Child protection plan

If a child protection conference decides a child is at risk of significant harm, a child protection plan must be drawn up.

Its aim is to:

• Make sure the child is safe from harm and well cared for, both now and in the future
• Promote the child’s health and development
• Support the family and wider family members to keep the child safe and promote the child’s welfare.

An outline plan will have been drawn up at the child protection conference. A core group of professionals and family members should meet within the next 10 days to develop this into a detailed plan.

The sorts of things that should be included in the plan are:

• Exactly what is expected of the parents and wider family
• What support and services they will be given (e.g. parenting programmes) to help the child’s situation improve
• How professionals will know things are getting better.
  The plan may specify that a child should not come into contact with someone who is thought to have harmed them.

The plan will state the name of the child’s social worker and will be reviewed after three months and again after six months.