Looked After Children’s Service

The Looked after Children’s Service is responsible for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children who can no longer be looked after by their parents, be that in; Kinship Care, Foster Care, Concurrent Care, Adoptive Placements or Residential Care.

The focus of the Looked after Children’s Service is upon achieving permanency for children in a timely way.
The service is responsible for visiting children in placements as per statutory requirements to ensure that the standard of care that they receive is of the highest quality.
Social Workers and Family Support Workers work with children and their families to ensure that their voices are heard in the care planning process and ensure that the time that looked after children spend with their families is of the highest quality.
The participation of children and families in care planning is of the highest importance; therefore their views are heard in Care Planning Meetings, Statutory Reviews and through the Care Planning Process.
Statutory Reviews happen regularly, the frequency will depend on individual cases but generally these happen every six months, these reviews consider the progress that children and families have made, this can mean that a decision is made for a child to return to their family. The Looked after Children’s Team support families in these circumstances to ensure that such a transition is successful.