4.1.1 Permanency Policy for Looked After Children

Principles

Oxfordshire County Council believes that all children have the right to experience family life, and that wherever it is consistent with their health and welfare, this should be with their own families. Family Support services will be provided in furtherance of this objective.
The first priority in planning services, and in reaching any decision about a child’s needs, will be to ensure the child’s safety and welfare.
In some cases, children may not be cared for by their birth parents because it is not consistent with their safety and welfare, or because their parents are unable to look after them. Where this is the case, either on a temporary or on a permanent basis, Oxfordshire County Council will first look to place children with members of the extended family (relatives or friends) wherever this is assessed as being consistent with their welfare.
Where children cannot be cared for within their own family, either by birth parents or by relatives, Oxfordshire County Council will then ascertain if there are any friends with whom it would be appropriate for the child to stay. If the child can be care for in their own network of family/friends, it may not be necessary for the child to be looked after. This will need to be specifically discussed and agreed. If the child does need to be looked after with foster carers, or exceptionally in a children’s home, the social worker will work with the child looked after and his/her family as well as his/her alternative carers, with the aim of making it possible for the child to be returned home or to family members, providing this is consistent with his/her safety and well being. This includes providing help and support to parents or other relatives. Such help and support will be linked to specifically agreed objectives and outcomes for staff and parents, to which time scales will also be attached. Plans for providing such help and support will be recorded in writing once discussion and agreement has been reached, and will be regularly reviewed.
In support of the aim to return children to their parents or families wherever possible, there will be a plan to maintain contact between children, parents, and other important relatives.
Planning for children includes a responsibility to discuss plans with them and establish their wishes and feelings, as well as making a judgement about their needs. Their wishes and feelings must be recorded and as far as possible taken account of in any decision making, and must be carefully considered in each review meeting.

A range of approaches and techniques will be used to seek to establish children’s views, particularly those whose communication is non-verbal.
Assessment of the needs of children will be a high priority for the Directorate, and will meet the requirements of the Assessment Framework. Initial Assessments and Core Assessments will be undertaken within specified time scales and will be used to inform the plans made for children at each review.
Where a child has no one with Parental Responsibility and no regular family visitor, Oxfordshire will arrange an Independent Visitor for him/her, if this is appropriate and in accordance with the child’s wishes.
Where there has been a decision, based on a Core Assessment that it is not in a child’s interests to return home to his or her parents, and where it is not possible for the child to be cared for by relatives, Oxfordshire County Council will aim to provide an alternative permanent placement. The placement of choice will be a permanent family unless a child’s assessed needs clearly indicate an alternative type of placement. This will be in exceptional cases, and will be dependent on individual circumstances.
Permanency in families for children looked after means securing for them a placement in a family to which they belong. Oxfordshire County Council will work to try to achieve for all children looked after a placement where their carer also has parental responsibility for them, although this might be shared with others.

This could be achieved through a Residence Order, Special Guardianship Order or through an Adoption Order, which will be considered at each review as a permanency option for all children looked after. Permanency planning will also consider any contact needs that the child has.
Placement in long term foster families does not confer parental responsibility on the carer. The child remains in the looked after system for the duration of his or her childhood. Long term fostering as an option for long term care will be considered only where there is a clear assessment and Panel recommendation that the child’s needs can be appropriately met in this way. The suitability of long term fostering as a plan depends on the future involvement of the parents and the child’s individual needs.
The second Looked After Review of children looked after (at four months) will be the time when a Permanence Plan is made. This will take into account all the assessment work done to date. It may need to be a provisional plan (if the child is subject to Court proceedings) or there may need to be a Parallel Plan with identified time scales. The second and all subsequent reviews of children looked after will consider the child’s Permanence Plan. All elements and steps within the Plan – all those aspects which will need to be managed to achieve the final agreed outcome – will be identified.
A key person and a time scale will be identified for each task within the plan. Adoption plans will need to identify all relevant time scales throughout the process.
After the plan has been agreed at review, there may be a need to transfer case responsibility to a different team, for example, the Children Looked After Team. This will be done only after consultation and agreement between Team Managers, including agreement over time scales.
Birth parents will be offered the support of another social worker who is independent of the team who are planning for the child.
Family placement staff will be invited to the second and subsequent Looked After Reviews of children looked after and will contribute to the decision about the child’s Permanence Plan. They will also offer specialist advice about how a family placement might be achieved and, where applicable, the relevant time scales for implementing an Adoption Plan.
All children looked after for whom adoption is the plan will have a named social worker who will work with them through the planning and placement process up until the time that the Adoption Order is made. Information about the adoption process, including written information, will be given to the child by the child’s allocated social worker.
Where the plan for the child is adoption, the social worker will ensure that life story work is done with the child to prepare him or her for a new placement. This may be done by the child’s social worker or by another suitable worker or carer. The child’s review will consider how this might best be achieved and further reviews will ensure that it is being/has been done.
In order to meet the child’s needs for permanence and to ensure children do not have to wait an inappropriate length of time for a family to be found, the child’s assessed needs will be prioritised so that a family can be sought which will be able to meet the child’s priority needs. Other strategies may be needed to meet some of the child’s other, lower priority, needs.
Where a prospective adoptive family is identified, they will be provided with full social, medical, and legal information about the child and his/her circumstances, in order that they might reach an informed decision about whether or not they feel able to parent the child appropriately.
Adopters will be provided with advice and training on how to keep relevant information about their adopted child safe, and how to share it appropriately in due course.
Oxfordshire County Council, as an Adoption Agency, will ensure information and records about adopted children and adopters will be kept safe (secure and confidential) in such a way that it can later be retrieved and shared with an adult adoptee as appropriate. This responsibility will be exercised by the administrative service within the County Council.
In order to achieve adoption for as many children as possible (where assessed as being appropriate), Oxfordshire as an Adoption Agency will be able to financially support adopters where such support is assessed as being necessary to support the child’s adoption, and where he/she would otherwise be denied the opportunity. Eligibility for such financial support will therefore be assessed on the basis of adopters’ financial circumstances, where a judgement has already been reached that the adopters could meet the child’s needs.
Oxfordshire County Council offers support to all adopters pre and post adoption to provide help in sustaining placements and in managing contact issues. Where there are difficulties within an adoption placement, either before or after an Adoption Order is made, support will be made available to the child and the adopters – either to maintain the placement or to make alternative arrangements – as appropriate. Staff will work with other agencies to provide a range of appropriate services, in as timely a way as possible.
Children (and adopters) will be advised of their rights to make representations or complaints – either directly or through an advocate – at any stage in the process.

This policy is supported by a range of detailed procedures and guidance set out in Part 3 of the Manual.

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