6.3.7 Permanence Planning |
RELATED CHAPTERS
Also see Decision to Look After a Child, (Care and Permanence Planning) Procedure
AMENDMENT
This chapter was slightly amended in August 2011 to reflect the inclusion of Connected Person placements.
Contents
1. Defining Permanence
Permanence is a framework of emotional, physical and legal conditions that gives a child a sense of security, continuity, commitment and identity.
Permanence for children has three particular aspects;
- Legal permanence (staying with birth parents who have Parental Responsibility, Adoption, or Court Orders such as a Special Guardianship Order or a Residence Order);
- Psychological permanence (when the child feels attached to an adult who provides a stable, loving and secure relationship, for example through Kinship Care);
- Physical or environmental permanence (involves a stable home environment within a familiar neighbourhood and community which meets the child's identity needs).
2. Key Objectives in Permanence Planning
The objective of planning for permanence is to ensure that children have a secure, stable and loving family to support them through childhood and beyond.
The question "how are the child's permanence needs being met" must be at the core of everything we do.
Where it is necessary for a child to leave his or her family:
- This should be for as short a time as needed to secure a safe supported return home or;
- If they cannot return home, plans must be made for permanent care with birth family members or within the network of family and friends for preference, or where this is not in the child's best interests, through adoption, long term foster care, a Residence Order or independent living, depending on the child's needs;
- Residential group living is provided only when a need for this is identified within the Care Plan and when substitute family care is not appropriate.
Where it is clear that families and children are unable to live together, planning must be swift and clear to identify permanent alternative settings.
Wherever possible, care should be provided locally unless clearly identified as inappropriate.
Contact with the family, Connected Persons and extended family should be facilitated and built on (unless clearly identified as inappropriate).
If Looked After placements are made and do not meet the above objectives, they will be for as short a period as possible.
The professionals involved will work in partnership with parents/families to meet the above objectives. The wishes and feelings of the child will be taken into account. The older and more mature the child, the greater the weight should be given to his or her wishes.
When undertaking permanence planning, all workers have a duty to promote the child’s links with his or her racial, cultural and religious heritage by
- Promoting placements wherever possible which means the child will be brought up within the same racial, cultural and religious environment as his birth family;
- Where this is not possible, ensuring a placement is identified which can promote links for the child with his or her race, culture and religion.
Practice promoting race equality according to the child's assessed needs must therefore be evidenced within the Permanence Plan.
3. Options for Permanence
Section 7, (Permanence Planning) of Decision to Look After a Child (Care and Permanence Planning), contains procedures for permanence planning.
The Options for Permanence are:
| 3.1 | Staying at Home |
| 3.2 | Placement with Family, Friends and Connected Persons |
| 3.3 | Adoption |
| 3.4 | Long Term Fostering |
| 3.5 | Residence Orders |
| 3.6 | Special Guardianship Orders |
3.1 Staying at Home
The first stage within permanence planning is work with children in need and their families to support them staying together. Staying at home offers the best chance of stability. Research shows that family preservation has a higher success rate than reunification. This of course has to be balanced against the risk of harm to the child.
3.2 Placement with Family, Friends and Connected Persons
Also see Placements with Relatives, Friends and Connected Persons Procedure
If the assessment concludes that the child cannot safely remain at home at this time, every effort must be made to secure placement with relatives friends, or connected persons. The placement may have the legal security of a Special Guardianship Order or a Residence Order. This will be either as part of the plan working towards a return home or - if a return home is clearly not in the child's best interests - as the preferred permanence option. It is very important to establish at an early stage what relatives or friends might be available to care for the child, to avoid the kind of delays that can happen during Court proceedings where this work has not been done.
3.3 Adoption
This option would generally be appropriate for children under the age of 13.
An Adoption Order transfers Parental Responsibility for the child from the birth parents and others who had Parental Responsibility, including the local authority, permanently and solely to the adopter(s). The child is deemed to be the child of the adopter(s) as if he or she had been born to them. The child’s birth certificate is changed to an adoption certificate showing the adopter(s) to be the child’s parent(s). A child who is not already a citizen of the UK acquires British citizenship if adopted in the UK by a citizen of the UK.
An Adoption Order is irrevocable.
Research strongly supports adoption as a primary consideration and as a main factor contributing to the stability of children, especially if under four years, who cannot be rehabilitated to their birth or extended family.
Adoption has the following advantages as a permanence plan:
- Parental Responsibility is held by the carers;
- There is less stigma than either permanent fostering or Residence Order;
- No future legal challenge is possible;
- Decisions about continuing contact will be made by the new parents (on the child’s behalf) who are most in touch with the child’s needs;
- The child is a permanent family member into adulthood.
Adoption has the following disadvantages as a permanence plan:
- It involves a complete and permanent legal separation from the birth family of origin;
- There is no review process
3.4 Long Term Fostering
This option would generally be appropriate for children over the age of 13.
Section 7, (Permanence Planning) of Decision to Look After a Child (Care and Permanence Planning), contains procedures for permanence planning.
This option has proved to be particularly useful for older children who retain strong links to their birth families and do not want or need the formality of adoption.
Long-term fostering has the following advantages as a permanence plan:
- The local authority retains a role in negotiating between the foster carers and the birth family over issues such as continuing direct contact;
- There is continuing social worker support to the child and foster family in a placement which is regularly reviewed to ensure that the child’s needs are met;
- It maintains legal links to the birth family who can still play a part in the decision making for the child.
Long-term fostering has the following disadvantages as a permanence plan:
- Lack of Parental Responsibility for the carers;
- Continuing social work involvement;
- Regular reviews, which are statutorily required to ask if rehabilitation to the parent is to be considered. This may be regarded as destabilising to the placement;
- Stigma attached to the child because of being in the Looked After system;
- The child is not a legal member of the family. If difficulties arise there may be less willingness to persevere and seek resolution.
The procedure for approving such a placement (the carers and the match) is set out in Placements in Foster Care Procedure.
3.5 Residence Orders
Of the permanence options, legal permanence is only provided by the child’s return home to birth parents or adoption. However, a Residence Order may be used to increase the degree of legal permanence in a Kinship or a Long-term Fostering placement, where this would be in the child’s best interests.
Where a Looked After Child would otherwise have to be placed with strangers, a placement with kinship carers may be identified as a preferred option and the carers may be encouraged and supported to apply for a Residence Order where this will be in the best interests of the child. Support may continue for as long as the Residence Order remains in force. The aim will be to make arrangements, which are self-sustaining in the long run.
A Residence Order confers Parental Responsibility, to be shared with the parents, although it does not confer the right to consent to the child’s adoption nor to appoint a guardian. The holder of a Residence Order may not change the child’s name nor arrange for the child’s emigration without the consent of all those with parental responsibility or the leave of the Court.
The making of a Residence Order has the effect of discharging a Care Order.
The following people may apply for a Residence Order:
- A parent or guardian;
- A party to a marriage (whether the marriage is subsisting or not) where the child was brought up as a child of the family;
- A local authority foster carer with whom the child has lived for 12 months;
- Any other person with whom the child has lived for 3 years. (This need not be continuous but must not have started more than 5 years before or ended more than 3 months before the making of the application.);
- Where a Residence Order is already in force, a person who has the consent of those in whose favour the Residence Order was made;
- Where the child is Looked After, a person with the consent of the relevant local authority;
- In any other case, a person who has the consent of all those with Parental Responsibility.
Anyone-else who wishes to apply, including the child, must apply to the Court for leave to make the application for a Residence Order.
As indicated above, a person who is a local authority foster carer for the child may not apply for leave to seek a Residence Order unless he or she has the consent of the relevant local authority OR is a relative of the child OR the child has lived with him or her for at least 12 months prior to making the application.
A Residence Order has the following advantages:
- It gives Parental Responsibility to the carer whilst maintaining the parents’ parental responsibility;
- There need be no social worker involvement, unless this is identified as necessary;
- There is no review process;
- There is less stigma attached to the placement of the child;
- Any contact is likely to be agreed and if considered necessary by the Court, set out in a Contact Order;
- The Order only can continue until the child is 18 years old where the Court directs.
A Residence Order has the following disadvantages:
- It is less secure than adoption in that an application can be made to revoke the Order. However, the Court making the order can be asked to attach a condition refusing a parent’s right to seek revocation without leave of the court;
- There is no formal continuing support to the family after the Order although in some instances, a Residence Order Allowance may be payable, (see below);
- There is no professional reviewing of the arrangements after the order unless a new application to court is made, for example by the parents for contact or revocation. (NB New applications to Court may be expensive to defend, and the carers would have to bear the cost if not entitled to legal aid).
3.6 Special Guardianship Orders
Special Guardianship is a new Order available from 30 December 2005.
Special Guardianship offers a further option for children needing permanent care outside their birth family.
It will address the needs of a significant group of children, mainly older, who need a sense of stability and security but who do not wish to make the absolute legal break with their birth family that is associated with adoption. Special Guardianship Orders are likely to replace the use of Residence Orders in many cases in that they offer greater stability and security to a placement.
Special Guardianship will also provide an alternative for achieving permanence in families where adoption, for cultural or religious reasons, is not an option.
Special Guardians will have Parental Responsibility for the child. A Special Guardianship Order made in relation to a Looked After Child will replace the Care Order and the Local Authority will no longer have Parental Responsibility. In these circumstances, the Care Order would be revived if the Special Guardianship Order was revoked.
Although the parents will continue to hold Parental Responsibility, the Special Guardian will have more control over day to day matters than the holder of a Residence Order in that they will not be required to consult the parents on such matters.
However, a Special Guardian may not change the child’s name nor arrange for the child’s removal from the country for more than 3 months without the consent of all those with parental responsibility or the leave of the Court. The parents also retain the right to consent or not to the child’s adoption.
The following people may apply for a Special Guardianship Order:
- Any guardian of the child;
- A local authority foster carer with whom the child has lived for one year immediately preceding the application;
- Anyone who holds a Residence Order with respect to the child or who has the consent of all those in whose favour a Residence Order is in force;
- Anyone with whom the child has lived for three out of the last five years;
- Where the child is subject of a Care Order, any person who has the consent of the Local Authority;
- Anyone who has the consent of all those with Parental Responsibility for the child;
- Anyone, including the child, who has the leave of the court to apply.
The parents of a child may not become that child’s Special Guardians.
A Special Guardianship Order has the following advantages:
- It gives Parental Responsibility to the special guardian to be exercised on day to day matters without the need to consult others with parental responsibility;
- The local authority must assess the need of the Special Guardian for support including financial support and provide such support to meet the identified need;
- The Order can be revoked but the opportunities to apply to discharge the Order are more limited than in the case of a Residence Order;
- There is less stigma attached to the placement of the child;
- Any contact is likely to be agreed and if considered necessary by the Court, set out in a Contact Order.
A Special Guardianship Order has the following disadvantages:
- It is less secure than adoption in that an application can be made to revoke the Order. However, the Court’s leave will be required.
4. Residence Order Allowances
Financial assistance may be given to those in whose favour a Residence Order has been made, in the form of a set up grant, which could include such items as clothing, furniture, bedding, and Court fees. In cases where Legal Aid is not available, the Department may consider contributing to legal costs, subject to legal advice about the costs involved and negotiation with any external solicitors.
In some instances it will be more cost effective for an application for a discharge of the Care Order to be made by the local authority, which may reduce the legal costs of the carer.
Exceptionally, and only with the approval of the Designated Manager (Residence Orders), a weekly living allowance can be made. The payment of such a Residence Order Allowance will always be subject to means testing and annual review carried out within the same framework as for Adoption.
The following criteria must be considered as part of the social worker's assessment before financial support can be offered:
- The continuing care of the child by the applicants is in the child's best interests;
- The child would otherwise have to be Looked After and placed with previously unknown people;
- The applicants have raised concerns about their financial situation;
- Financial help is necessary to assist the proper care of the child in his or her existing network;
- Where the carers are expressing concern about their on-going financial capacity to support the child, the social worker must assist the family to maximise their Benefit/Income;
- Any long-term regular payments should be clearly identified and authorised by the Designated Manager (Residence Orders) at the time the placement with the carers becomes permanent;
- In all instances where payments are unlikely to continue in the long term, this should be made clear from the outset to the carers.
Relatives living outside the authority having children placed with them by the Department should be considered for payments by the Department in the same way as those living within the authority. Other support may have to be negotiated locally, depending on the circumstances of the case.
Regular payments will usually be up to 75% of the current basic fostering allowance, less child benefit, subject to means testing. In exceptional circumstances, where the needs of the child are significantly more expensive than the norm, or where arrangements are made for children to live with relatives in areas of high living costs e.g. London, additional allowances, either an enhancement to the Residence Order Allowance or some one off assistance may be authorised.
5. Permanence and Local Placement
Where the Permanence Plan involves a long term placement, it is important that the child has access to the friends, family or community within which they were brought up and which forms part of their identity and their long term support network. For these reasons children must be placed in local provision wherever possible.
Any decision to place a child away from his or her community should be based on the particular needs of the child, and considered within the context of a Permanence Plan. Where an alternative family placement is sought in the area of another local authority, the likely availability and cost of suitable local resources to support the placement must be explored. In the case of an adoptive placement, this will be required as part of the assessment of need for adoption support services (see Placements for Adoption Procedure), but should be carried out in relation to any permanent placement.
6. Assessing and Planning for Permanence
Social workers who undertake assessments of a child’s needs in relation to his or her Permanence Plan must
- Be outcome focused and;
- Include consideration of stability issues, including the child’s and family’s needs for long-term support and the child’s needs for links, including contact, with his or her parents, siblings, and wider family network.
Social Workers must ensure the child’s Permanence Plan is clearly linked to previous assessments of the child's needs.
Appendix One) presents a brief, research-based checklist of considerations about Adoption, Residence Orders and Long-term Fostering.
In all cases, full consultation with all family and community support networks must be considered as a possible method of engaging those who know the child best, or who the child is most attached to, in considering the child's long term needs.
It may be appropriate to hold a Family Group Conference where the child (if appropriate), and family members can be involved in the decision-making process.
Harnessing family and community support networks in this way may be particularly effective, for example, for children from black and ethnic minority groups and for disabled children.
In all cases, the child's own wishes and feelings must be ascertained where possible and taken into account.
By the time of the second Looked After Review, the child must have a Permanence Plan (incorporated into the Care Plan), which must be presented for consideration at the review.
See Looked After Reviews Procedure.
See Care Plans Guidance.
Where the Permanence Plan includes a Contingency Plan, the Social Worker must ensure that the parents are informed of the reasons why two plans (rehabilitation and alternative permanence) are being made to meet the child's needs and prevent unnecessary delay.
There are a number of contingency planning models, including 'Concurrent Planning’ and 'Parallel’ or ‘Twin Track' Planning (see Appendix 2 for descriptions of these). Social Workers are advised to use the Parallel/Twin Track model.
7. Good Practice Guidance
The following practice guidance is not exhaustive. It is drawn from research and consultation with young people, parents, carers and practitioners.
7.1 Supporting Rehabilitation to Birth or Extended Family
Research points to:
- The importance of clearly communicating to the family what needs to happen so that the child can return home, and within what timescales;
- The importance of exploring family ties and long term relationships with family, school and community, especially in the light of changing workers;
- The use of Family Group Conferences as an effective way of facilitating both the above.
7.2 Identifying the Best Permanence Option
Research points to:
- The importance of considering within the assessment process “how will stability for this child be achieved?” Refer to Appendix One - Identifying Permanence Options);
- This means considering long term stability in the sense of a permanent home with the same family or group of people, as part of the same community and culture, and with long-term continuity of relationships and identity;
- Short or medium term stability or continuity may also be an important issue both for children who are going to stay in the Looked After system for a brief period before going home and for children who are going to need new permanent arrangements. Making every effort to reduce changes of placement, school, separations from friends and family, to minimise the number of uncertainties or unwelcome surprises a child has to contend with, may make a huge difference to the quality of the child’s life;
- The importance of giving attention to issues such as educational experiences, links with extended family, hobbies and friendships - all of which contribute to guarding against disruption and placement breakdown;
- The importance of carefully listening to what children want from the placement, helping the relationship between carer and child to build, making thorough plans around contact with family, providing vigorous support during crisis times and taking a sufficiently flexible attitude to adoption by carers;
- The older a child is then the less likely is that child to secure a permanent family through adoption;
- The larger the family group of children then the harder it is to secure a single placement that will meet all the needs of all the children.
7.3 Placement/Contact with Siblings – Issues to Consider
It is important to assess the extent and quality of relationships in a sibling group.
Usually, and especially where there is a pre-existing and meaningful relationship, it will be important to actively seek to maintain sibling relationships within any Permanence Plan, including those where an alternative family placement is sought.
Research points to:
- The most enduring relationships are likely to be between siblings;
- The impact on separated siblings of losing vital support, a shared history and continuity affects stability in the placement;
- More successful outcomes occur for children placed together with their siblings. Children should therefore be placed with their siblings unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as dysfunctional interaction that cannot be remedied, incompatible needs or where the lack of appropriate placement would lead to unacceptable drift. The immediate non-availability of a suitable placement should not prevent rigorous home-finding efforts within an agreed time frame, based on balancing the potential for success against the risk of undue delay;
- The importance of identifying strengths and difficulties in sibling relationships in order to make appropriate permanent placement decisions. It is important to ascertain the perceptions and wishes of the child and their family, to assess the shared experience of siblings and the children's individual permanence needs;
- This involves thorough consideration of issues of gender, race, disability and identity;
- The importance of including regular contact between siblings within the Permanence Plan wherever possible, if they cannot be placed together.
7.4 Direct Contact With Birth Family Members and Others
Contact must always be for the benefit of the child, not the parents or other relatives.
It may serve one or all of the following functions:
- To maintain a child’s identity. Consolidating the new with the old;
- To provide reassurance for the child;
- To provide an ongoing source of information for the child;
- To give the child continuing permission to live with the adoptive family;
- To minimise any sense of loss;
- To assist with the process of tracing;
- To give the adopters a secure sense of the right to parent. This will make the parenting task easier.
Direct contact will generally only work if all parties accept/agree to.
- The plan for permanence;
- The parental role of the permanent carers;
- The benefit of contact.
Direct contact is not likely to be successful in situations where a parent:
- Disagrees with the plan for permanence;
- Does not accept the parental role of the permanent carer and their own minimal role with the child;
- Has proved to be unreliable in their commitment to contact in the past;
- Has not got a significant attachment with the child. Post placement contact should not be used as a means of creating an attachment where it did not previously exist.
The wishes of the child to join a new family without direct contact must be considered and given considerable weight at any age.
If direct contact is a part of the Permanence Plan, a formal agreement setting out how contact will take place, who with, where and how frequently must be negotiated before placement, and reviewed regularly throughout the child’s life.
7.5 Indirect Contact With Birth Family Members and Others
We don’t all share the same sense of family – it means different things to different people. It helps when children are helped to understand to whom they are related, especially if they have complicated family trees including half-brothers or sisters living in different places. Again, it’s about identity built on solid information.
Wherever possible, indirect contact between the child and his or her new family with people from the past should be facilitated;
- To leave open channels of communication in case more contact is in the child’s interests in the future;
- To provide information (preferably two-way) to help the child maintain and enhance their identity and to provide the birth relative with some comfort in knowing of the child’s progress.
Indirect contact must be negotiated prior to placement, and all parties should be asked to enter into an agreement with one another about the form and frequency that the contact will take. Renegotiations of the contact should only take place if the child’s needs warrant it.
All parties to the agreement will need to accept that as the child becomes older and is informed more fully about the arrangements of indirect contact, the child will have a view regarding its continuation. No contact arrangements can be promised to remain unaltered during the child’s childhood. Indeed, the child’s need for indirect contact will be re-evaluated from time to time by those holding parental responsibility. Those involved need to accept that contact may cease if it is no longer in the child’s interests. Alternately an older child may need to change to direct contact.
The Adoption Service offers a non-identifying post box system to assist adopted children to maintain contact with birth relatives and others.
7.6 Guarding Against Drift
Research points to:
- Unintended negative consequences of a ‘sequential’ approach, even where it emphasises the primacy of family reunification as a permanence option. Children who cannot return home often linger in foster care for many years, experiencing multiple moves before exploration of other permanence options begin;
- The prevention of such damaging delay occurring through ‘Twin Tracking/Parallel (or Contingency) Planning’ and ‘Concurrent Planning’. For more detail, please refer to Appendix Two – Contingency Planning.
7.7 Clearly Communicating the Permanence Plan
- Communicating a Permanence Plan effectively involves setting it out clearly and concisely as part of the Care Plan, in a way that acts as a useful reference to all involved during the Review process;
- Good quality Care Plans set out clear, concise statements about intended outcomes. Although 'a sense of permanence' can in itself be stated as an outcome, it can also be presented as a means to achieving particular developmental outcomes;
- Make timescales clear. These are about “having regard to the child’s age and circumstances, achieving a balance between a framework for an action plan to provide a sense of stability for the child and flexibility to allow for adequate changes in the parent’s or birth family’s circumstances” (Family Rights Group 1998).
7.8 Legal Routes to Permanence
For younger children unable to be returned home and up to around the age of 9 where adoption is the plan, a Care Order and Placement Order are likely to be necessary unless parents are clearly relinquishing the child and are in agreement with the plan and the placement choice
For children between about 9 and adolescence, each case will need to be considered on its merit. The decision between Residence Order, Special Guardianship, long term fostering and adoption will depend on the individual needs of the child set alongside the advantages and disadvantages of each legal route.
For children in adolescence, the issue is much more clearly one of negotiation and discussion between all the parties involved, bearing in mind that for some adolescents, security, a lack of stigma and a sense of permanence will remain their most pressing need
7.9 Applications by Foster Carers to be Considered as Permanence Carers or Adopters of Child in Their Care
In some situations, foster carers form a close attachment to a fostered child and when adoption or permanent care away from the family becomes the plan for that child, ask to be considered as adoptive parents or long term foster carers. This should always be considered carefully. Research indicates that such placements for permanence can promote the security of a child and encourage the development of a healthy attachment to the foster carers’ family.
Each case should be considered individually, bearing in mind the following factors.
- The assessment of the child’s needs and the foster carers’ ability to meet those needs via adoption, long term fostering, Residence Order or Special Guardianship;
- The availability of other adopters or permanent carers for the child, particularly for healthy young children under 3;
- The length of placement, quality of the attachment and risks to the child’s emotional well being of disrupting the attachment;
- The contact plans for the child. Any risk to the child from the parents having current placement knowledge of the foster carer;
- The foster carer’s intentions regarding continuing as short-term carers for other placements and the likely impact of this on the child needing permanence.
The child’s social worker has a role in ensuring that the placement will meet the long-term needs of the child. The foster carers’ social worker has a role to ensure the foster carers have considered the impact on themselves and their family of a decision to commit long term to a particular child.
Often the elements that would normally be considered to make a good match may only be partly present, e.g. the carers may be older than ideal.
However the positive advantages of maintaining an existing relationship of quality, the perceived durability of this relationship, the benefits of maintaining existing networks of support are all factors that need to be considered and a balance of risks and rewards considered against the uncertainty of seeking to find a elusive “other “ placement that may never materialise.
Where the proposed match seems likely to meet the needs of the child, applications from foster carers to be recognised as long-term carers for a child should be positively welcomed. The financial implications of such placements, particularly those involving other agency carers, require a clear analysis of risks and benefits along with prior agreement from the relevant budget holder to secure long term funding.
In all case where the foster carer is considering a long-term commitment to the child the potential of this to be secured through the making of a Residence Order must be thoroughly explored. Where a foster carer secures a Residence Order, a Residence Order Allowance may be paid – see above in this Guidance.
Appendix One - Identifying Permanence Options
Permanence Options; Checklist of Considerations
| Residence Orders/Special Guardianship Orders | Adoption | Long Term Fostering |
| Child needs the security of a legally defined placement with alternative carers, but does not require a lifelong commitment involving a change of identity. | Child's primary need is to belong to a family who will make a lifelong commitment | Primary need is for a stable, loving family environment whilst there is still a significant level of continued involvement with the birth family |
| Child's relation, foster or other carer needs to exercise day to day parental responsibility and is prepared to do so as a lifelong commitment | Child's birth parents are not able or not willing to share parental responsibility in order to meet their child's needs, even though there may be contact | Child has a clear sense of identity with the birth family, whilst needing to be looked after away from home |
| There is no need for continuing monitoring and review by the Local Authority, although support services may still need to be arranged | Child needs an opportunity to develop a new sense of identity whilst being supported to maintain or develop a healthy understanding of their past | There is need for continuing oversight and monitoring of the child's developmental progress |
| Child has a strong attachment to the alternative carers and legally defined permanence is assessed as a positive contribution to their sense of belonging and security | Child expresses a wish to be adopted | Birth parents are able and willing to exercise a degree of parental responsibility |
Appendix Two -
Contingency Planning
1. Concurrent Planning
In this model children are placed with foster/adoptive carers who can support attempts at rehabilitation or adopt the child if rehabilitation fails. The potential benefits of this model are that it is anticipated that children will experience fewer moves and be placed with the permanent family more quickly. Because children do not linger in temporary foster care with multiple moves, problems of attachment and trust will be minimised.
In the UK at present there are only a small number of research projects currently following this model. Each has rigorous selection processes in terms of the prospects of successful rehabilitation (very low) and age of child (very young).
The key elements of this model include the following:
- Making a culturally respectful assessment including family strengths and why the child is being looked after, what needs to change and what services does the family need to support these changes;
- Setting firm timescales during which both reunification and permanence options are pursued;
- Full and open sharing of information to all parties, to include the impact of foster care on children, time scales and the reason for these, birth parents’ rights and responsibilities, the support available, the permanence options and the consequences of not following through the agreed plan;
- Promoting structured and frequent contact in an environment which promotes the development of supportive relationships;
- Placing the child with foster/adoptive parents or birth relatives where they will stay permanently if plans for reunification are unsuccessful;
- Identifying and involving immediate and extended family at an early stage;
- Using Family Group Conferences as a means of involving families in planning for the child’s future;
- Providing ongoing support to permanent parents through and after adoption.
The opportunities for implementing this model are limited to families where children are in ”Kinship Care” placements where they can remain if they are unable to return home. However many of the key elements of this model are valuable consideration when developing a plan.
2. Parallel or Twin Track Planning
Social Workers are encouraged to consider working to this model; working towards reunification whilst at the same time developing an alternative Permanence Plan, within strictly limited timescales. Where children are presented before the Court in Care proceedings, the Court require parallel or twin track planning to be reflected in the Care Plan. The key difference with Contingency Planning is that the child remains in temporary foster care until the Court makes the decision whether or not to endorse the primary Care Plan. If the primary Care Plan breaks down before the final Court hearing, delay is avoided in presenting an alternative permanent option for the child to the Court.
3. Contingency Planning
In both the concurrent planning and twin track models, a Contingency Plan is developed in parallel with intensive work with the biological family towards rehabilitation. The Contingency Plan could include the following:
- Kinship placement, with or without a Residence Order;
- Adoption outside the family;
- Residence order;
- Long-term fostering;
- Plan to remain long-term in residential placement.
End