Process for External Assessment

SPECIAL GUARDIANSHIP ORDER

PROCESS FOR EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT

1.  Social Worker to complete Schedule 4 and acquire sign off from their Team Manager and Group Head. If the applicant is an internal carer the Form F assessment may be used instead of a Schedule 4, however an addendum must be provided. The addendum will be written by the carers Link Social Worker supported by the child’s Social Worker and will highlight and discuss any change in circumstances. Any of the required checks which are over three years old will need to be undertaken again as detailed below.
Schedule 4 Assessment – Social Worker to complete and signed off by Team Manager and Group Head
2.  Social Worker to ensure the forms are completed and signed by the applicant(s).
This is to be started as soon as a decision is made to undertake a Schedule 4 and should be completed within 5 working days to ensure there is adequate time to undertake the necessary checks for the response to include in the assessment.
Consent to Statutory Checks – Applicant to be supported by Social Worker
Medical Letter
Medical Fee Claim Form
Coram BAAF Adult Health Assessment – Social Worker completes Part A (hard copies available from Family Placements Admin Team). Applicant to complete Part B with the support of the Social Worker. Instructions are in the medical letter for completion of Part C and the SS193 by their GP
3.  DBS Online Disclosure Guide
DBS ID Verification
Verification form for DBS
Social Worker to advise applicant on how to access the DBS Online (Applicants DBS Online Disclosure Guidelines). Social Worker to view and check evidence of documents to process the DBS checks for all adult (over 18 years) household members and complete the External Verification Form. DBS ID Verification is only used where insufficient evidence is available.
4.  Application for Assessment for Financial Support - Social Worker to complete the Financial Assessment Form with the applicant and gather copies of the necessary evidence.
5.  Social Worker to send all completed documents from stages 1-4 including SGO Checklist – ensuring ALL are completed and signed, to the designated Quality Assurance Officer and the Procurement and Placements Team.
6.  Social Worker to send the completed Financial Assessment (bullet point 4) with accompanying evidence to our Finance Team. They will then be able to do a means test on any financial support that can be offered to the applicant – this information will feed into the support plan meeting.
7.  All the above actions must be completed within 25 days.
The documents from bullet points 1, 2 and 4 will be Quality Assured. If there is any information missing, incorrect or unsigned within the pack it will be returned to the Social Worker and cc’d to the Team Manager with comments. Once the pack has passed Quality Assurance it will then be emailed by Procurement to the Referral Family Placements Team and the Procurement and Placements Team.
References Checklist - Fostering & Adoption Applications - Family Placements Business Support is responsible for initiating checks and ensuring these are acquired in a timely manner.
Individual Assessment Agreement – Procurement and Placements Team
8.  Procurement will assign an assessor and forward details and timeframe to Social Worker, Team Manager, Legal Lead and the Permanency Team. This will include an estimated date for the mid-point review. The Social Worker is responsible for deciding what form this will take and for arranging it. The mid-point review should take place between 20 and 25 working days from the assessment assignment date.
9.  The mid-point review and Support Planning Meeting should be arranged by the Social Worker once they have the Assessor’s details. The Social Worker must ensure the Permanency Team are notified of the assessment and are invited to the Support Planning meeting. Proposed SGO Order Support Plan
10.  Family Placements Business Support are responsible for initiating checks from the consent to checks form
11.  Family Placements Business Support will be responsible for undertaking checks. All checks will be requested within 3 days of receipt of the quality assured documentation. They will ensure all checks are responded to within 4 weeks of being requested. Responses to all checks are to be chased on a weekly basis. Date of request, chasing dates and action notes are to be recorded. Any issues which may cause a delay are to be relayed to the Quality Assurance Officer and Procurement cc’ing the Social Worker, Team Manager and Legal Lead.
12.  Family Placements Business Support will receive all information relating to any checks these will be forwarded to the Assessing Provider on the same day as they are received via the LA secure email system MOVEIT and uploaded onto ICS.
13.  Actions 10 and 12 should be completed within 3 working days of receipt of the documents. Assessor should have been assigned and all checks initiated.
14.  The Coram BAAF Form C is now used as our standard form for an SGO Assessment.
The following must be completed by the assessor to a standard acceptable to the council:
Form C Guidance
BAAF Form C Template (A, B, C, D).
Form C - Connected Person Section A
Form C - Connected Person Section B
Form C - Connected Person Section C
Form C - Connected Person Section D
The Local Authority Health and Safety Checklist & Pet Questionnaire (if applicable) Coram BAAF Pet Assessment Coram BAAF Dog Assessment
The Local Authority Safer Caring Statement:
Foster Carer - Safer Caring Policy
Individualised Safer Caring Policy
i.  The prospective foster carers (the applicants), will read & sign Form C and Referee’s signature pages to be signed and submitted at the same time as the report is filed.
ii.  Discuss the Training, Support and Development Standards (TSD) with applicants and the availability of post approval training for family and friend carers.
iii.  When required completion of the Disclosure and Barring System (DBS) disclosure checks, medical checks and other checks on behalf of the council.
iv.  A log of visits, dates, times, duration and tasks undertaken (this log will be brought to the mid-point review and a copy be handed in on withdrawal or completion of any assessment.
v.  The assessor working jointly with the council’s social worker will contribute to the completion to a standard acceptable to the council of the following documents:
vi.  he Viability Assessment
vii.  The Support Plan
15.  Actions required of the service provider’s allocated “assessor”:
i.  Liaise with child’s social worker, view the child’s file and also liaise with allocated supervising social worker and view the Foster Carer file (if applicable).
ii.  Also view any historical/additional files i.e. previous fostering files, or files held by another Local Authorities.
iii.  Arrange and attend SGO support plan meetings with the allocated council social worker.
iv.  Liaise with the Council regarding any issues of concern. Ensure that all documents are signed.
v.  Attendance at other professional meetings as when required but approval to attend will be required by the Council first. (i.e. meetings with legal services, etc).
vi.  Complete reference interviews of the applicants’- three references only one of which can be a relative and have preferably known the applicant for in excess of 5 years. Ensure referees sign their references.
vii.  Interview all adult children and ex- partners. (It is acknowledged that there may be occasions when ex partners cannot be interviewed due to domestic violence issues, in these instances it needs to be evidenced in the assessment and the Council alerted in advance). Any decisions not to interview ex partners or adult children need to be informed in advance of the assessments completion and this information included in the report
viii. In some situations an addendum report may be needed if fostering panel identifies from the assessment any issues that require more exploration or where the care plan changes for the child.
ix.  Attendance at court if requested to do so.
16.  The completed Form C will be emailed to Procurement via the LA secure email system by the provider, this will then be forwarded to the Quality Assurance Officer, Team Manager and Social Worker.
17.  The Team Manager and Social Worker will quality assure the content and email details of any issues to the Quality Assurance Officer. Any issues with the quality of the Form C will be dealt with by the Quality Assurance Officer directly with the relevant provider – assistance from the Procurement Team will be provided when issues are contractual.
18.  The quality assured Form C will be emailed by the Quality Assurance Officer to the Social Worker, Team Manager. Checklist for Submitted SGO Assessments
19.  When the Social Worker and Team Manager have quality assured the content of the assessment they will forward the documents to legal for filing.

[IL0: UNCLASSIFIED]

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