View Safeguarding Procedures View Safeguarding Procedures

6.3.2 Permanent Fostering

RELEVANT CHAPTERS

See also Permanent Planning for Looked After Children Guidance


Contents

  1. Where Permanent Fostering may be an Option
  2. Eligibility
  3. Decision Making
  4. Placements with Permanent Foster Carers
  5. Permanent Fostering Status


1. Where Permanent Fostering may be an Option

1. Permanent fostering will be an option for Looked After children for whom adoption is not appropriate or achievable, and for those children who are not able to exit the care system via a Residence Order being made in favour of their foster carers.
2. Permanent fostering may be appropriate for Looked After children who want and need to complete their childhood within a secure family setting but have strong feelings of loyalty, commitment and attachment to their birth family.
3. It may also be the appropriate route for children with severe and enduring complex needs where it is beneficial to the child that the local authority continues to have Parental Responsibility.
4. The placement should be seen as one which is expected to endure until the child reaches adulthood, and beyond.
5. It can only be appropriate for placements where there is no expectation that the child will return home at some point in the future.
6. The lifelong role of the birth family and significant others can be promoted through shared decision making, good communication and meaningful contact.
7. The foster child and foster carers should receive speedy and effective assistance during and after the placement.
8.

Permanent Fostering is not a substitute for Adoption, where adoption is the preferred option for meeting the needs of Looked After children who cannot be reunited with their birth families. 

Complex contact arrangements in themselves should not be a reason for abandoning an adoption plan, but frequency should be realistic to secure stability for the child through adoption. 

Permanent fostering is not an option for children living with relatives. 

Permanent fostering is not an option for foster carers who wish to take out a Residence Order or Special Guardianship Order on the child/ren they foster.  They will be offered:

  • A guaranteed level of Residence Order Allowance or Special Guardianship Support
  • Ongoing contact with their supervising social worker where required as a signposting support to other services.
  • Ongoing involvement in their local fostering support group if required.
9.

Permanent Fostering should be a positive planned decision for some children:

  • where it is not expected that they will be able to return to live permanently with their parents, or within their kinship network, during their childhood and beyond

    and

  • or whom leaving the care system is neither appropriate or achievable.


2. Eligibility

Examples of eligible children include:

  • Children who have had one or more adoption disruption and now have an established or developing relationship with their current foster carers which would benefit from becoming Permanent Fostering Status. (N.B. Alternative strategies for children to exit the care system, for example  via their foster carers being approved as adopters or seeking a Residence Order or Special Guardianship Order  must be explored, recorded on file and documented in Looked After Review recommendations).
  • Children who do not wish to be adopted and who are of an age and understanding to offer an informed rationale for their views.
  • Children whom the Family Finding Meetings identify as having waited for 2 years (since the Adoption Panel approved their adoption plan) without a successful match being identified.
  • Disabled children who currently have no permanent alternative to residential care, and where parents agree to this plan acknowledging that family care offers advantages for their children.
  • Children identified as being hard to place for adoption and therefore most likely to wait long periods for potential matches e.g. some black children, some sibling groups.  Advertising for a ‘permanent’ placement for these children may produce both adoption and permanent fostering enquiries.
  • Children where there is no expectation that the plan will change or that the child will return to the family at some later date.


3. Decision Making

1. The Looked After Review will be the forum where recommendations regarding a Permanent Fostering Plan will be agreed.

A plan for permanence MUST be established for all Looked After children by the child’s second Looked After Review.

Where a recommendation for permanent fostering is sought at a Looked After Review, the social worker’s report should clearly set out:

  • Prior options considered in permanence planning for the child and work undertaken so far
  • Reasons why Permanent Fostering is the preferred plan
  • Consultation undertaken with the child, parents, kinship network, existing carers and other key operational staff and their views and feelings about the plan
  • Consultations with the social workers of children already placed if the existing placement is being proposed as a permanent arrangement 


2.


Permanent Fostering For Children with Existing Foster Carers

If the Looked After Review decision is that the child’s current foster placement be assessed as a Permanent Fostering arrangement, the child’s social worker (in conjunction with the foster carer(s)’ link worker) will prepare and present to the Fostering Panel the following reports:

The above reports should be presented to the Fostering Panel within 8 weeks of the Looked After Review decision.  The Fostering Panel will make its recommendation to the Agency Decision Maker, who will decide whether permanent fostering is in the best interests of the child and if so, whether the child’s current foster carers are suitable to be the child’s permanent foster carers.


3.


For Children Requiring a Permanent Fostering Placement, but not with Current Carers

If the Looked After Review decision is to identify a new placement for the children which would be approved as a Permanent Fostering Placement, the child’s social worker will present the following reports to the Fostering Panel:

  • Child’s Permanence Report
  • Care Plan
  • The most recent LAC Medical

The above reports should be presented to the Fostering Panel within 8 weeks of the Looked After Review decision.  The Fostering Panel will make its recommendation to the Agency Decision Maker, who will decide whether permanent fostering is in the best interests of the child.

The child’s social worker will also complete a Placement Request Form and a Placement Profile and make a referral to the Adoption and Permanence Team Manager, for advertising for a permanent foster family for the child.

All matches of children with Permanent Foster Carers will be presented to the Fostering Panel within 6 months of the best interest decision or, where the child is the subject of Care Proceedings, within 6 months of the Court decision.  At that point, the following reports will be presented to the Fostering Panel:


4.


For Children Known to be Hard to Place for Adoption

Where the preferred plan is permanence through adoption BUT the expectation is that the child(ren) will be hard to place, the Adoption Panel will decide whether a ‘permanent family’ be advertised/sought through adoption or fostering.

Such children may be initially identified at Adoption/Family Finding Tracking Meetings.

Enquirers to ‘permanent family’ advertisements will initially be assessed by the Adoption Team and the child’s social worker.  Ongoing assessments will be undertaken by the  Adoption Team  in partnership with the child’s social worker.  These assessments will be presented to either the Fostering Panel or the Adoption Panel depending on approval status.

If there is a proposal that an adoption plan for a child be changed to a permanent fostering plan, the child’s social worker will report the change to the Adoption Panel – see Placement for Adoption Procedure.

Children with a permanent fostering plan will be monitored by the Family Finding Tracking Meetings.


5.


Family Finding

Placement decisions will consider a child’s assessed racial, ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic needs and match these as closely as possible with the foster family.

Where trans-racial/trans-community placements are made, the foster family will be provided with additional training, support and information to help the child develop a positive understanding of her/ his heritage.


4. Placements with Permanent Foster Carers

Wherever practicable the child will have the opportunity for a period of introduction to a proposed foster carer so she/he can express an informed view about the placement and become familiar with the carer and household members and the neighbourhood before moving in.

Parents will be informed about and engaged in this approach whenever it is possible. 

A Life Appreciation Meeting will be held prior to the child’s placement.

The child will be prepared for the placement through life story work – see Life Story Books and Memory Boxes Guidance.


5. Permanent Fostering Status

This will include:

  • An expectation that the child will remain with carers for the duration of childhood and beyond (as opposed to long term fostering where the expectation is of 2 years plus).
  • A statement of recognition jointly signed by Children's Social Care Service Manager, Service Manager Fostering, birth parent(s) and carers.
  • An option to take appropriate exploratory steps to allow the child to be known by the carer’s surname.

N.B. Legal advice should be sought regarding such a change which will require the written agreement of all parties holding Parental Responsibility or the leave of the court.

Delegation of some responsibilities:

  • Agreeing overnight stays
  • Agreeing day school trips with the exception of high risk activities 
  • Making routine medical and dental appointments
  • Agreeing with the child and school GCSE and other courses
  • Arranging timing of contact in liaison with relevant birth family members
  • Assisting and promoting the child’s career choices

Some decisions cannot legally be delegated, e.g.:

  • Consenting to a general anaesthetic
  • Changing the child’s school
  • Changing the child’s name
  • Consenting to trips abroad
  • Changing frequency of contact without consultation with the local authority

The statutory requirement to hold Looked After Reviews will continue.  Independent Reviewing Officers will use their judgment about managing these requirements in a child friendly and appropriate way for a permanent fostering placement.

Statutory requirements for visiting frequency by the child(ren)’s social worker will continue.

Breakdowns of permanent placements should always be followed by a Disruption Meeting – see Section 9 of Placements in Foster Care (excluding Short Breaks but including Externally Provided Placements) Procedure.

End