. This should include management decisions, which should identify the rationale for any decisions made, especially where specific services cannot be provided and/or it is considered the child is no longer a Child in Need.

The initial CIN planning meeting held following or as part of the assessment should be chaired by a Team Manager/Senior Practitioner. Subsequent meetings can be chaired by the social worker or in respect of children with disabilities the DCT Reviewing Officer. If the meetings are likely to be more difficult it is expected that a Team Manager will make the decision about who is best to chair review meetings.

In most cases CIN plans should end with agreement when it is clear that the goals of the plan have been met and everyone is confident that progress can be sustained without the need for professional oversight/monitoring. This is best done at a CIN Review meeting. However, it is recognised that very occasionally in some situations change can be achieved quickly and a formal review meeting might not be practicable. In these circumstances full consultation must take place and be properly documented to set out these circumstances and the rationale for the plan ending.

Local Policies, Procedures & Guidance may also apply for this chapter.