Discharging my daughter's care order.

[Lind2019]

My daughter was taken into care Sept 2017 and a full care order granted mar 2018. Contact has steadily increased and currently fortnightly for 4 hours in the community (unsupervised)

I was due to be reassessed in Jan 2020, however this hasn't gone ahead due to sw leaving. A new sw was allocated mid Feb 2020 however has also left. Currently my daughter has no sw. The last LAC review was due to take place on 9th Mar 2020- this was cancelled. Now due to the current global crisis (convid-19) our contact is via facetime twice a week. I need to know where to go from here???

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Lind2019

Welcome to the parents’ discussion forum.

My name is Suzie, Family Rights Group’s online adviser. I see from your post that you are concerned about how the current situation as no social worker is allocated to your daughter who is in long term foster care following a final care order being granted in March.

You have been having increased and regular contact with your daughter. The plan was for you to be reassessed. It is not clear if this is for your daughter to return to your care of for contact to be further increased. As no social worker is allocated at the moment you have no idea how this assessment will move forward now. I think it is important that children’s services do their best to ensure that meetings can still take place including looked after child reviews. I suggest you make contact with the team manager involved with your daughter’s case to find out what arrangement they have in place for meetings of this kind, during the current covid-19 situation. Some local authorities are doing this by Skype, or other conference service or by telephone.

Regarding your contact, are you having the same number of hours contact via face time. This may need to be over a couple of days. You may find it helpful to read the information Family Rights Group has prepared for parents regarding children in care at this difficult time.

Should you wish to speak to an adviser regarding your situation, please telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0666. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays)

I hope you will find this information helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Lind2019]

We had a LAC review on Friday just gone. It was decided that I will be having my assessment finally which takes 45 working days to complete. Is there anything I can do to guarantee a positive outcome. I feel confident enough that I have but any tips would be great.

[Lind2019]

The assessment is for my daughter to return back into my care.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Lind2019,

I am so pleased to hear this. What good news.
The assessment should look at what has changed in your circumstances since the care order was made. Why there is no longer a risk to your daughter. So for example, if the reasons was due to domestic violence, have you completed a dv programme?

If the assessment goes well, I assume the plan is to apply back to court to ask that the for the care order to be discharged.

The care planning and placement regulations 2010 says that before a child comes home under a care order, children services must assess the suitability of you as a parent to care for your child. This will include the suitability of your home and they will want to assess any other adults living in your home which will include police checking them (which their consent will be needed).

It will also look at your ability as a parent to meet all your daughter’s needs. It should look at what support you might need to help you care for her so as to avoid things going wrong and your daughter needing to go back in to care. The details of any support will be contained in the placement plan and will be subject to review at the LAC review meeting. Before children can come home under a care order, a “nominated officer” (senior social worker) will be consulted.
Here are the regulations . under schedule 3 of the care planning, placement and case review regulations 2010

You could ask for a family group conference This is to help look for support within your network.

I am glad to hear that you are confident about the assessment. The fact that you have got this far seems very positive to me. I think the main thing is to work as well as you can with the social worker who is assessing you. Keep a diary of what is happening. Also look at the last placement plan which should set out any support your daughter gets now. Can you get the same support ?
I hope this advice helps. If there are any problems, please post again or call our advice line on 0808 801 0366.
Best wishes,
Suzie

[Lind2019]

My assessment is now completed and awaiting a decision from the managers. Do you have any idea how long this takes?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Lind2019

Thank you for your post. Well done for completing your assessment; it sounds as if you have worked very hard.

I am sorry but I don’t know exactly how long it will take for you to get a definitive management decision but I would hope that it should be done in a very timely way as it is such an important matter. Also as every effort should be made to avoid any drift for a child.

If you have not had a response yet, then it is perfectly reasonable for you to ask the social worker/their manager for the outcome and written confirmation of this. If the decision has not yet been made they should be able to give you a date when it will.

I hope all goes well. Please do keep the board updated as I am sure other parents will wish you well and will be keen to learn from your experiences and any tips you have to offer.

With best wishes

Suzie