Glossary of key terms
Accommodated
This term is used to refer to a child who is cared for by a local authority via a voluntary arrangement. The courts are not involved. Parents retain all parental responsibility.
Agency Decision Maker (ADM)
The person who reviews the prospective foster carer assessment, fostering approval panel minutes and recommendation to make the final decision as to a person's suitability to foster.
Allegation
An allegation against a foster carer or member of their household involves someone – an adult or child – saying that the foster carer or household member has or may have behaved in a way that has harmed a child or may have harmed a child, possibly committed a criminal offence against a child, or behaved towards a child in a way that indicates that they are unsuitable to work with children.
Fostering services need to investigate all allegations to ensure that the children they are responsible for are safe. Foster carers will be provided with help and support if an allegation is made against them.
Approval of foster carers
Potential foster carers need to be approved by a fostering service before a child can be matched with them. This means that they have completed the assessment process and have the necessary qualities to foster.
Assessing social worker
The social worker who undertakes the assessment of an applicant's suitability to be a foster carer and writes a report to be considered by the fostering panel.
Attachment
Attachment is a child's emotional bond with the people who care for them. The quality of these attachments shape their emotional and physical development and their behaviour.
Birth family
The child's biological family. Used occasionally to clarify that we are not talking about the child's foster or adoptive family.
Bridging to permanence
Foster carers are key in the introduction of new carers or adoptive parents for a child. They will be very much involved in the planning stage and it is expected they will support the initial meeting of the child and their new carers/ prospective adoptive parents. Your supervising social worker and child‘s social worker will support and advise you in this important task.
Care leaver
When young people cease to be looked after by the local authority, either because they no longer need this care or they turn eighteen years old, they are often referred to as care leavers. Care leavers are entitled to continuing support from their responsible authority, including support to remain living with their former foster carers.
Care Plan
Every looked after child will have a care plan. This is the key working document which sets out their needs and how these are to be met. This should be drawn up by the child's social worker with input from all the professionals involved in the team around the child plus the child where appropriate.
Child
This term refers to anyone who is under the age of eighteen. When specifically referring to older children we use the term 'young people'.
Children Looked After or Children In Our Care
A phrase used to describe children who are cared for by the local authority including those who are in care as a result of a care order or because they are accommodated.
Child's social worker
The social worker from the child's responsible authority who works with them and plans for their care. They must meet with the child regularly to ensure that their needs are being met.
Child protection
This term is used to describe the policies, procedures, standards, guidelines and regulation that are put in place to protect children from harm, whether intentional or unintentional.
Complaints procedures
All fostering services are required to have a complaints procedure for foster carers to raise concerns or if they are dissatisfied with the service, and for complaints to be made by or on behalf of children placed. Local authorities responsible for looked after children are also required to have a complaints procedure to cover all aspects of their responsibilities.
Contact
A term which was used to describe the time that children see their family members. This has now been replaced by the term "Family time".
Delegated authority
Some decisions about a child's day to day life (such as if they can stay overnight at a friend's house or have a hair-cut) are usually delegated to foster carers to take. Other decisions may require the authority of the social worker, their manager or the child's parent. The arrangements will be specific to each child.
Disruption
Disruptions are unplanned endings to a child living with a foster carer. They may happen when a particular problem leads foster carers to ask for the child's removal, where the Local Authority decides to remove the child or where the child insists on leaving. All unplanned endings are painful for children, foster carers and parents. If foster carers feel that they cannot care for a child, this should be discussed with the child's social worker or the supervising social worker as early as possible, in order to avoid the need for sudden action. If parents or others request immediate and unplanned removal of the child, foster carers should speak to the child's social worker.
The care of a child by a foster carer may end by mutual agreement or by termination on the following period of notice in writing to the Fostering Service and the child's social worker. All foster Carers are committed to providing prior notice. Foster carers should not end their care of a child without prior discussion or reasonable notice being given. There is an established commitment to giving at least 28 days' notice.
A disruption meeting will normally be held with all parties to discuss the reasons why the arrangement is not working and to try to prevent further breakdown.
Meetings about the child that may be held but to which you would not be invited usually relate to the child protection or legal processes. The most common of these meetings are the following: Child Protection Strategy Meetings – when concerns are received that indicate a child may be at risk of harm, a ‘section 47’ enquiry is initiated. A discussion with the Police, known as a ‘strategy meeting’, must take place in order to make decisions about how the inquiry should be conducted.
Fostering
Looking after a child in the foster carer's own home and caring for them while their own parents are unable to do so.
Fostering allowance
The money paid to foster carers whilst they are caring for a child. This varies in respect of the child's age and the foster carer's tier.
Foster Carer
A person who has been approved, following the assessment process, to care for children in their own home who are looked after by local authorities.
Foster carer agreement
This sets out the terms of each foster carer's approval, such as the number, age or gender of children they can care for, procedures for review of the approval, the support and training to be given to the foster carer and their obligations as a foster carer.
Fostering panel
This is the group which will make a final recommendation to the fostering service as to whether applicants should be approved as foster carers. Every fostering service is required by law to use a fostering panel.
Full Care Order
The local authority can seek a full care order, under section 31 of the Children Act 1989. This means the local authority holds much more responsibility and the parent loses more of their rights to make decisions for their child.
There are two types of Care Order which can be made by the court: Interim Care Order or a Full Care Order. See Interim Care Order for further information.
Independent Reviewing Officer - Children
An Independent Reviewing Officer is the person who ensures that children looked after by the Local Authority have regular reviews to make sure that all actions are being completed by the people responsible for the care of the child (e.g. the child's social worker, the supervising social worker and the foster carer). It is the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer to ensure that a child’s views are taken into consideration and that the Local Authority is fulfilling its duties and functions.
Independent Reviewing Officer – Foster Carers
An independent reviewing officer chairs fostering review meetings. The first review takes place around six months after approval. The independent reviewing officer asks about how fostering has been for the carers and gives an opportunity to discuss what had gone well and what we can work on. The information from this meeting considers the foster carers suitability to remain a foster carer.
Interim Care Order
An Interim Care Order means that the Local Authority will share Parental Responsibility for that child. This means that the Local Authority have the power to make decisions about where the child lives and how to meet the needs of the child.
There are two types of Care Order which can be made by the court: Interim Care Order or a Full Care Order. See Full Care Order for further information.
Local Authority Designated Safeguarding Officer (LADO)
The Local Authority Designated Safeguarding Officer is to manage allegations against child care professionals including foster carers, every Local Authority appoints a Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
Local Authority Designated Safeguarding Officer strategy meeting
These are held if an allegation is made that a foster carer may have harmed a child in their care. All allegations of this nature need to be investigated and the investigation is planned at a LADO strategy meeting. Whilst you are not invited to attend such a meeting or any subsequent reviews, your supervising social worker will keep you informed of the progress of the investigation and give you as much information as the process allows. You will be fully involved in any investigation and receive a copy of the report once it has been agreed. You will also be offered independent support.
Legal advice meeting
The purpose of a legal gateway or planning meeting is for the local authority to seek legal advice on a child and their family circumstances. When social workers have concerns that a child is or remains at risk of significant harm and support to the family under child in need or child protection procedures are not deemed to offer sufficient protection or likelihood of improvement, a legal gateway meeting is held to establish whether thresholds for legal intervention are met. If it is, the outcome may be to enter ‘Pre-proceedings’ (see below) or issue care proceedings in the Family Courts.
Parental responsibility
All the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which the parent of a child has by law. A foster carer never has parental responsibility for a child in their care.
Placement
A term which was used to describe the type of fostering being provided a child. We now talk about where children live with foster carers rather than continually using jargon.
Placement planning meeting (PPM)
A placement planning meeting will take place within 5 working days of a child starting to live with you. This meeting will involve the most significant people in the child‘s life. The meeting‘s purpose is to ensure carers have all the information they need relating to the child, e.g. health, education, day to day routines, likes and dislikes, that will help them care for the child as well as possible. The meeting will also look at practical issues such as family time arrangements; transport to school; any clothing needs; and any financial issues.
At this meeting foster carers will get a copy of the delegated authority in caring for the child to allow for flexibility of decision making. This delegation will be agreed and recorded at the Placement Planning Meeting where possible and will be reviewed regularly to meet the developing needs of the child.
Personal Education Planning meeting (PEP)
The child‘s social worker will organise and be involved in this meeting with an appropriate representative from the child‘s school. Foster carers are expected to attend, along with the child. Subsequent reviews are held at least once per year generally three times a year.
Permanence planning
When a foster carer agrees to look after a child on a permanent basis a Child Looked after review meeting is required so that the Independent Reviewing Officer can make sure that this is what the child wants and is what is best for the child. A care planning meeting is then convened followed by a Matching meeting/Placement Planning meeting to be presented to the Permanence Panel for the plan to be approved.
Pre-proceedings meeting
The aim of this meeting is to reach an agreement on the proposed plan between the family and the local authority with a view to the risks to the child being addressed. These meetings are arranged when the threshold for legal intervention is met due to a child being at risk of significant harm, but the concerns do not warrant immediate issuing of care proceedings to seek removal of the child into care. A formal meeting is arranged with parents and their solicitors to outline the concerns, set out a contract of expectations and agree a plan to address the risks to the child. Progress is reviewed. Pre-proceedings should not last more than 6 months. The outcome can be to come out of pre-proceedings onto a child in need or child protection support plan or to issue care proceedings if the risk of significant harm is not reduced below the threshold.
Professionals meeting
The local authority employees working on a case may meet with managers to consider the information gathered and assessments completed in order to reach a consensus on the local authority care plan. These meetings may ask for contributions from other agency staff, depending on the issues under discussion. The outcome of such meetings will be shared with children, parents and foster carers and inform the Care Plan for the child.