Contents
- Introduction
- General Principles
1. Introduction
This chapter is intended to clarify arrangements for letting children and young people Accommodated and on Care Orders stay at friends and relatives on a social basis.
This covers children who are in foster care and residential care, who are in a full time (seven day week) placement, but who additionally may wish to have a stay with friends or relatives. It also applies to children on Care Orders placed with parents under the Placement with Parents Procedure. The placement remains their full time carer or care base; the intention must be for the child to return to the placement, and the placement must remain available for them to return to throughout their time away.
This does not extend to situations where the main carer (s) is/are temporarily prevented from discharging his (their) responsibilities, either through illness or absence.
Children in foster care may well wish to stay overnight with friends from school, or carers may wish to arrange for their own children and their foster child(ren) to sleep over with friends or family as part of the usual family routine or for a special reason. This does not include whole family visits: if carers are there as well, there is no issue.
Foster children staying over with their own families or relatives should be part of the contact plan or contact arrangements as set out in the child’s Placement Information Record. Therefore, these stays can only be agreed with the social worker as part of usual contact planning arrangements – see Contact with Parents and Other Relatives/Friends Procedure.
This chapter is to clarify situations where children may wish to “sleep over”. We have tried to balance our legal responsibilities as good parents to Children Looked After along with the fact that children do not want to be treated differently to their friends or to have what they see as obstacles put in their way.
This is a difficult balance to strike but our policy does try to establish minimal requirements for one or two night sleepovers.
As this chapter is intended to cover social arrangements only, that is, those arising through friendship, Oxfordshire will therefore not accept financial responsibility for any arrangements made within this policy and guidance.
2. General Principles
The general principles underlying our policy on social visits, e.g. sleepovers, are:
- If the child is Accommodated, the parent (s) should be in agreement.
- Arrangements should not disrupt contact arrangements with parents or other family members.
- Arrangements should not affect requirements of any formal Contact Order, which must take priority.
- The child should agree, and the carer must establish through direct face to face contact with the friends, that this is in the child’s best interest. Like any good parent, they have the right to stop anything that that is considered not to be in the child’s best interest. The age of the friend in relation to that of the foster child could be an issue, for example. They must explain this to the child and social worker.
- Overnight stays for very young children, i.e. under 5, would not generally be appropriate.
- Distinctions are drawn between:
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- Child’s relatives
- Foster carers’ friends and relatives
- Child’s friends
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- Staff members, residential or otherwise, are in no sense considered as friends for the purposes of this policy.
- Overnight stays with foster carers’ friends and relatives are more appropriate for children in long term placements.
- Officially organised school trips would in most cases be acceptable, but carers should discuss each case with the social worker – see also Holidays and School/Organisational Trips Inside the UK Procedure and Holidays and School/Organisational Trips Outside the UK Procedure
- The purpose of this policy is to normalise the experience for children in public care as much as possible.
- The principle of overnight stays should be discussed in placement planning meetings/reviews and any possible child protection issues must be considered
- Before agreeing to an overnight stay, the name of the adult who will be responsible for the child, the means of contacting the adult and the child and for the child to contact the carer during the visit/stay and the arrangements for the child’s return must be clarified. There should also be clarity about the sleeping arrangements, whether the child will be sharing a bedroom and, if so, what the arrangements are. Prior to the child’s stay away, the carer should arrange to meet the adult who will have responsibility for the child unless he or she is already known in which case the prior arrangements can be made/confirmed over the telephone.
- In all cases, discussions should be held with the child, dependent on his or her age, as to what, if any, information should be shared with other adults to enable them to look after the child appropriately. This might include:
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- Any specific health care needs of the child
- Any established routines for the child
- Any behaviour management problems which, if the adult is unaware of, could lead to difficulties during the visit, for example the child may be over familiar with adults or over assertive with younger children
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- Any decision to share information should be on a ‘need to know’ basis and recorded.
If the child refuses to allow appropriate information to be shared, then he or she needs to be made aware that this could affect the decision to allow the child to stay away from home.
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These general principles are applied with minor variations, as below, depending on the specific situation that applies:
1. |
Overnight Stays With Child’s Relatives |
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Children Accommodated
- Principles should be agreed in planning/review forums
- Parents must usually be in agreement, unless the Care Plan considers the matter to be in the child’s best interests.
- Relevant relative(s) will be required to complete A Declaration of Suitability Form.
- If the Local Authority has knowledge that a relative would be an unsuitable person to have care of the child (e.g. if he or she has a conviction for an offence against a child and is assessed to pose a risk to the child as a result), then an overnight stay would not be agreed (for exceptional circumstances, child protection procedures would need to be consulted and followed).
- If there are doubts as to the relative’s suitability to have care of the child, there should be an assessment at a level determined by the Team Manager, and a decision recorded on the file.
- Decision-making is for the social worker/Team Manager according to the Care Plan; it is not the carer’s decision.
- The maximum would normally be three nights.
- For longer periods, or for regular stays, there must be enquiries in advance as for placements with Kinship Foster Carers – see Placement with Connected Persons Procedure - for regular arrangements, there must be a clear decision in the child’s Care Plan that this will be in the child’s best interests and police checks must be done and a Declaration of Suitability completed – see Contact with Parents and Other Relatives/Friends Procedure.
Children Subject to Care Orders
- Contact arrangements should be part of the child’s Care Plan.
- Overnight stays with relatives should, where possible, be discussed and agreed with the parents.
- Carer(s) will be required to complete a Declaration of Suitability Form.
- For all stays over two nights, the Placement with Connected Persons Procedure will apply and the approval will be required in advance.
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2.
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Overnight Stays With Child’s Friends (e.g. School Friends)
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Children Accommodated
- Principles to be agreed via the care planning/reviewing forums
- Parents should be consulted and be in agreement with the principles, where possible.
- Carer and friend’s parent should meet and discuss in advance – carers to record.
- Carers to discuss with social worker, if in doubt.
- Maximum will be two nights for over 12s and one night for under 12s.
- Overnight stays for under 5s will not normally be agreed.
- Maximum will be three nights for over 16s
- Longer periods require enquiries of friend’s parents under Placement with Kinship Foster Carers Procedure.
Children Subject to Care Orders
- As for children Accommodated. However, discussion and agreement with parents will need to be judged on a case by case basis, but they should nonetheless, usually be informed of the principles via the planning and review process.
- Careful consideration will need to be given about whether names and addresses, movements, dates, etc. should be shared
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3.
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Children Subject to Family Placement Regulations – Overnight Stays With Foster Carer’s Relatives
Principles
- Foster carers are expected to have the needs of the child in mind and to exercise their responsibility to the child’s welfare in its widest sense in proposing arrangements of this nature (see general principles).
- This policy does not apply where the foster carer and the child stay with other family members together, but where the child stays away without the carer.
- The expectation would be that in the approval process for all carers, the relationships with wider family members will be discussed and relevant issues addressed. For example, if a child is of a different ethnic origin, the child should not stay with a foster carer’s relative who has racist views.
Overnight stays with foster carer relatives for children in short term placements would not usually be appropriate.
- For long term placements, decision making should take into account the arrangements for the foster carer’s own children, if of a comparable age.
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Children Accommodated
- Principles should be discussed in review/planning forums as possible relationships emerge.
- Child’s parents should be consulted/advised where possible and appropriate.
- The child’s social worker must be in agreement.
- The child must be in agreement with the plan.
- Contact arrangements with parents and other relatives must not be disrupted (unless for good reason and with advance discussion).
- The time limit would normally be three nights.
- Longer stays in school holidays are not excluded but would need careful discussion first. Relevant issues would be the child’s age, the pattern of past contact, whether carer’s own children are involved, how the child’s needs would be met.
Children Subject to Care Orders
- As for children accommodated.
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4.
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Children Subject to Family Placement Regulations – Overnight Stays With Foster Carer’s Friends
Principles
- This is as for overnight stays with foster carers’ relatives.
- It applies to children in long term placements, or well established short-term placements, and is for a maximum of three nights, (unless exceptional circumstances apply; to be determined by Team Manager).
- The friends must be close friends of the foster carers; there should be regular contact, there should have been contact within each other’s family home, both carers should be well known, there should be no non-related adult members of the household.
- The child should have met the friends on a number of occasions, and should actively want the stay to take place.
- The arrangement must be for the child’s benefit and not to meet the needs of either the carers or the carers’ friends.
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5.
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Children Subject to Placement With Parents Regulations
Principles:
- These children will be subject to Care Orders and will be with parents/person with Parental Responsibility under a placement agreement – see Placements with Parents Procedure
- This agreement should stipulate any friends/relatives with whom contact or overnight stay is not permitted and whether overnight stays with a child’s friends are permissible.
- Parents should discuss with the child’s social worker in advance if they would like the child to stay overnight with friends or relative, normally as part of the review/planning forum.
- Maximum would generally be only one night.
- Stays with parental friends in such circumstances would be considered in exceptional circumstances only.
- Stays with relatives must be agreed only if they meet the needs of the child, rather than those of the parent or relative.
- Stays with the child’s friends must be discussed with the social worker and arrangements for approving the stay agreed between social worker and parent
- If the parent is ill or if there is another emergency, e.g. if another child was ill or in hospital, then parents again must discuss with the social worker. The stay could then be extended beyond one night but the friends/relatives must be approved under the Placements with Connected Persons Procedure as an alternative placement, on the next working day.
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SUMMARY
| Fostering and Residential |
Child’s relatives |
Three nights (accommodated)
Two nights (Care Order)
Declaration of suitability needed |
| Fostering and Residential |
Child’s friends (the friend
should be of an appropriate
age in relation to the child.) |
Three nights Older children = 16 plus
Two nights (older children = +12)
One night (younger children = 5 - 12)
Under 5s not normally appropriate. |
| Fostering |
Foster carers’ relatives |
Three nights |
| Fostering |
Foster carer’s friends |
Three nights |
| Placement with parents |
Parents’ relatives |
One night, Declaration
of suitability needed |
| Placement with parents |
Parents’ friends |
One night, if at all. Must be
exceptional reasons.
Declaration of suitability needed |
| Placement with parents |
Child’s friends |
One night – must be
discussed with social worker |
| All |
School trips including
exchanges etc. |
Must be discussed with
social worker |
NB All overnight stays occurring regularly are required to have police checks and a Declaration of Suitability completed – see Contact with Parents and Other Relatives/Friends Procedure and Placement with Connected Persons Procedure.
End
