This chapter has been updated, information has been added in to Section 4, Assessment in relation to the National Age Assessment Board.

Section 6.1, Placement Options has been updated in relation to placements in 'other arrangements'. Section 4, Assessment has been updated in relation to Age Assessments.

Section 8, Court Hearings has been updated in line with A View From the President’s Chambers: Relaunching the PLO (November 2022), and that section should be re-read.
In Relevant Guidance a link has been added to Pre-proceedings and Family Justice Hub (Research in Practice).

This chapter has been amended to reflect changes from 'Practice Direction 27a - Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (Universal Practice to be Applied in the High Court and Family Court)', in relation to the required maximum length of certain court documents, (unless otherwise specifically directed by the court). In addition, a new subsection of Section 4.1, Local Authority Documentation - 'Final Care Plan' provides further detail on the importance of recording information on the Care Plan which will help the child, parent or the child's carer understand why decisions have been or are being made.

Amendments have been made in:

• Section 5, Leaving Care Assessment of Need - in relation to children who are victims of trafficking or unaccompanied asylum seeking children;
• Section 7, Reviews of Pathway Plans - in relation to Relevant/Former Relevant young people moving to 'unregulated' accommodation; and
• Section 8, Personal Advisers - in relation to frequency of visits by Personal Advisers.

This new chapter reflects statutory guidance in relation to children who are placed by health authorities or local authorities for more than 3 months in residential establishments for educational purposes and children placed in care homes or independent hospitals (including hospices) by health authorities or local authorities (Sections 85 and 86 of the Children Act 1989).

Statutory visits and monitoring of these placements are undertaken by the Responsible Authority.

This guidance has been amended in line with the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and accompanying revised statutory guidance.

The changes introduced relate to the status of 'Previously Looked after Children'. A Previously Looked After Child is one who is no longer looked after in England and Wales because they are the subject of an Adoption, Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order which includes arrangements relating to with whom the child is to live, or when the child is to live with any person, or has been adopted from 'state care' outside England and Wales.

Additional Information has been added to Section 2, Obtaining Parental Consent, in line with recent case-law which considered the use of Section 20 Accommodation by local authorities. The court was clear that:

• A local authority failing to permit a parent to remove a child in circumstances within section 20(8) acts unlawfully; and
• The relevant information that a parent would need to be able to understand, retain and weigh up in order to have competency to consent to the accommodation of a child is as follows:
  • That the child will be staying with someone chosen by the local authority, probably a foster carer;
  • That the parent can change their mind about the arrangements, and request the child back from accommodation at any time;
  • That the parent will be able to see the child.

This guidance has been updated throughout to reflect amendments made by the Children and Social Work Act 2017 relating to the status of Previously Looked After Children.

A Previously Looked After Child is one who is no longer looked after in England and Wales because they are the subject of an Adoption, Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order which includes arrangements relating to with whom the child is to live, or when the child is to live with any person, or has been adopted from 'state care' outside England and Wales. A new Section 15, Mental Health has been added, as well as a new Section 8, Safeguarding Children in Care at School.

This procedures have been updated in line with the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and revised statutory guidance which require schools, through the Designated Teacher for Looked After Children, to offer support as required to 'Previously Looked After Children'.

This chapter has been updated in line with the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and revised statutory guidance which require schools, through the Designated Teacher to provide support to 'Previously Looked After Children'.

• Family Intervention and Support Services;
• Family Intervention and Support Service Weekend Support Policy.

Section 4.2, Case Analysis has been updated to reflect the 'permanence provisions' of the Care Plan added by s. 8 Children and Social Work Act 2017 (amending section 31(3B) Children Act 1989) which a court is required to consider when deciding whether to make a Care Order.

This procedure has been reviewed and updated throughout to reflect practice around conducting Pre Birth Assessments. Information has been added in relation to the Legal Gateway Panel which must consider any request to initiate care proceedings. The Social Worker and Team Manager are required to attend the Legal Gateway Panel to seek approval for proceedings or the initiation of the Public Law Outline Process.

Links to the following additional guidance documents have also been added:

• Pre Birth Assessments Multi-Agency Pathway;
• Guidance for Social Workers when completing Pre Birth Assessments.

The following local documents have been added:

• Role of Kirklees Virtual School;
• The Virtual School Educational Placement (school or other) Transfer Protocol  - One Minute Guide.

This new chapter outlines the role of the Legal Gateway Panel in Kirklees and provides links to the following documents:

• Legal Gateway Panel Guidance for Social Workers – Process for Children to be Discussed at Legal Gateway Panel;
• Legal Gateway Panel Process – Flowchart;
• Legal Gateway Panel – Terms of Reference (Managing Decision Making in Relation to Legal Proceedings);
• Legal Gateway Panel Item Front Sheet.

• Adoption Panel;
• Assessment and Approval of Prospective Adopters;
• Non-Agency Adoption.

• CareFirst v6 Handbook;
• Practice for when a Child on a Child Protection Plan Becomes Looked After (Flowchart);
• BAAF Practice Note No.53 - Guidelines for the Testing of Looked After Children who are at risk of a Blood Borne Infection.

Information contained in Section 3, Chairing of Secure Accommodation Reviews has been amended as follows:

The Secure Accommodation Panel should be chaired by a person independent of the care planning for the child, including line managers and the Independent Reviewing Officer. Given the need to focus on the Section 25, Children Act 1989 criteria issues, the chair should also be independent of any resource allocation, etc. but should have sufficient experience and knowledge to carry out the task.

• Family Intervention and Support Services - Eligibility Criteria Levels of Need;
• Family Support and Child Protection Structure Chart.

In Kirklees, the Early Help Assessment and Initial and Core Assessments have been replaced with a Single Assessment, The Single Assessment is in two parts:

Part One replaces the Early Help Assessment and Part Two replaces the Initial and Core Assessments.

This chapter has been updated to reflect the requirements of The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review.

Minor amendments have been made to this chapter as follows:

• Where a prospective adopter enquires about inter-country adoption, information should also be given about the policy on fees and an estimation of the costs the prospective adopter will have to pay to the agency and the Department for Education;
• In relation to references, applicants will be asked to provide the names of three personal referees, who are adults (not more than one of whom should be related to them), have known the applicant for at least two years and who are happy to provide personal references on the prospective adopter. A written report must be prepared of the interviews held with each of the referees.

The following information has been added in relation to the Child's Permanence Report:

• Child's Permanence Report must be written by the worker who knows the child best and is also a qualified social worker;
• The Report should include a summary, written by the agency's medical adviser, of the state of the child's health, health history and any need for health care which might arise in the future, and a Chronology of the decisions and actions taken by the agency with respect to the child; and
• Those parts of the Report that contain factual information about the birth family should be shared with the relevant family members to enable them to confirm their accuracy and agree to it being passed on to a child in due course. Any such agreement should be clearly recorded on the child's case record. Each of the child's parents should be shown those parts of the Report which set out their views and wishes, and given the opportunity, if they so wish, to express these in their own words.

A new has been added providing the following  information on Remuneration for Former Foster Carers:

This chapter provides guidance on identifying and responding to the needs of young carers.

This new chapter reflects the statutory guidance 'Ceasing to look after a child' in 'Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations (2015)' as amended by the 'Care Planning and Fostering (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2015' and Working Together to Safeguard Children.

Section 1, Introduction has been amended to add 'The placement will only become an adoptive placement after the case has been taken to Matching Panel.'

This chapter has been updated in December 2014 in line with the Children and Families Act 2014 and the overall aim of speeding up the adoption process. The chapter has been updated throughout and should be re-read. Information has been added in relation to: 

• Fostering for Adoption (Section 1, Recruitment and Responding to Initial Enquiries and Section 5.4, Fostering for Adoption);
• Adoption Register (Section 9, After the Panel Recommendation);
• Duty to provide information on adoption support services (Section 1, Recruitment and Responding to Initial Enquiries and Section 2, Registration of Interest in Adoption);
• Ethnicity (Section 15.3, Ethnicity).