Children Subject of a Child Protection Plan

In order to support consistent national standards for the management of all cases of Child Protection, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 ‘ required the Child Protection Register – a computerised list of children living within the local area who are considered to be a continuing risk of significant harm – to be phased out on 1st April 2008. In its place children who are considered to have suffered or be a risk of suffering significant harm will be subject of a Child Protection Plan. This meant that from the 31st March 2008 all children who were on the Child Protection Register were then recorded as having a Child Protection Plan.

Each Local Authority is required to maintain a list of those children in their area who are subjects of a child protection plan, and where professionals have concerns about a child, they will need to discuss those concerns with the Duty Officer in the Referral and Assessment Team, who will be able to check whether the child is already known to Social Care, and whether they have a child protection plan. The Referral and Assessment Team will use all the information available to them in advising the enquirer and in making decisions about undertaking any further assessment about the circumstances of the child.

All children who have a child protection plan will have an allocated social worker who is responsible for co-ordinating the plan and ensuring that professionals come together to regularly review the services being provided to reduce risk and support the child and family.

All of the other processes of the Child Protection system remain in place, including Strategy discussions, Section 47 enquiries, Child Protection Initial Conferences and Reviews.

Criteria for Child Protection Plan

Where there are concerns that a child has suffered and will continue to suffer significant harm an Initial multi-agency case conference will be convened by Children’s Social Care, to bring together and analyse all the relevant information and provide the appropriate services to reduce the risk to the child and provide support to the family. At such conferences, where professionals feel that the risk of harm to the child is significant, based on the use of professional judgement, they will become subject of a Child Protection plan.

The Chair of the conference is responsible for determining which category of abuse the child has suffered or is at risk of suffering – neglect, physical, sexual or emotional abuse

The aim of the Child Protection plan is to:

• Ensure that the child is safe and prevent him or her from suffering any further harm ,
• Promote the child’s health and development
• Support the child’s family in promoting the welfare of the child.

Child Protection plans will consist of an overall statement of the goal of the plan. This can include a brief summary of the events that led up to the plan being made.

The rest of the plan will contain:

• The assessed needs of the child which place him/her at risk of significant harm
• The actions to meet those needs and who will be responsible
• The outcome that is needed to show that the actions have protected the child.

When a child has a Child Protection plan this will be shown on the child’s records so that everyone who is involved in working with that child is aware that there is a risk of significant harm.

Needs

The introduction of the Common Assessment Framework and the Needs Assessment Framework  have established the framework and concept of the needs of the child within the three domains of the child’s needs , the parent’s capacity to meet those needs ,and the environment in which the child lives. The Child Protection plan builds on these assessments by identifying those needs of the child which mean that they are at risk of significant harm. Instead of just focusing on the risks that the child experiences the plan will place the emphasis on the needs that the child has as a result of those risks .For example a child may have emotional needs through witnessing domestic violence, or particular health needs through experiencing neglect .With a clear assessment of the needs of the child it is then possible to decide on the actions to meet those needs.

A child will have a number of needs and the conference will discuss all of the needs of the child and how these will be met. It is likely that only some of them will be needs that require a Child Protection plan and the conference will identify these needs which will form the basis of the plan.  

Where children do not become subject to a child protection plan, they may nonetheless require services to promote their health or development. In these circumstances the conference, together with the family, should consider the child’s needs and what further help would assist the family in responding to them and these will be recorded in a child in need plan.

Recording that a child is subject of a child protection plan

The Local Authority Children’s Social Care Integrated Children’s System (ICS) records each child subject of a Child Protection plan. Professionals making enquiries regarding a child’s welfare will be able to obtain information regarding the child that is recorded on the ICS, via discussion with the Referral and Assessment Team Duty Officer, on 01225 396 313/314 and out of hours, the Emergency Duty Team, on 01454 615165 who will be able to access this information.

Child Protection Process

Investigation

The process for the investigation of Child Protection referrals is unchanged. In each case where there are Child Protection concerns about a child a Strategy Discussion will take place and decide whether there are sufficient concerns to warrant an investigation and then make plans for that investigation .When a Section 47 enquiry is to be carried out a Core Assessment should be started and a date for an Initial Conference within 15 working days should be arranged.

Initial Child Protection Conference

If the Section 47 enquiry concludes that the concerns are substantiated then an Initial Child Protection Conference will be held.

Reports will be prepared by the responsible social worker and the other agencies and professionals who are involved with the child and shared with the family in advance of the conference. These reports should identify the Child Protection needs of the child and should make recommendations about the actions that are needed to meet those needs.

Reports should be returned to the responsible social worker five working days after receipt of the invitation in order that they can be included in the Social work report .The Social work report will be prepared three working days before the conference in order that this can be shared with the family and their comments recorded.

Core group

Where a child is subject of a child protection plan, there will be a core group of people, including the parents/carers, identified at the conference that will be responsible for taking the plan forward.

The Core group will meet within 10 working days of the conference and will have the first task of completing the detail of the action plan including timescales and outcomes.

The Core group will continue to meet and will monitor the progress of the Child Protection plan. As well as adding new needs the Core group can decide that a need has changed or has been met. The exceptions are Child Protection needs which can only be ended by a Review Conference.

If the plan has been altered then the new plan will be printed and circulated to the family.

Review Child Protection Conference

The Review Conference will discuss each of the actions that were agreed at the Initial Conference .The Conference will decide if the planned outcomes have been achieved and will then decide whether to change the status from Child Protection to a Child in Need.

The Conference will always review the total needs of each child. The Conference will decide on the actions that need to be carried forward and any new actions and outcomes that are necessary.

If the Child Protection needs have been met or judged to be at a level where the child is no longer at risk of significant harm then the Child Protection plan would cease. The Care plan would need to be amended and a new plan created as a Child in Need plan.

Nicola Bennett

Integrated Safeguarding Officer

March 2008