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Integrated Children's System
Care Plan
Key Features Part 1
Key Features Part 2
When a child becomes looked after, the core assessment
is used to inform the Care Plan. It is
important that the child or young person and family, and
the carers are clear about the purpose of care or accommodation
from the beginning of a placement. Therefore, the Care
Plan should be completed before a child or young
person becomes looked after. In some cases, for example
in emergencies where this is not practicable, the Care
Plan should be completed as soon as possible
and within 14 days of the child or young person being
placed.
The structure of the Care Plan has been
informed by the Care Plans and Care Proceedings Under
the Children Act 1989 Circular (Local Authority Circular
LAC(99)29). This means that information from the Care
Plan should form the basis of the plan to be
presented to the court, where a child is the subject of
legal proceedings in the Family Court. Discussions are
underway to ensure that the final format and content of
the plan is acceptable to Courts.
View Integrated Children's
System Care Plan (PDF format)
Completing the Care Plan
Looking after a child or young person either through
accommodation or when a care order is in place is a provision
of service and a means of achieving the overall aim. The
Care Plan should identify the aim, and
the anticipated time period the care order is expected
to last, or for the child or young person to be accommodated,
and formulate planned outcomes that are measurable. Without
these it will be difficult to establish whether the placement
is achieving its aim.
The purpose of the period of accommodation or care, type
of placement and action and services provided should be
informed by an up to date assessment. For children and
young people becoming looked after this will be provided
by a core assessment, which will have been completed prior
to or within 35 working days of the child or young person
becoming looked after. Research indicates that most children
and young people who become looked after are already known
to social services. Therefore, many will already have
an up to date core assessment and Child’s
Plan. These should be used to inform the Care
Plan. The format of Part Two of the Care
Plan is the same as that used in the Child’s
Plan to facilitate the transfer of information
between plans. An up to date Core Assessment will be key
to identifying appropriate actions to support a reunification
plan.
The Care Plan is in two parts:
- Part One - sets out the overall aim of the
plan for the child, which can only be changed
at a statutory child care review.
- Part Two - identifies what services and actions
are required to respond to the child’s identified
developmental needs.
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The Care Plan includes the personal
education plan, health plan and plan for permanence. Where
the overall aim of the Care Plan is adoption
or in the case of older young people moving to independence,
the Adoption Plan and Pathway
Plan will replace Part Two of the Care
Plan.
In situations that require only Part One of the Care
Plan to be completed, the final section of Part
Two should also be completed as this records
the views of all parties regarding the Care Plan
and asks for their signatures. The statutory review should
consider Parts One and Two of the Care Plan.
Key Features: Part One
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This records details of the child or
young person including legal status and court details,
where appropriate, the reasons why accommodation or care
is necessary and the actions taken to prevent the child
or young person becoming looked after (Questions 1-3).
This section does not have to be
completed for children and young people receiving
short break care.
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The overall aim of the plan
The aims are presented as a series of options:
| 1. |
Remaining with birth
family supported by shared care/short term breaks |
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6. |
Long term placement
with foster carers (intended to last until 18, no return
home envisaged) |
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| 2. |
Return to birth family within one
month |
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7. |
Residential placement until independence |
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| 3. |
Return to birth family within six
months |
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8. |
Supported living in the community
(with a view to independence) |
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| 4. |
Eventual return to birth family
(within how many months _ _) |
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9. |
Adoption |
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| 5. |
Long term placement with relatives/friends |
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10. |
Other, please specify: _________________ |
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A plan for a child or young person has only one overall
aim and therefore only one option should be identified.
In some cases, however, it is possible that parallel planning
will be underway. This section of the Care Plan
should be completed to record whether this is the case.
For example where it is hoped that a young child will return
to live with his or her parents, a range of actions and
services are being provided to enable the child to return
home. However, the parents’ circumstances or history
suggests that this might be unsuccessful and actions may
also be taken to identify suitable adoptive parents in order
to minimise delay.
The Adoption Standards 2001 specify that a permanency plan
must be agreed for a child or young person at their second
(4 month) review. Permanency encompasses a number of options,
such as return to birth family, long term placement with
relatives or friends or foster carer and adoption. These
options are clearly specified within Part One of the Care
Plan. For many children and young people the
Care Plan will outline how permanency will be achieved.
In this respect Parts One and Two of the Care Plan,
will form the permanency plan for the child or young plan.
However, in cases where adoption is identified as the aim
of accommodation or care then a separate Adoption Plan should
be completed. This will replace part 2 of the Care
Plan.
Information is also required about the preferred placement
option for a child ands the evidence that supports this
choice. In some cases it will not be possible to place a
child or young person in the preferred placement immediately.
The Care Plan records why and identifies
the actions being taken to arrange the preferred placement.
In most cases it will be important that any change of placement
takes place as soon as possible in a planned way to minimise
disruption to the child or young person.
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Key Features: Part Two
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Details of assessments and other key
records
This records the actions and services to be provided
to the child or young person and their family in order
to meet the overall aim of the Care Plan.
The actions and services to be provided are recorded
in the tabular format that is used throughout the Integrated
Children’s System. There is an individual table
for each of the seven dimensions of children and young
people’s needs.
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Child’s Developmental Needs
The dimension of Family and Social Relationships also
includes a section on contact arrangements. All members
of the child or young person’s immediate birth
family should be recorded here, even when contact arrangements
may not be in place. This will ensure that any review
of the plan or contact arrangements will include all
members of a child or young person’s immediate
birth family. Contact arrangements with other significant
people for a child or young person such as friends,
extended family members and previous carers should also
be recorded in this section.
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Birth Family: Parenting Capacity
Identifies issues, actions and services in relation
to a child or young person’s birth family.
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Corporate Parent: Parenting Capacity
Records any actions or services required to enable a
Council with Social Services Responsibility to fulfil
its role as a child or young person’s corporate
parent.
Example: Susan Simpson
aged 3 years was accommodated to allow her mother,
Jo Simpson, who has mental health problems to receive
inpatient treatment. Whilst Susan was looked after
Ms Simpson reported that her own experience of parenting
was very poor and she had no idea of how to play
with Susan. The foster carers for Susan, Mr and
Mrs Irvine, had no experience of mental illness
and were very apprehensive of having contact in
the foster home.
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The parenting capacity section of the Care Plan part 2
for Susan included the following actions:
Birth Family: Parenting Capacity
Identified needs and
strengths in each domain |
How will these needs be responded
to: actions or services to be provided |
Frequency and length of service:
eg hours per week |
Person/
Agency responsible
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Date Service will commence/
commenced
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Planned outcomes: progress to
be achieved by next review or other specified date |
| Ms Simpson would like to develop her play skills. |
Sessions for Ms Simpson and Susan with play worker
at Forth Street Family Centre |
1 hour per week |
Jenny Page, play worker. |
31.07.2002 |
Ms Simpson will feel more confident in playing with
Susan. Ms Simpson will be able to structure play
for Susan using different materials.
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Corporate Parenting: Parenting Capacity
Identified needs and
strengths in each domain |
How will these needs be responded
to: actions or services to be provided |
Frequency and length of service:
eg hours per week |
Person/
Agency responsible
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Date Service will commence/
commenced
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Planned outcomes: progress to
be achieved by next review or other specified date |
| Mr and Mrs Irvine currently
do not understand the nature and impact of Ms Simpson’s
illness. |
Tim Moore to support initial contact
sessions at foster home. |
1 hour three days a week |
Tim Moore, social work assistant |
20.07.2002 |
Initial contact will take place in foster home
reducing stress for Susan. |
Mr and Mrs Irvine to meet with Gordon
Hill, CPN.
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1 hour
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Gordon Hill, CPN
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24.07.2002
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Mr and Mrs Irvine will have an understanding
of Ms Simpson’s illness and its impact.
Contact will take place in home without additional
support of SWA. |
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Family and Environmental Factors
There are also considered in relation to both Birth
Family and Corporate Parent
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Views
The Care Plan should be informed by the views of the
child or young person, their parents and any other significant
adults. Their views should be clearly recorded in the
plan and, where appropriate, the reason why the plan
is not in accordance with these views.
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Other agencies involved with the family
should be consulted about the plan and their views recorded.
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All the relevant parties should sign
the completed Care Plan. It will be important that parties
are aware that signing the plan does not mean that they
are in agreement with it.
The relationship between the Care Plan and Personal
Education Plans
Education plays a key role in the intellectual and social
development of children and young people. For some looked
after children school may be one of the most consistent
areas in their lives.
A looked after child or young person is required to have
a Personal Education Plan agreed within 20 school
days of becoming looked after or joining a new school
(Department for Education and Employment and Department
of Health, 2000).
The exemplars have been designed to support the process
of developing Personal Education Plans for children
and young people in partnership with children or young
people and families, schools and education authorities,
and carers.
An effective Personal Education Plan will be
based on an understanding of a child or young person’s
educational experience and progress over time. The Chronology
systematically gathers this information. The Personal
Education Plan will be informed by up to date assessments
of a child or young person’s educational progress
and attitude towards education, the support they are receiving
from school and family, and the support they will be provided
with whilst looked after. The Personal Education Plan
should ensure that essential arrangements for a child
or young person’s education are in place and are
recorded. For example, how the child or young person will
get to school or college is recorded in the Placement
Information Record.
The actions and services to be provided as a result of
an analysis of all this information are recorded in the
Education Section of the Care Plan and
will constitute the Personal Education Plan for
the child or young person.
Schools, the young person and family members may wish
to have a record of all the information used to develop
a Personal Education Plan. This can be produced from the
information recorded on:
- Pages 1, 10 and 11 of the Placement
Information Record;
- The education section of the Chronology;
- The education section of the Core Assessment
Record or Assessment and Progress
Record;
- The Education Section of the of the Care
Plan.
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The relationship between the Care Plan and Health
Plans
Children and young people who are looked after are amongst
the most socially excluded groups in England and Wales.
They have profoundly increased health needs in comparison
with children and young people from comparable socio-economic
backgrounds who have not needed to be looked after. These
greater needs, however, often remain unmet. As a result,
many children and young people who are looked after experience
significant health inequalities and on leaving care experience
very poor health, educational and social outcomes.
A health assessment which encompasses an holistic assessment
of a child or young person’s health including their
attitudes and behaviour towards his or her health should
be in place in time for a written report and health plan
to be available for discussion at the child’s first
review i.e. four weeks after the child starts to be looked
after. If there is concern about possible abuse or neglect
then the child or young person should be seen by a doctor
immediately at the start of a care episode. Similarly,
if the child or young person has an acute medical problem
then he/she should be seen for this without delay.
The completed health assessment should be used to inform
the health section of a child or young person’s
Care Plan. Often the health assessment
will identify specific actions that are required, for
example, that a child needs to be seen by an optician.
The health section of the Care Plan should
specify who will make the appointment and accompany the
child. The health assessment may also identify needs;
for example, that a young person is unaware of the risks
of unprotected sex. The health section of the Care
Plan should identify how this need will be responded
to; for example, discussion with social worker or carer,
or designated nurse if available, or an appointment at
an advice centre for young people.
Links to other records in the Integrated Children’s
System
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