Placements in Residential Care

Where a decision has been made that a child requires a placement, the child's social worker should request a placement by contacting the Placements Team and by initiating the Placement Request episode on Mosaic.

In making this request, the social worker will be asked to provide information about the child, the type of placement sought, the Care Plan, the date by which the placement is required, the likely length of time for which the placement is required and the expected level of contact between the child and parents. The social worker should complete the Placement Request Form and Risk Assessment to initiate the placement search process. The Placement Request and Risk assessment must be approved by the Service Manager for the child or young person and cannot progress through Mosaic without this.

Approval for residential care must be sought from the Group Manager. For any child aged 12 years and under going into residential care approval must also be sought from the Service Director.

Once a resource has been identified, the Placement Team will notify the social worker and other interested parties to advice of such.

Wherever possible, the child's social worker should visit potential placements and as required consult with other professionals, prior to a decision about the appropriateness of a placement being made.

The proposed placement will then be presented to the social worker and the manager for approval.

Where the placement is outside the Local Authority area, see also Out of Area Placements Procedure.

N.B. In addition to the above approvals, in order to avoid placements that disrupt a child’s education, the Nominated Officer must approve any change of placement affecting a child in Key Stage 4 except in an emergency / where the placement is terminated because of an immediate risk of serious harm to the child or to protect others from serious injury - see Supporting the Education and Promoting the Achievement of Children with a Social Worker, Looked After and Previously Looked After Children Procedure.

NOTE: from September 2021, looked after children under 16 years of age cannot be accommodated in unregulated independent or semi-independent placements.

See Residential Placement Planning Procedure.

The child's social worker must visit the child in the placement within one week of the placement and then at a minimum every four weeks; see Social Worker Visits to Looked After Children Procedure.

Where there are concerns in relation to the progress of the placement, consideration should be given to seeking additional resources to assist the placement.

Where there are any changes to the child's placement and/or legal status during the placement, the child's social worker must update the child's electronic records.

A Looked After Review should be convened where:

• The child is, or has been, persistently absent from the placement;
• The placement provider, parents or area authority are concerned that the child is at risk of harm; or
• The child so requests, unless the Independent Reviewing Officer considers that the review is not justified.

See also Looked After Reviews Procedure.

The child's social worker must notify the Placements Team when a placement ends and arrange to inform the relevant finance officer so that any payments to the provider will cease. The social worker will also inform those notified when the placement was made of the ending of the placement.

Where the placement ends in an unplanned way, consideration should be given to holding a Disruption Meeting - see Placement Support and Disruption Meetings (Adoption) Procedure.