3.1 |
The aim of the child protection plan is to:
- Ensure the child is safe from harm and prevent him or her from suffering further harm;
- Promote the child's health and development; and
- Support the family and wider family members to safeguard and promote the welfare of their child, provided it is in the best interests of the child.
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3.2 |
Parents must be enabled to understand:
- Causes for concern which resulted in the decision to formulate a Child Protection Plan;
- What is working well and existing strengths;
- What needs to change in the future; and
- What is expected of them as part of the plan for safeguarding the child.
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3.3 |
All parties must be clear about the respective roles and responsibilities of family members and different agencies in implementing the plan. |
3.4 |
The plan will be outlined at the conference. The Lead Social Worker and the Core Group are responsible for ensuring it is drawn up in detail and acted upon. |
3.5 |
The Core Group will, as described above, regularly review and where necessary modify the Child Protection Plan. |
3.6 |
The Child Protection Plan will constitute an agenda item at each review conference. |
3.7 |
The Child Protection Plan should be used to clarify expectations and assist in joint working towards shared goals. It can also be used as evidence, in any legal proceedings of the efforts made to work in partnership (this must be made clear to parents). |
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3.8 |
An outline plan, for each child, must be drawn up at initial and review conferences, following any decision that a child should have or continue to have a Child Protection Plan. |
3.9 |
The aim of the outline plan is to assist the Core Group to form a clearer focus of work with the family and to explicitly define individual professional responsibilities. |
3.10 |
The outline plan should identify:
- Any immediate action required to safeguard the child/ren;
- Broad objectives for child's welfare, identifying specific developmental needs, strengths and difficulties in each domain of the Assessment Framework diagram (child's developmental needs, parenting capacity and family & environmental factors);
- Services or actions designed to respond to the identified needs and to promote the child's health and development;
- Start date, frequency, nature and length of each input;
- Person/agency responsible, including family members;
- Planned outcomes of each intervention, including required progress to be achieved within specified timescales.
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3.11 |
The planned interventions should address:
- Identification of risk factors and actions required to protect the child from Significant Harm;
- Time limited short and longer term objectives;
- Required outcomes linked to promoting the child's welfare and a reduction in the risk;
- Time scales for the completion of a Children and Families Assessment, if not already done;
- Identification of any specialist assessments of the child and family that may be required to ensure sound judgements can be made on how best to safeguard the child and promote their welfare;
- Method of monitoring and evaluating progress, including identifying which professional is responsible for checking required changes, frequency and nature of contact by agency members;
- Consideration of a contingency plan and the circumstances that would necessitate its use.
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3.12 |
The outline plan should include an indication of what the conference believes needs to change before the Child Protection Plan can be discontinued. |
3.13 |
There should be no reduction in service level or significant change to the Child Protection Plan without child protection conference approval. |
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3.14 |
The Core Group is responsible for drawing up in more detail the Child Protection Plan for each child. |
3.15 |
Contents of the plan should be based on findings of the Children and Families Assessment and decisions of the Child Protection Conference and should cover:
- The domains of the Children and Families Assessment;
- Specific and achievable services or actions designed to respond to the identified needs;
- Start date, frequency and length of each input;
- Person/agency responsible, including family members;
- Roles and responsibilities of professionals in routine contact with family, including specialist resources;
- Explicit description of the nature (i.e. frequency, location, presence of parents) of contact with the child of each core group member;
- Planned outcomes of each intervention, including required progress to be achieved within specified timescales;
- Frequency of reviews of the plan and the date of the next Core Group meeting.
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3.16 |
The planned interventions should additionally address:
- Ethnic / cultural / religious considerations - e.g. necessity for an interpreter, avoidance of appointments with family on significant religious festivals;
- Issues arising from any disability;
- Identification of risks to the child and means of protection;
- Identification of parenting strengths;
- Identification of what needs to change to reduce the risk of significant harm;
- Identification of actions to promote the child's health and development and actions to support the family and wider family members in promoting the welfare of the child;
- Identification of any further Children and Families Assessments and/or specialist assessments;
- Establishment of specific short and long term aims and objectives, with clear time scales;
- Identification of measurements for success (how will the family and professionals know there has been change?);
- Method of monitoring and evaluating progress, including identifying professional/s responsible;
- Consideration of a contingency plan if circumstances change quickly, or if insufficient change occurs.
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3.17 |
If the plan's contents have not been discussed with any of the parties / agencies concerned, the reasons must be stated on the plan. |
3.18 |
Any dissent about the plan, by family or professionals, must be recorded, with reasons. |
Agreeing the plan with the child
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3.19 |
The plan must consider the wishes and feelings of the child. It must be explained to her/him (in accordance with age and development), using an interpreter if required. |
3.20 |
The child should be given a copy of the plan written at a level appropriate to her/his understanding and in her/his preferred language and be provided with the opportunity to record her/his comments, including areas of disagreement. |
Negotiating the plan with the parent / carer
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3.21 |
The plan must consider the views of the parents, insofar as they are consistent with the child's welfare. Parents should be provided with the opportunity to record their comments, including areas of disagreement. |
3.22 |
Parents should be clear about the evidence of Significant Harm, which resulted in the child becoming the subject of a Child Protection Plan, what needs to change and what is expected of them and professionals as part of implementing the plan. They should be given a copy of the plan in their preferred language. |
3.23 |
The family must be told about its right to complain and the procedure for so doing. |
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3.24 |
The Lead Social Worker will distribute the revised Child Protection Plan and Core Group Meeting minutes to Core Group members and the Conference Chair within five working days of the Core Group meeting. |
Agency & professional responsibility
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3.25 |
All agencies are responsible for the implementation of the Child Protection Plan and all professionals must ensure they are able to deliver their commitments, or if not possible, that these are re-negotiated. |