We will work with children, young people and families to maintain a child living at home or with a family member wherever possible. We believe it is best that a child or young person is best placed within their family network through to adulthood.
- high quality assessments must be made to decide whether children and young people will become looked after by us
- if a child does come into our care we will try to keep them as close to Hull as possible
- we will listen to the child, young person, their parents and other key people to ensure we best meet the young person’s needs now and for the future
- we will ensure contact arrangements are made so family members and the child can still see one another, when it is in the best interest of the young person
- we will ensure a care plan is in place that describes how the child and young person’s needs will be met now and into adulthood and monitor how often the plan is reviewed
- we will ensure the child or young person will be visited by their allocated social worker in the first week of coming into care and then at monthly intervals, as a minimum
- the social worker may have telephone contact, messaging or FaceTime with the child or young person more frequently
A Looked after Child review will be held within the first month of the care episode starting, this meeting will be chaired by an Independent Reviewing Officer to consider the plan for the child or young person. The child or young person will attend and so will the parents and any other significant person.
Reasons that a child or young person may be looked after
If it is agreed following assessment that it is in the best interest for the child to be looked after by us.
This arrangement may be in agreement with the parents, if that is the case, this is called a Section 20 Agreement of the Children Act 1989, and allows the opportunity for a parent to change their mind and take their child back out of care following a conversation with us.
A child or young person may become looked after by us because significant safeguarding issues have been identified, and that it is deemed unsafe for the child or young person to remain at home or within their family.
The parents may disagree and matters maybe so concerning that we may place the matter before the courts, requesting a court order to be granted (Section 31 of the Children Act 1989) which then give us shared parental responsibility. In this instance parents will have been advised to seek legal representation. This will be provided via Legal Aid.
