Children and Young People Committee

Inquiry into Arrangements for the Placement of Children into care in Wales

Response from The National Youth Advocacy Service

INTRODUCTION

The National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) is a UK charity providing children rights and legal services.  We offer information, advice, advocacy and legal representation to children and young people up to the age of 25 through a network of advocates throughout England and Wales.  NYAS is also a community legal service.

NYAS is committed to working towards full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in particular Article 12 which concerns the right of every young person to be consulted in all matters affecting them.

Our mission statement: to enable children and young people to have a voice by providing independent and confidential advice, information and advocacy services.”

NYAS Cymru provides advocacy to children/young people within the looked after system and as a result are requested to put forward their views, wishes and feelings in relation to decision making processes regarding foster placements. NYAS Cymru welcomes the opportunity to provide information to assist The National Assembly for Wales’ Children and Young People Committee on their inquiry on the placement of children into care in Wales.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 1

In determining whether and where to place a child into care, a social worker will need an accurate picture of a child’s needs and circumstances, which may require them to have information from a range of local services – health services, social services, etc. who may also have to consider their responsibilities towards confidentiality.  To what extent is information about a child’s needs effectively shared with decision makers, and do you have any examples of good practice in such inter-agency communications?  Is there a clear understanding of who is ultimately accountable for decisions about a child’s care?

Response:

As an advocacy provider we have been involved in helping children/young people put across their views, wishes and feelings regarding their placements to social services.  This is usually achieved through care planning meetings, writing, or meetings taking place to discuss placement issues.  NYAS Cymru is aware that current information is gathered through looked after review meetings and placement panel meetings.  NYAS Cymru have provided advocacy for children/young people who wish to challenge the local authority/make a complaint regarding a placement move or lack of consultation in the planning process.  Some local authorities are experiencing lack of foster placements available to children/young people, especially in areas where children and young people are deemed to have special needs or behaviour issues.

In some local authorities there is very limited information sharing with other relevant agencies.  It is our experience that some children/young people are placed at very short notice in placements and information is not passed on to the relevant agencies.  We are also aware of cases where a child/young person has been informed it is a short-term placement but have ended up staying for several months/years.

Example of good practice:

In Flintshire Social Services are developing a child/young person’s fact file and foster carer’s fact file which contain photos and information about the child/young person and what they would like from a foster placement.  The child/young person is also given the opportunity to see the fact file regarding the foster carers as part of the planning process.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 3:

Information about a child’s needs and circumstances will be needed by fostering agencies and foster carers in order to appropriately conduct risk assessments, provide for a child’s needs, etc.  To what extent is appropriate information normally provided to fostering agencies and foster carers and how could such communication be improved?  Does the commissioning system enable or inhibit the provision of information to prospective fostering agencies and carers, and do you have any examples of good practice in the provision of information to fostering agencies and/or foster carers?

Response:

Caerphilly Social Services are currently reviewing their systems to enhance the sharing of information to foster cares.  Fact files (similar to the scheme in Flintshire are being explored as a useful tool-kit.) Caerphilly have recently implemented  a tool-kit called “3 wishes” which enables children/young people the opportunity to communicate the 3 priorities they wish to receive from a foster placement. This pack for young people also explains their right to an advocate. This system encourages feedback to be given to the child/young person around their wishes and enables effective communication to take place between the social worker and the child/young person. The information gathered from this tool-kit is provided to the placement panel.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 4:

To what extent are placements planned out?  Is there clarity over whether placements will be for a short period of time, whether it may eventually lead to adoption, etc? Can you provide any examples of good practice in the planning of foster placements?

Response:

Placements are generally discussed during looked after review meetings.  However, when emergency placements take place this is usually without any input or planning from the child’s perspective.  On average 17% of all cases NYAS Cymru work on are in relation to placement issues.  When a child/young person approaches NYAS Cymru for help with a placement issue they are often very complex and the child/young person is experiencing issues such as:-

• contact with siblings/family members (especially with out of county placements.)

• moving school/placement and not wanting too.  This is common with out of county placements when children/young people have been informed it is a short-term placement but end up staying for a few months/years by which time they want to stay at the school/placement.

• NYAS Cymru has worked with one case where the young person has had 9 placements in the past year. During the last move they still did not know where they were going until a few days before the move.  This caused the young person anxiety and distress to such an extent that a number of agencies made complaints to the Head of Children’s Services.

• Inappropriate placements for vulnerable children/young people at risk of absconding, self harm, and challenging behaviour. This can result in children/young people being moved frequently due to placement breakdowns.

• Little notice in be informed they are moving, in some instances less than 24 hours notice.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 6:

To what extent do children and young people participate in their own placement process?

Children/young people express to NYAS Cymru that they are not involved in the placement matching process.  They are often placed at short notice.  The placements are usually evaluated by social workers and placement panels and then presented to young people.  On occasions placements are changed and children/young people are not always consulted about this, they are just told it is happening.  If the child/young person has been at a placement long term they may have their views, wishes and feelings taken into account during the looked after review meeting.  If there are problems in the placements then the views are taken into account once they have been removed from the placement, not beforehand.  This is an area of concern when the child/young person may want to remain at the placement.  There may be good reasons as to why the child/young person is unable to remain at certain placements but children/young people often feel they are not informed about this. NYAS Cymru are aware of some local authorities wanting children/young people to be more involved in the planning and preparation of placements and reviews are being achieved on local levels to improve this.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 7:

To what extent do you consider that a child’s social worker remains engaged in their care, once they have gone into a foster placement?

Response:

NYAS Cymru believes it is extremely important for the social worker to remain engaged once a placement has been established to ensure their duty to care is adhered too.  It can be a difficult and challenging time for a child/young person and to have regular contact with their social worker can reduce anxiety.  Children/young people need to be given the opportunity to discuss in confidence any issues arising from the placement with their social worker. However, NYAS Cymru have been involved in cases when there have been long periods of time before decisions are made regarding hospital treatment, sleep over at friends houses have been granted.  This can be highly bureaucratic for the individuals concerned.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 8:

To what extent are placements of children into care qualitatively reviewed? Can you provide examples of placements being given a cost-benefit analysis for example?

Response:

Financial arrangements in relation to placements do affect the long term placements for some children/young people.  NYAS CYMRU has had cases where the child/young person have been informed they are to move back to their home authority after being out of county.  In some cases Local Authorities do not feel the quality of care justifies the cost even if the child/young person is happy with the placement. In other instances, young people have been moved from private placements that provided high levels of support due to costs being extremely high for the Local Authorities.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 9:

Are there any further comments you would like to make about the placement of children into care?  Are there any specific recommendations you would suggest the Committee makes to the Welsh Assembly Government?

Recommendations:

• Placement moves need to be managed effectively and where appropriate need to be planned well in advance with the consultation of children/young people involved in decision making processes.

• Each Local Authority in Wales should undertake a peer-led study to consult with children/young people to establish and implement a tool-kit which would ensure their views, wishes and feelings are taken into account during placement panel meetings.  This tool-kit should also include how social workers will feedback to the child/young person on the decisions made.

• Children/young people should have a right/choice to attend placement panel meetings.

• Fact files on foster carers to be produced by each Local Authority in Wales.  This will enable the child/young person to read and find out information on the carers before a placement is secured.

• Frequent and planned visits need to take place to support any new placement move.  This should be a priority for any out of county placement.  

• Children/young people should have direct access to their named social worker when they first go into a new placement.  A visit from the social worker should take place within the first week of any placement move.

• An intensive support service to be provided by an independent body when any placement is at risk of breaking down.  This will ensure that the child/young person has access to specialist support services who could lease with social services, education, health, family etc.