Placement Planning, Stability and Placement Disruption Meetings

A Placement Stability Meeting will be called when a Care Placement is considered to be at risk of disrupting. This could be if:

• Concern is raised through the child's, foster carer's or placement review process;
• Where an allegation or complaint has been made;
• The child or young person is absconding or being absent from placement on a regular basis;
• The relationship between the child and foster carer/residential provider gives cause for concern that the placement may breakdown;
• The child or young person has made it known that they want the placement to end;
• The carers have expressed concerns that they are experiencing difficulties or that they feel they can no longer care for the child or young person;
• The child or young person's social worker or other professionals raise cause for concern that the placement does not meet the needs of the child or young person;
• Where it appears that the placement is unstable every effort will be made to resolve the presenting difficulties. This will be in the form of added support to address the issues of concern. In many cases, this will be sufficient to resolve the concerns.

It will always be the aim of the "in house" fostering service, agency fostering providers and residential providers, in conjunction with the child's social work team, to make every effort to prevent the disruption of a placement.

This meeting will consider the influencing factors that could in the future result in the disruption of the placement. Social Workers are not responsible for solving all placement difficulties on their own, but are often the best source of information to assist their teams and managers to come to a team decision and course of action.

The child's Social Worker and the Supervising Social Worker should make any notes which may assist discussion at the meeting:

• To gain an understanding of the quality of the child/foster carer or child/residential relationship;
• To identify the areas of difficulty;
• How best to support the placement to prevent breakdown;
• To decide if continuing the placement is considered to be in the best interests of the child.

When a Social Worker has a stability concern they should request a stability meeting by email, copying in the fostering manager/residential manager and team manager. The Social Worker is responsible for organising the meeting.

The meeting should be arranged on the earliest available date and be chaired by the Social Worker's Team Service Manager or representative.

The placement stability meeting should be attended by some or all professionals closely associated with the care of the child/young person e.g. child/young person; child's social worker; Social work manager; Foster carer(s); Supervising Social Worker; Fostering Team Manager; CAMHS (where applicable); Advocate for the Young person where appropriate; IRO; Other relevant professionals.

Minutes should be taken so that an effective chronology can be formulated of the child's behaviour and responses to intervention. Details of planning, meeting minutes and decisions will be placed on the child's and the carer's files.

The purpose of the Placement Disruption Meeting is not to attribute blame, it is important that all participants are aware of this. The purpose of Placement Disruption Meetings are instead to provide all participants with an opportunity to share information, feelings and views about the causes of disruption; agree the factors that have led to the disruption and reassess the needs of Looked After Children and carers involved.

Information gained can be used to inform future levels of support and seek to identify learning opportunities, actions and areas of policy development for all agencies involved. When endings are unplanned, the welfare and well-being of children remain paramount. The needs and feelings of other children living in a foster/residential home will also be taken into account.

Within two days of a placement disruption, the Childcare and Supervising Social Workers must complete a referral form and send it to the Local Authority Fostering Team Manager (or nominated representative).

A Placement Disruption Meeting must take place:

• If a placement breakdown occurs after a Looked After Child has been in placement for at least three years.

A disruption meeting can take place if a placement breakdown occurs before 3 years:

• At the request of the foster carer, the placing authority, the IRO or the foster child / young person.

Placement Disruption meetings are not appropriate when dealing with:

• Bridging placements;
• Short-term placements, unless there as been a breakdown in more than one of these placements and a pattern is emerging.

Those invited, or asked to contribute, should be:

1. The child;
2. The parents;
3. The child's social worker and manager;
4. Relevant Fostering Support Team Managers and Service Manager;
5. Fostering agency representative;
6. The link worker/keyworker (for residential care) and home manager;
7. The foster carer(s) and supervising social worker;
8. Child's advocate / representative;
9. Previous Childcare Social Workers, including child's social worker at the time of disruption;
10. Fieldwork Team Manager of current and previous Childcare Social Workers, including child's social worker at the time of disruption;
11. Fieldwork Service Manager of current and previous and childcare Social Workers, including child's social worker at the time of disruption;
12. Designated Teacher from school currently attended, previously attended and at the point of disruption;
13. Health representatives e.g. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, or Health Visitor;
14. Birth parents / family.
15. The child's Independent Reviewing Officer;
16. The child's current carers;
17. Other relevant staff/professionals.

The meeting will ensure the child (depending on his or her age and level of understanding) is given the opportunity to understand the reasons for and be supported with managing the transition.

If a Looked After Child has experienced a number of disruptions within a short space of time a request for a Placement Disruption Meeting in this instance will be at the discretion of the child's social worker and will be held once agreement to do so has been reached by the relevant Fostering Service Managers. If an agreement cannot be reached, the final decision will be made of the Head of Service.

The timing of the Placement Disruption Meeting may vary. It is important that the meeting is not held too soon after the placement breakdown when participants may be defensive, or too long after when participants may be less able to recall the contributing factors.

In order to allow sufficient time for analysis and reflection a Placement Disruption Meeting should be held no earlier than 28 days and no later than 42 days after the disruption, unless a complaint is in process. In this instance, a Placement Disruption Meeting should be held within 4-6 weeks of complaint resolution.

The precise agenda will depend on the child/circumstances, but the chairperson should ensure the circumstances leading to the disruption are properly reviewed, and that all concerned are provided with opportunities to express their views freely with a view to establishing:

• How and why the emergency/disruption occurred;
• To learn from what happened and avoid the same thing happening again - for the child or others in the placement;
• To contribute to the future planning for the child;
• To identify work to be done and to ensure it is completed;
• To ensure that appropriate notifications and other post placement arrangements have been undertaken.

In relation to the disruption of an external residential placement, consideration needs to be given to further use of the resource by the authority.

It is the responsibility of the Fostering Service Manager (Chair) to ensure that an accurate account of the Placement Disruption Meeting is recorded. Minutes of the meeting should include a clear summary of the future needs of child and carers involved, as well as recommendations and follow up actions for agencies involved. These must be circulated to all concerned.

Following the Placement Disruption Meeting, the Fostering Service Manager (or nominated representative) will ensure minutes are distributed to participants and relevant Managers of services concerned within fifteen days.