Barnet Council Permanency Planning Panel Terms
BARNET PLACEMENT SERVICE
PRACTICE PROTOCOL
Aims
Barnet’s Placement Team are responsible for ensuring all children requiring external placement are appropriately matched with residential or fostering providers with “Good” to “Outstanding” Ofsted rating. Primary consideration and focus in all cases must be the welfare/needs of the child when considering placement options.
Once a child is placed the placement team will track and monitor the placement undertaking announced and unannounced visits and spot checks to ensure the provider is:
- Working collaboratively with LBB in supportingcare plan and keeping children safe & protected
- Providing child centred high quality supportto child/young person
- Ensure practice enables children to be secure, confident and resilient.
In circumstances where the placement team have significant concerns regarding practice and/or care planning/support arrangements; the team will immediately escalate concerns to the Team Manager and Heads of Service to ensure managerial oversight and ownership of actions required for supporting the child e.g.
- Drift in decision making and actions linked to care planning
- Practice/quality assurance concerns surrounding the provider
- Ofsted Downgradingto“Inadequate” or “Requiring Improvement”
- Safeguarding concerns inc restraint methods and deprivation of liberty (DoLs)
- Placement concerns leading to possible disruption
The Placement Team Manager and HOS will alert relevant senior managers of circumstances/concerns andco-ordinate a TAP meeting (Team Around the Placement Mtg) to agree actions and next steps.
In all cases decision making must be responsive, purposeful, child centred and timely with due consideration given to safeguarding and whether “removal” is in the best interest of the child given level of professional concerns surrounding placement and subsequent impact on the child if they remain in placement.
Escalation of Actionslinked to providers with “Requiring Improvement” or “Inadequate” downgrade
Action Flow Chart when placing child with provider with a “Requiring Improvement”Ofsted Rating inc newly registered service provision
Escalation & Action Flow Chart: Drift in decision making and actions linked to care planning
Escalation & Action Flow Chart: Practice/quality assurance concerns surrounding the provider, including safeguarding, restraint methods, deprivation of liberty (DoLs) or placement concerns leading to possible disruption
Re-drafted 01/12/16
To be reviewed at Panel May 20171