Tower Hamlets Children’s Social Care Procedures

LEAVING CARE / AFTER CARE 4th Edition,May 2012

leaving care / after care

1INTRODUCTION

1.1Status of this procedure

1.2Application of this procedure

1.3The LBTH Leaving Care Service (LCS)

1.4Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000

1.5Local authority aims and principles in helping care leavers

2statutory framework

2.1Summary

2.2Local authorities' duties and powers to provide services according to category of care leaver

2.3Exclusion of children on short breaks

2.4Other duties

3support services for young people

3.1Referral to the Leaving Care Service – Looked after children under 16

3.2Referral to the Leaving Care Service - Children who become looked after following their 16th birthday

3.3Eligible young people transferred from CLA to LCS

3.4Preparation

3.5Role of the Personal Adviser

3.6Role of the allocated Social Worker

3.7Complaints

4pathway planning & review

4.1Overview

4.2Timing

4.3Principles

4.4Content of the Assessment

4.5Content of the Plan

4.6Pathway Assessment and Planning 1st Joint Visit

4.7Ratifying the Pathway Plan

4.8Pathway Plan review - general

4.9Pathway Plan review process until 18 or until child ceases to be looked after

4.10Pathway Plan review process after 18 or after child ceases to be looked after

5financial support

5.1Overview

5.2Living Allowance

5.3Accommodation payments

5.4Education/Training/Employment Allowances

5.5Education/Training/Employment Support Grants

5.6Incentive payments

5.7Travel payments for education, training or employment support

5.8Special Needs Grant

5.9Holiday grant

5.10Emergency payments

6setting-up grant

6.1Overview

6.2Using the Grant

6.3Extra payments

7housing

7.1Overview

7.2Application to Tower Hamlets Housing Department - first stage

7.3Application to Tower Hamlets Housing Department - second stage

7.4After the application

APPENDICES (separate files on the intranet procedures page)

  1. LBTH Leaving Care Service Policy Statement & Ground Rules for Communication
  2. Leaving Care Complaints Procedure Addendum
  3. Joint Housing / Social Services Protocol and Procedure
  4. Joint Housing / Social Services Policy Statement
  5. Setting Up Grant Policy and Procedure
  6. Financial Assistance Policy and Guidance
  7. Work Flow Protocol
  8. Hazard Procedure
  9. Contact Policy
  10. Leaving Care UASC Referral protocol

11.Communication Standards By Young People

12.Leaving Care Guide for Care Leavers

13.PA for Care Leavers up to the age of 25

Tower Hamlets Children’s Social Care Procedures

LEAVING CARE / AFTER CARE 4th Edition,May 2012

leaving care / after care

1INTRODUCTION

1.1Status of this procedure

1.1.1This is the 4th edition of the Leaving Care / After Care procedure designed to support the implementation in October 2001 of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000.

1.1.2A review of this edition will be completed by December 2012

1.2Application of this procedure

1.2.1This procedure covers the planning and preparation with young people for the time when they are no longer looked after, and the services that may be provided, both before and after young people cease to be looked after, to support their transition to independence.

1.2.2The procedure should be considered alongside procedures on planning and case reviews of children looked after.

1.2.3The terms "leaving care" and "after care" are really shorthand for "leaving care or accommodation" and "after care or accommodation". They apply to all young people who are or have been looked after or accommodated away from home, not just those who are or were the subject of a Care Order.

1.3The LBTH Leaving Care Service (LCS)

1.3.1See Leaving Care Service Policy Statement.

/ Appendix 1

1.3.2The service aims to improve outcomes for young people leaving care by:

i)providing direct support to young people leaving care;
ii)developing new resources focused on the needs of care leavers in partnership with other agencies;
iii)improving planning for leaving care both at an individual and at a multi-agency level;
iv)monitoring and evaluating work with care leavers within Social Care, including Pathway Planning.

1.4Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000

1.4.1The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, effective from 1st October 2001, replaces and adds to the old Section 24 of the 1989 Children Act, and adds further sections dealing with care leavers to the Children Act. For details, see part 2 of this procedure, "Statutory framework."

/ Part 2 below

1.4.2The Act introduced new classifications of young people for whom leaving care services must be provided, and, correspondingly, a range of new requirements for local authorities in meeting the needs of those different groups of care-leavers. Full details of the new statutory entitlements and services, see part 2, "Statutory Framework", below. In outline, the four classifications of children and young people are:

i)Eligible children - looked after, aged 16 or 17, and have been looked after for a total of at least 13 weeks since the age of 14.
ii)Relevant children - aged 16 or 17, have left care, and at the point they left care were Eligible children.
iii)Former relevant children - aged 18 - 21 who, prior to 18th birthday, were either Eligible or Relevant. Where the local authority is supporting them through a continuous course of education or training that has been agreed in their Pathway Plan, they remain Former Relevant children untilthe end of that course.
iv)Qualifying children and young people – aged between 16 – 21, or under 24 if in education or training, who:
a)have been looked after following their 16th birthday, but for less than the 13 weeks since their 14th birthday that would make them Relevant or Former Relevant, and who have now ceased to be looked after,
b)were accommodated in a non-local authority setting or privately fostered over the age of 16

1.4.3The responsible authority is the last authority that looked after a child as an "eligible child". For qualifying children who were not looked after by a local authority, the responsible authority is the local authority in whose area the young person is living.

/ S. 23A(4), CA’89, inserted by S. 2, CLCA’00, and Guidance on CLCA 2000, Ch.3, para.1

1.5Local authority aims and principles in helping care leavers

1.5.1The guidance on the Children Leaving Care Act 2000 gives the following as the aims and objectives for local authorities in helping care leavers:

/ Guidance on the Children Leaving Care Act 2000
i)Provide stable placements, continuity of care and the maintenance, where possible, of positive links whilst young people are looked after.
ii)Look after young people until they are prepared and ready to leave care.
iii)Promote and maintain relationships with carers and families, where possible, after young people leave care.
iv)Prepare young people gradually to be ready to leave care, paying attention to practical self-care needs – health, budgeting, domestic skills – and personal and relationship dimensions.
v)Maximise the education, training and employment outcomes for young people leaving care.
vi)Ensure young people leaving care have access to a range of accommodation and the support and skills to maintain themselves in their accommodation.
vii)Ensure that there is a contingency provision to support care leavers in the event of a crisis, including arrangements for respite care.
viii)Provide or enable ongoing personal support. This may include specialist leaving care scheme support, support by carers and social workers, and support by youth workers, befrienders, mentors or volunteers.
ix)Where young people leaving care are entitled to claim welfare benefits, ensure that they receive their full entitlements.
x)Involve young people in all assessment, planning, review and decision making arrangements for leaving care.
xi)Inform young people leaving care of the available services – including the provision of accessible leaving care guides.
xii)Monitor and evaluate the outcomes of i)-xi) above.

1.5.2The Guidance states several principles in relation to these aims, which can be summarised as follows.

i)Re-integration with the family or other responsible person, or establishment of the ability to be as self-supporting as possible, is the culmination of the young person's experience of being looked after by the local authority.
ii)It is vitally important that young people are properly prepared for this step and are given access to support afterwards.
iii)Whether or not the local authority has parental responsibility, it adopts, in effect, part of the role of the parent of a young person it is looking after and to whom it will provide subsequent advice and assistance.
iv)In acting in this way, the local authority will wish to work in partnership with the young person's parents if possible.
v)These responsibilities are laid on the local authority as a corporate body.
Under section 27 of the Children Act the local authority is entitled to request help in its discharge of these functions from a number of different types of public body. With reservations, any such request must be complied with as far as possible.

2statutory framework

2.1Summary

2.1.1The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, implemented in October 2001, expanded on the powers and duties conferred on local authorities by Section 24 of the Children Act 1989 which was itself revised by the new Act. Like the old Section 24, The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (CLCA 2000) deals with the duties and powers of the local authority to prepare young people for the time when they are no longer looked after and to provide after care services.

/ CLCA 2000

2.1.2 Young people looked after by the Local Authority for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14, and for at least one day in their 16th year are ‘eligible’; if they leave care before the age of 18, they become ‘relevant’; when they become 18 they become ‘former relevant’ if they were either eligible or relevant before their 18th birthday.

2.1.3Other ‘qualifying’ care leavers will be assisted under sections 24, 24A and 24B of the Children Act, as amended by the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, under which they will qualify for advice and assistance. These are young people who were looked after for less than 13 weeks before leaving care; and those who were looked after in non-local authority settings.

/ CA '89 SS.24, 24A & 24B, as amended and inserted by CLCA 2000

2.1.4The provisions and guidance of the Children Act 1989 and the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 seek to ensure that young people are able to return to their families or to establish themselves successfully in the community of their choice.

2.1.5The provisions reflect the local authority's continuing responsibility to promote the welfare of young people who have been looked after and in particular to act as a good parent in giving support when they have stopped being looked after.

2.1.6The responsibility to prepare young people for the time when they leave care begins as soon as a young person is looked after and the responsibility to give them support extends until, or in some cases beyond, a young person's 21st birthday.

2.1.7The local authority's powers and duties in respect of young people leaving care must be considered alongside its:

i)general duty:
to promote and protect the welfare of children / young people who are looked after, acting as a corporate parent, and / CA89 S.22(1)
ii)specific duties:
a)to take account of a child / young person's religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background, and / CA89 S.22(5)
b)to ascertain and give due consideration to the wishes and feelings of young people.

2.1.8Sections 61 and 64 of the Children Act confer a duty on voluntary organisations and registered children's homes to prepare young people accommodated by them for the time when they leave such accommodation. Local authorities may have responsibilities in relation to these young people after they have left the accommodation, as detailed below.

/ CA89 SS.61&64

2.2Local authorities' duties and powers to provide services according to category of care leaver

2.2.1Eligible children are children aged 16 and 17 who have been looked after for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14 and who are still looked after. Eligible children are entitled to the following:

i)all the provisions of the Looked After system;
ii)Personal Adviser; / Schedule 2, para. 19C, CA ‘89
iii)Pathway Assessment - must be completed within 3 months of the young person becoming eligible (i.e. either becoming 16 or having been looked after for 13 weeks); / Schedule 2, para. 19B(4), CA ’89
Leaving Care Reg. 7
iv)Pathway Plan; / Sched. 2, para. 19B(4)&(5), CA ‘89
v)Reviews of Pathway Plan at least every 6 months. / Leaving Care Reg. 9

2.2.2Relevant children are Eligible children who have left care before the age of 18. They are aged 16 or 17, have been looked after for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14, and were looked after following their 16th birthday.

/ S. 23A, CA’89

2.2.3An additional group of ‘relevant’ children are those who, on their 16th birthday, were either:

/ Leaving Care Reg. 4
i)detained in a remand centre, young offenders institution or a secure training centre or similar institution by order of the court, or
ii)in hospital or any registered mental nursing home,
provided that they were looked after immediately before that, and would otherwise have been eligible or relevant children on their 16th birthday.

2.2.4A young person who successfully returns home for a continuous period of 6 months ceases to be a ‘relevant child’. Where that young person is the subject of a care order or interim care order they will retain their ‘eligible’ status until revocation and only then will the 6 month trial period start. The decision about whether the return home has been successful will be made at a Pathway Planning Review meeting. In this case, the young person is still a ‘qualifying’ person (as described below). The decision ‘Return home’ is defined as living with a person who is:

/ Reg. 4 (5) to (7), Children (Leaving Care) Regulations 2001.
Children Act 1989, sect. 23(4)
i)a parent,
ii)a person with parental responsibility, or
iii)a person in whose favour a Residence Order was in force in respect of the young person immediately before a Care Order was made.

2.2.5If the placement (or arrangement) at home subsequently breaks down, the young person becomes a ‘relevant child’ again unless there are other concerns which may necessitate a further assessment as a ‘looked after’ young person.

2.2.6Relevant young people are entitled to the following:

i)Personal Adviser; / S.23B (2), CA’89
ii)Pathway Assessment (within 3 months of becoming a relevant child); / S.23B (3), CA’89
iii)Pathway Plan and Reviews of Pathway Plan at least 6 monthly; / S.23B (3)&(4), CA89 & LC Reg. 9
iv)Accommodation and maintenance - relevant children are excluded from the Benefit system; / S. 23(B)(8), CA ’89, & S.6, CLCA’00
v)Assistance to achieve the goals set out in the pathway plan including necessary financial and other assistance with employment, education and training; / S. 23(B)(8), CA ‘89
vi)The responsible authority must keep in touch, and if they lose contact, must continuously try to re-establish it. / S. 23(B)(11), CA ‘89

2.2.7Former relevant children are young people aged 18-21 who have been either ‘eligible’ or ‘relevant’ children, and would still be if they were not 18. If at the age of 21 the young person is still being helped by the local authority with education or training, she or he remains a ‘former relevant child’ until the end of the agreed programme of education or training. Former relevant children are entitled to the following:

/ S.24B (3), CA ‘89
i)Personal Adviser; / S. 23C(3), CA ‘89
ii)Pathway Plan and reviews of Pathway Plan at least 6 monthly; / S. 23C(3), CA ‘89
iii)assistance with employment (may be financial); / S. 23C(4)(a), CA ‘89
iv)assistance with education and training (may be financial); / S. 23C(4)(b) & (7), CA ‘89
v)assistance in general (may be financial); / S. 23C(4), CA ‘89
vi)the responsible authority must keep in touch; / S. 23C(2), CA ‘89
vii)vacation accommodation for higher education or residential further education if needed. / S. 23C(9), CA ‘89

2.2.8Personal Advisers to 25.Young people previously eligible for leaving care services who are resuming programmes of education or training after their case is closed at age 21, can request continuing support from a PA allocated to them from their responsible authority (appendix 13).

2.2.9Qualifying children and young people. Qualifying young people are aged 16 to 21 (or 24 if they are being supported to follow an agreed course of education or training) who at some time following their 16th birthday were looked after, accommodated by an agency other than a local authority, or privately fostered. Eligibility for services is slightly different according to the setting in which the young person was living.

/ S. 23 CYPA 08
Appendix 13
S. 24(1) CA ‘89, substituted by CLCA 2000.

2.2.10Qualifying young people are those who have been:

i)looked after, but not for the 13 weeks following their 14th birthday that would have made them relevant or former relevant children;
ii)accommodated by a voluntary organisation;
iii)accommodated in a private children’s home;
iv)privately fostered;
v)accommodated for a consecutive period of at least 3 months (which may have started before their 16th birthday):
a)by a Health Authority, Special Health Authority, Primary Care Trust or Local Education Authority, or
b)in a care home or independent hospital or any accommodation provided by a National Health Service trust (which could be a hospital).

2.2.11If the ‘qualifying’ young person was looked after by a local authority, that local authority has a duty to keep in contact with her/him to see whether s/he needs any services, and ‘advise and befriend’ her/him, if s/he needs this help. If so, then the local authority has the power to provide:

/ S. 24(4), CA’89
S.24A (2) & (3) CA’89
i)assistance with employment (may be financial); / S. 243B(1), CA ‘89
ii)assistance with education and training (may be financial) even if s/he is over 21, but not yet 24; / S. 24B(2), CA ‘89
iii)assistance in general (may be financial); / S. 24(4)&(5), CA ‘89
iv)vacation accommodation for higher education or residential further education if needed. / S. 2B(5), CA ‘89

2.2.12If the ‘qualifying’ young person was accommodated by a voluntary organisation and it appears to the local authority in which s/he is living that s/he needs services, it has a duty to ‘advise and befriend’ her/him. If they do so, it also has the power to provide the services at 2.3.12 ii)-iv)

/ 2.3.12 ii)-iv) above

2.2.13If the ‘qualifying’ young person was accommodated in any of the other settings on the list at 2.3.10. (e.g. privately fostered, accommodated in a children’s home etc.), then the local authority in which s/he is living has the same powers as it does in relation to young people accommodated by a voluntary organisation (2.3.13 above), but instead of a duty, they have a power to ‘advise and befriend’ the young person.

/ 2.3.10 above
2.3.13 above

2.3Exclusion of children on short breaks

2.3.1The provisions of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and the Leaving Care Service are intended to help those young people who depend on the local authority in place of family. Therefore these provisions do not apply to children who are looked after only by way of respite care (now called short breaks) and it remains the responsibility of their parents or other carers to provide these kinds of support.