Corporate Parenting - Who Cares? Scotland
young people feel Corporate Parenting matters to them.
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Helpful Definitions
Below, you’ll find helpful definitions listed alphabetically. Click on a letter below:
A
Agency decision maker
Person designated by the fostering agency to undertake responsibilities outlined at 7 (1) of the Children Act (Scotland) 1995 Guidance and Regulations Vol. 2.
Allegation
Any claim or concern that an individual may have harmed a child.
C
Child in Need
The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 defines a child as being in need of care and attention if:
- he or she is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development unless services are provided by the local authority
- his or her health and development is likely to be seriously impaired or further impaired without such services
- he or she is disabled
- he or she is affected adversely by the disability of a member of the family.
A local authority must provide a range and level of services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in its area who are in need and to promote the upbringing of children in need by their families.
Child Protection Committee
Child Protection Committees do not have a statutory basis, however their role and functions are set out in the national guidance - and operate within the context of the Children Scotland Act 1995. The policy context for all those involved in the development and delivery of child protection services are:
- Protecting Children and Young People The Charter
Protecting Children and Young People The Framework for Standards
Child Protection Investigation
An investigation carried out in accordance with local authority child protection procedures.
Child protection social worker
The social worker of the looked after child in the local authority with responsibility for investigating allegations of child abuse.
Child's social worker
Social worker responsible for the looked after child.
Children's Hearing
A lay tribunal composed of three panel members one of whom chairs the proceedings. Both genders must be represented. The hearing is charged with deciding if a child requires compulsory measures of supervision.
Complaints
Any complaints made about the services provided by the agency or local authority will be 1) taken seriously, 2) each complaint will be dealt with on an individual basis and 3) it may be investigated depending on the evidence/details provided by the individual(s) making the complaint.
Concern
Children and young people can be harmed or at risk of harm from those people who care for them. If there is a concern this can be discussed with the identified child protection contact for each organisation.
Contact
Contact between children and their parents, siblings and important individuals in their lives is a basic right which should only be regulated if the welfare of the child might be compromised. Contact includes face to face meetings, letters, phone calls etc. Requirements for contact may be stated in supervision requirements or agreed by the supervising social worker. Contact should contribute to the well-being of the child and help to retain an active link with his/her family.
Corporate Parenting
Meaning the formal and local partnerships needed between all local authority departments and services, and associated agencies, which are responsible for working together to meet the needs of looked after children and young people. (Looked After Children and Young People: We Can and Must Do Better, Scottish Executive 2007)
Corporate Parenting offers the opportunity to improve the futures of Looked After children by all parts of a Council and partners making their contribution to the well being of all looked after children.
D
Designated Line manager(s)
Manager(s) in the local authority who have responsibility for looked after children resident in their area. They will also provide professional supervision to identified social workers and liaise closely with their designated senior manager.
Designated senior manager
They are required to be proficient with local and national policies, procedures and guidelines for Child Protection, and looked after children. They should make these available for all staff members to adhere to within their establishment. They will also provide professional supervision to the line managers.
E
Evaluation
A system for collating information on decision making, outcomes, and evaluating good practice so that agencies and Child Protection Committee’s can monitor and learn from current practice and research.
F
Family Group Conferences (FGC)
The process brings together parents, relatives, grandparents and other concerned family members or relevant individuals to decide on and take responsibility for a family plan for the care and protection of the child or young person. Children 1st has pioneered the use of FGC in child welfare and protection since 1998. Evaluations have demonstrated the value of this formal process in reaching decisions.
Family Meetings
These may take a variety of shapes but the basic purpose is to bring together wider family members and friends to develop a plan for the care of a child either at home with parents or away from home. The goal is to identify the supports that the wider family can provide for the child and his/her carers.
Formal kinship care
Is where the child is looked after and accommodated by the local authority and placed with kinship carers or where the Children's Hearing make a supervision requirement that a child lives with a kinship carer.
Foster Care
Involves looked after children and young people living and being cared for in an ordinary family home by carers who are not their parents. Foster carers are assessed and approved by registered fostering and adoption agencies and must have the skills and capabilities to care for the whole child and promote their well-being. Foster carers are regularly reviewed to ensure that they are continuing to provide safe and nurturing care to the child.
Foster Care Allowances
Are paid to cover the costs of the care of the child and many agencies also pay a fee to reflect the time and skills the carers devote to the child.
Foster care review
A foster care review as carried out in accordance with the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009. This can entail hearing from the foster carer and the social worker about the impact of the placement on themselves and their families and also reviewing progress.
Foster Placement
Placement of a looked after child with foster carers, Regulation 27, Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
Fostering Agency
A local authority or a registered fostering service, as defined in the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
Fostering Manager
Line manager to the supervising social worker for the foster carer.
Fostering Panel
Panel appointed by each fostering agency to carry out functions as specified in Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
G
GIRFEC (Getting it Right for Every Child)
Is the programme that aims to improve outcomes for all children and young people by promoting a shared approach that builds solutions with and around children and families. It enables children to get the help they need when they need it; supports a positive shift in culture, systems and practice; involves working together to make things better.
GIRFELAC (Getting it Right for Every Looked After Children)
Is the policy team set up within the Scottish Government with a view to improve the life of all looked after children whether they are Looked After at Home or placed with the local authority, in residential/secure units, kinship care, or foster care. The team also looks at providing policy around Corporate Parenting with the aim of improving the educational attainment, health and the Throughcare and aftercares services that this group of young people require. Since 2007 the team have produced the We Can and Must Do Better and subsequent recommendations were made and carried out from this publication have been published and are ongoing guidance for front line services.
I
Independent or Consultant
The term 'independent' is used in relation to support and reviews. In most instances this means that the practitioner involved is outside line-management for the child and carer family and so brings an element of objectivity. In small agencies or in very complex and contentious situations, it may be helpful for someone outside the agency to provide independent support.
Independent Reviewing Officers
Workers specifically appointed in some agencies to chair Looked after children Reviews. They are independent of the line management for the child or carers. Some agencies have built in scrutiny of reviews by a senior manager/s rather than appointing Independent Reviewing Officers.
Informal kinship care
Is where the child lives with kinship carers with no formal intervention of the local authority.
Initial interagency discussion
If the internal discussion indicates that the allegation may involve a child being at risk or harm an initial interagency discussion should be convened to consider how best to proceed. The decision may be to initiate a child protection investigation or to refer back to the named social worker for the child.
Initial internal discussion
Discussion held following notification of an allegation. Its purpose is to assess the nature of the allegation and decide how best to respond to it. Those involved in this discussion are the social worker, child’s senior social worker and the case manager.
K
Kinship Care
This is the term used to describe care provided by the wider family members or friends of a child when they have to leave the care of their parents.
Kinship Care Allowances
The Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 make provision for local authorities to pay allowance to kinship carers. They do not determine how much and to whom an allowance should be paid.
Kinship Care Placement
Placement of a looked after child with an approved kinship carer, Regulation 11, Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
Kinship Carer
A person related to the looked after child or known to the child and with whom the child has a pre-existing relationship, Regulation 10, Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009
Kinship carers are assessed and approved by local authorities to ensure that they are able to provide safe and nurturing care to the child.
L
LACSIG – (Looked After Children Strategic Implementation Group)
The Looked After Children Strategic Implementation Group (LACSIG) was formed by the Scottish Government to lead and drive forward a programme of work to help implement national policy across a range of looked after issues. 5 Activity Hubs have been established each tackling a priority area. These are Culture change, Workforce, Commissioning, Improving Learning Outcomes and Improving Health Outcomes.
Further information on the Group can be found at http://www.sircc.org.uk/lacsig
Looked after at home
Where the child is the subject of a supervision requirement but continues to live at their normal home of residence. Supervision requirements can impose a number of measures on the child, for protection, guidance, treatment or control. The local authority is required to provide supervision of the child and his welfare and access services for the child as required.
Looked After away from home
(i.e. away from their normal place of residence), where the child or young person is subject to a supervision requirement with a condition of residence through the Children’s Hearing system, or is provided with accommodation under section 25 (voluntary agreement) or is the subject of a Permanence Order under section 80 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. The child or young person is cared for away from their normal place of residence, e.g. in a foster care placement, residential/children’s unit, a residential school, a secure unit or a kinship placement. Other placements may be made at the request of the parents of the child when they are prevented from providing care.
Looked after child in kinship care
This is where a child has been placed by a local authority with a kinship carer or a Children's Hearing has made a supervision requirement including the child being cared for by kinship carers.
Looked after children
Children who are looked after are those who are either:
- provided with accommodation by a local authority under s.25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995
- subject to a supervision requirement (whether living at home or away from home)
- subject to an order, warrant or authorisation under Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of Part II of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 under which the local authority has responsibilities for the child. Such a Child Protection Order, a Child Assessment Order or and authorisation from a Justice of the Peace to remove a child to a place of safety or maintain a child in a place of safety.
- Subject to a Permanence Order under Section 80 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007
The local authority has a duty to care for looked after children to:
- safeguard and promote the child's welfare
- provide family support services where the child is living at home
- promote contact between child and parents
- ascertain and take account of the child's views and views of parents and other relevant adults
- have regard to the child's religion, race, culture and linguistic background
- review the child's case at regular intervals.
P
Parallel/Contingency/Concurrent/Twin Track Planning
The assessment of different options for the care of a child, rather than sequentially. The aim is to reduce drift for children who may be moving towards permanency in order to improve timescales and individual outcomes.
Parental Responsibilities
Under the Children Scotland Act, parents have the following responsibilities towards their children:
- to safeguard and promote child's health, development and welfare until the child is 16
- to provide appropriate direction until the child is 16 and guidance until 18
- maintain good personal relationships and contact with the child until 16
- to act as a legal representative until child is 16.
Parental Rights
Under the Act, parents have rights to:
- regulate the residence of a child under 16
- direct the child's upbringing
- maintain contact
- act as a legal representative
Where this is in the child's best interests.
Pathway Plans or Care Plans
Regulations require local authorities to carry out a needs assessment for each young person who ceases to be looked after beyond school age, with a view to determining what advice, assistance and support the authority should provide. In addition, the regulations require the local authority to carry out a pathway assessment for aftercare services on young people who are over school leaving age but are still looked after. The pathway assessment should cover: Lifestyle; Family and Friends; Health and Well Being; Learning and Work; Where I Live; Money; and Rights and Legal Issues.
Pedagogy
The principles of pedagogy are that people working with the child focus on "the whole child, their body, mind, feelings, spirit, creativity and the relationship of the child to others- their connectedness" (Petrie 2001).
The goal of developing pedagogy in Scotland is to create a workforce which can address the needs of the whole child and contribute their different skills to that process but all sharing common values and principles.
Permanence Order
A permanence order is an order made by a court on the application of a local authority. If granted, the order will specify what parental rights and responsibilities are given to the local authority and which are given to another person, for example, a foster carer or kinship carer. A permanence order can include authority for the child to be adopted.
Permanency
Involves making decisions about the long-term future of children who have been removed from their families' care. Its purpose is to ensure that the child has a permanent, stable and secure upbringing either with their original family or with alternative high quality care. Permanence is a permanent solution for the child whether in their own family or in alternative care.
Planning or strategy meeting
An interagency meeting to plan the investigation. A planning meeting should always be convened to plan and review investigations involving foster carers.
Private Fostering
Where a child is looked after by a family friend. This is a private arrangement and the carer needs to register as a private foster carer.
R
Residence Order
An order made by a court which regulates the arrangements about where, and with whom a child will live. If an order is made in favour of someone who does not have parental responsibilities and rights (e.g. grandparents, aunts) then that person will hold responsibilities and rights until or unless the order is changed. This lasts until the child is 16.
Reviewing Officers
Workers appointed in agencies to chair looked after reviews and who are line managed and employed by the agency.
S
Senior Fostering Manager
Senior manager within the local authority or private agency.
Special Circumstances report
The report which summarises findings from further enquiries and review and makes recommendations about what action is needed to ensure high standards of foster care practice are maintained.
Special Circumstances Review meeting
A meeting at which the review report is considered.
Supervising social worker
Local authority or agency social worker who provides support to looked after children, families and if relevant carers. Special circumstances review - Enquiries carried out by the fostering agency or person appointed by them to assess what action needs to be taken following an allegation being made against foster carers or a member of the foster carer family. The enquiries can be carried out following a child protection investigation or in situations where the allegation, concern or complaint does not involved abuse to the child, so no child protection investigation is considered necessary.
T
Team Leader/ Senior social worker
Line-manager for the social worker/s.
Throughcare and Aftercare
Local authorities have a duty to prepare young people for ceasing to be looked after (“Throughcare”) and to provide advice, guidance and assistance for young people who have ceased to be looked after over school age “aftercare”). These duties are set out in the 'Supporting Young People Leaving Care in Scotland: Regulations and Guidance on Services for Young People Ceasing to be Looked After by Local Authorities' (2004).
4% increase in number of Children Looked After
Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published Children Looked After Statistics 2009-10. These new statistics are obtained from the children looked after survey completed by all local authorities in Scotland. The main...
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