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1.2.9 Family and Friends as Carers Guidance

Contents

  1. Policy  
  2. Key Objectives 
  3. Status of children placed with friends or family members 
  4. Checks before arrangements 


1. Policy

Policies, Values and Principles (Values) sets out the overall Children's Policy for the provision of services. 

This Policy Statement confirms the fundamental importance attached to the child's place in his or her family and the commitment to the child's right to be brought up within his or her family wherever possible.  Where this is not possible and children have to be looked after, a permanent solution will be secured through a return to their parents' care or a placement within the wider family where this can be achieved within the child's time-scales.

This guidance aims to assist workers on how best to achieve this policy. 


2. Key Objectives

  • To maintain children in their own families or family network, so long as this is consistent with the Directorate's duty to ensure that their safety and welfare are not prejudiced.
  • To ensure that the assessment process discriminates effectively between different types and levels of need in relation to children who cannot live with their parents, and that Child in Need/Care Plans are individually tailored to meet these assessed needs.
  • To make best use of the resources of the Directorate by providing a proportionate range of responses.
  • To minimise the Directorate's role in caring for children, in so far as this is consistent with the child's best interests.
  • To target support services on those families where it is most appropriate, especially as a better alternative to Looking After a child
  • Taking account of the "no order" principle, to ensure that Residence Orders are viewed as the preferred option for legally securing (where appropriate) the long-term care given by family and friends.
  • To ensure that crisis arrangements made for the care of children do not set up expectations that may prejudice more appropriate permanent arrangements


3. Status of children placed with friends or family members

Where a child is to be cared for by a friend or family member, and the Directorate are involved in setting up the arrangements, it is essential to determine before the arrangements are put into place whether or not the child is to be placed as a Looked After Child.  This determination should be part of the Initial or Core Assessment of the child.  The issues to be determined are:

  • If the child is not Looked After when the arrangements are being made, are the arrangements being made with the parents' consent as part of a Child in Need Plan?  Or has a decision been made that the child needs to be Looked After and the placement made as part of the child's Care Plan.
  • If the child is already a Looked After Child at the time of the placement, is the placement part of the child's Care Plan to return to the family and cease being Looked After?  Or is it part of the child's Permanence Plan whereby the aim is for the proposed carers to become the permanent carers? 

Clarity of the status of the placement should be conveyed in writing to the family and carers

In order to make such a determination when making plans for children, the following considerations may apply:

  1. What are the child's needs which require that arrangements for alternative care are required?
  2. Can it be said that the parents have agreed to the arrangement to place the child albeit with the support and assistance of the local authority?  Have they the capacity to make such an agreement?.
  3. Has parental consent been given specifically to avoid the need for the child to be or remain Looked After?
  4. Is it in the child's best interests to be placed with a friend or family member to prevent the need for the child to become or remain Looked After?
  5. If so, does the placement come within the definition of a Private Fostering arrangement?  See Private Fostering Procedure
  6. Is it sufficient to meet the child's needs within the placement that the support for the placement is provided through a Child in Need Plan? 
  7. Can the local authority provide sufficient support through the Child in Need Plan?  (The proposed carer's needs for financial support should not be the determining factor as to whether the child becomes Looked After - see below, Financial support for a placement with friends as family members.)
  8. What are the risks to the child, if any, through the arrangements being made as part of a Child in Need Plan rather than as a placement under a Care Plan?
  9. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the relationship between the proposed carer and the parents?  Do any of the weaknesses expose the child to risks, which may be addressed by the legal status of the placement?
  10. Should there be a Court Order to provide security to the placement?  If so, is the carer able and willing to acquire parental responsibility or would it more appropriate to meet the child's needs for the local authority to acquire or retain parental responsibility?
  11. Is it an appropriate placement for the child if the proposed carers are not able and willing to acquire parental responsibility for the child?  This will be particularly relevant where the placement is intended to be a permanent arrangement.
  12. Are the proposed carers already approved as foster carers for the local authority?  If not, is anything known about them which is likely to be a bar to such approval?

The placement of a Looked After child with a friend or family member must follow the Procedure set out in Placements with Family and Friends (Regulation 38 Placements) Procedure

The carers will be regarded as foster carers and must be assessed and approved as such under that Procedure for the placement to continue beyond 6 weeks.


4. Checks before arrangements

It is good practice, where the Directorate is assisting a parent to make arrangements for a child to live with a friend or relative (and the child therefore will not be Looked After), that Criminal Records Bureau and other standard checks be carried out in respect of the proposed carers. 

Where Private Fostering arrangements have been made, the Private Fostering Procedure must be followed by the child's social worker. 

For all arrangements, the following is a full list of matters to be considered, details of which must be recorded.

  • Age.
  • Health.
  • Personality.
  • Marital status and particulars of any previous marriages.
  • Criminal convictions and results of any applications to adopt, child mind, or foster.
  • Past and present employment, leisure activities and interests.
  • Previous experience of looking after children, and capacity to care for this child.
  • Details of children of the household, whether living there or not.
  • Religious, cultural, racial and linguistic factors.
  • Details of living standards and accommodation of the household.

All arrangements for a child to live with friends or family should be planned in advance as far as possible.  However, emergency arrangements are sometimes inevitable, but these can only take place if

  • The carers have been interviewed
  • The accommodation has been inspected
  • Information has been obtained about other persons living in the household

Family support services (e.g. social work support, other agency support) should also be used to help and stabilise children who are living with their extended family or with friends.

For Financial Support to Relatives or Friends in these circumstances - see Section 17 Payments Procedure.

For checks required before placements of Looked After Children with friends and family members, see Placements with Family and Friends (Regulation 38 Placements) Procedure. 

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