Placements with Parents

Where a Local Authority has a care order or interim care order on a child/ young person and proposes to place the child with their parents, this is subject to the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010. These regulations replaced the Placement with Parents Regulations 1991, setting out clear time scales by which assessments and approvals of such placements must be completed

 “Placement with Parents” means allowing a child/ young person who is in the care of a local authority to live with:

• A parent of the child;
• A person who is not a parent of the child/ young person but who has parental responsibility for them;
• A person who has a Residence Order or Child Arrangements Order, if that was in force immediately before the care order was made.

“Placement decision” means a decision to place a child, which is made in accordance with Regulation 18(1) (placement decisions by Director of Children’s Services or nominated person).

The Regulations do not apply to children or young people who are accommodated under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, or who are placed with parents under interim care orders during care proceedings, or who are remanded to the care of the local authority.

For children in care proceedings, the Public Law Working Group 2021 has recommended, in relation to placing children with parents: “Any placement with parents under an interim or final order should be evidenced to comply with the statutory regulations for placement at home.”

“There may be good reason at the inception of care proceedings for a child to remain in the care of her parents/carers/family members and subject to an ICO pending the completion of assessments”

However, in terms of final disposal:

“It should be considered to be rare in the extreme that the risks of significant harm to the child are judged to be sufficient to merit the making of a care order but, nevertheless, the risks can be managed with a care order being made in favour of the local authority with the child remaining in the care of the parents/carers. A care order represents a serious intervention by the state in the life of the child and in the lives of the parents in terms of their respective ECHR, article 8 rights. This can only be justified if it is necessary and proportionate to the risks of harm of the child”.

As such, any final care plan that recommends a Care Order, when intending to place the child(ren) with parents, should be discussed with and approved by the Strategic Lead/ Head of Service responsible for the case, following consultation with the LA solicitor. This must occur before the care plan is presented to permanence panel.

The principles that should inform the decision to place a child or young person on a care order with their parents are:

1. Children and young people are best placed with their families when it is safe to do so;
2. Family-led decision making, and child focussed practice will be central to our approach;
3. Placement with parents as the final disposal in care proceedings will be rarely used;
4. Placement with parents should be viewed as a short term, temporary arrangement;
5. The decision to place with parents, whether planned or unplanned will follow a satisfactory risk assessment; (see below);
6. There is high support to the placement, along with stringent planning and oversight once the child is placed; and
7. There is continued assessment of risk and need, and evaluation of whether the child / young person is achieving good outcomes.

The purpose should be to work with the parents and support them, to achieve agreed improvements, with the overall aim of discharge of the Care Order.

The management of the placement should be focussed on strengthening and enhancing the parent’s role, supporting family relationships and parent-led decision making.

The placement should be regularly reviewed to ensure that it continues to be in the child’s best interests; and that it is still appropriate and safe for the child to be placed with parents.

In circumstances where young people subject to a care order return to the care of a parent in unplanned or unexpected circumstances the following procedure applies:

The decision to place a child shall be made by the Director of Children’s Services, or by an officer of the local authority nominated in writing for that purpose by the director. In Doncaster this nominated officer is a Strategic Lead/ Head of Service.

An Emergency Placement with Parents (PWP) approval report should be completed by the social worker and approval sought from the relevant Strategic Lead/ Head of Service.

The social worker should clarify the expectations of the parent(s) and ensure the child is safeguarded and their needs are met during this temporary phase before the full approval is considered. See Appendix One: Proforma for Working Agreement with Parents – Unplanned Placement with parents.

The nominated Manager in Doncaster is a Strategic Lead/ Head of Service. The Strategic Lead/ Head of Service can approve an immediate placement without the necessary consultation and checks having been made provided that:

1. There are exceptional circumstances which justify an immediate placement, and it is consistent with the child’s welfare;
2. The child/ young person’s view has been obtained and their wishes and feelings considered;
3. There has been a full discussion with the parent, who agrees to the placement;
4. The accommodation has been inspected, including sleeping arrangements; and
5. Information has been obtained as to other people in the household aged 16 or over; this includes carrying out checks with the police and checking social care records.

The reasons for a decision to place a child/ young person on this basis must be fully recorded, approved by the Nominated Manager (Strategic Lead/ Head of Service), and a Case Decision added to the electronic record (Mosaic) by the Head of Service who took the decision.

The Case Decision and the Emergency PWP approval report should be added to the child’s case record (MOSAIC), where practicable within 24 hours of the child returning.

The social worker should inform the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO), within 24 hours, of the circumstances leading to the immediate placement with the parents. The IRO will then decide whether to hold an early review to discuss and agree a change of care plan.

Full Approval

Full approval of the PWP must occur within 20 working days of the date of the placement, in accordance with Care Planning Regulations 2010.

This requires the social worker to complete the Placement with Parents Assessment within 10 working days and submit this for consideration and approval.

As part of this assessment, formal consultation must take place with other agencies to obtain their views about the PWP, setting out the results of checks, enquiries, and consultation evidenced within the Placement with Parents Assessment. Consultations, whether by e-mail or by phone, should be recorded on the child’s record as a case note.

In Doncaster, The Placement with Parents Assessment is approved by the Strategic Lead/ Head of service, within 20 working days of the placement starting. The full approval should be recorded on the child’s record (MOSAIC) by the Strategic Lead/ Head of Service, as a Case Decision.

Until full PWP approval is given, the child/ young person should be seen at least weekly by the social worker, including unannounced visits. The child/ young person should be seen alone during the visit.

Thereafter, once full approval is given, the child should be seen at home in line with statutory visiting guidance for CLA.

If approval is not granted by the Strategic Lead/ Head of Service, a clear rational for this decision will be recorded on file and the recommendations for monitoring the child’s plan. 

In exceptional circumstances a child may be placed without the immediate need for the following of these procedures (please refer to Section 3). A child must not be placed with parents if that would be incompatible with an order as to contact under Section 34 Children Act 1989.

Social workers for children and young people looked after should remain open to the possibility that parents’ circumstances may change, risks may reduce, and some parents may be able to safely resume care of their child(ren).

Social workers should establish parents’ home and family circumstances by visiting the parents in their own home, in between Child in Care Reviews. This enables the social worker to develop a relationship with the parent and to become aware of improvements in circumstances that might indicate reunification is possible. For example – if a parent has successfully parented younger children, if a parent is having positive, unsupervised family time, if a parent has left a violent or controlling relationship, if a parent has successfully completed detox or other rehabilitation programme or has greatly improved mental health.

Where social workers consider that there is a potential for reunification with a parent, this should be planned carefully to ensure that this meets the needs of the child.

Note that where the parent with whom it is proposed to place the child is also a looked after child aged 16 or 17 years old who has been placed in an 'other arrangements' placement, Regulation 27A Care Planning, Placement and Case Reviews (England) Regulations 2010 (as amended) (prohibition on placing a child under 16 in 'other arrangements') does not apply to the child being placed, as the placement being considered for the child is a placement with parents under s.22C(2) Children Act 1989 rather than an 'other arrangements' placement for the child.

See also: Placements in Other Arrangements Procedure.

Before a child is placed, consultation must take place with the child, their parents (including a parent who is not the proposed carer of the child), any other person with parents responsibility and any significant family member of the child. Consultation must also take place with any professionals involved with the child. This could take place at the child’s Child in Care Review.

In some circumstance’s children / young people may return to parents for short stays e.g. for regular overnights, weekends, holidays, etc but remain in foster care the rest of the time. Where the plan provides for a series of short term stays of a child with a parent, the full placement with parents’ assessment and approval is required. Requirements to assess, consult, make checks etc. can be carried out once, rather than be repeated each time a stay at home takes place, provided that:

• All the placements take place within a 12-month period;
• No single placement is for a period of more than 4 weeks; and
• The total duration of all stays does not exceed 90 days;
• A Child and Family Assessment should be undertaken to assess the suitability of short-term placements and overnight stays, in addition to the completion of the Approval of Placement with Parents – Front Sheet;
• Consultation with other agencies should be undertaken;
• For children who are subject to an Interim or a Care Order, where the regular short stays are part of the agreed care plan the Social Worker will need to request approval for Placement with Parents approval from the Head of Service.

This arrangement will require a Placement with Parents Assessment to be completed.

Formal Review of the placement will follow statutory guidance and timescales. The placement of children in care with their parents is subject to the Review of the Child's Plan.

Any change of placement should be discussed with the Independent Reviewing Officer to decide whether the date of the next Looked after Review should be brought forward.

Where a Placement with Parents arrangement has been in place for 6 months or more and there are no plans for discharge of the care order, the matter should be taken to Permanence Panel, to determine whether the plan remains the right one for the child, to identify any barriers or impediments that prevent discharge of the Order, and to determine if any additional support is needed.

Wherever possible the decision to end a placement with the parents should be made at a Looked after Child Review and the ending should take place in a planned way. This plan should be endorsed by the Strategic Lead/ Head of Service.

In Re DE (A Child) [2014], the High Court ruled that not less than 14 days’ notice of a removal of the child should be given to the parents, save in an emergency.

The Court further stated that any removal of a child in circumstances where the child's welfare does not require immediate removal, or without proper consideration and consultation, is likely to be an unlawful interference with the rights of the parent and child under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In emergencies, the Strategic Lead/ Head of Service will make the decision. Legal advice should always be obtained. The Care Order gives the Local Authority power to enable the child to be removed by the Social Worker but this power should only be used after obtaining legal advice; the use of other orders (e.g. a Recovery Order, Section 50 Children Act 1989) might be appropriate in some circumstances.

A letter should also be sent to the parents and child explaining why the decision was made.

Placements with Parents arrangements can also be ended because the arrangement has worked well, the child is safeguarded and supported in the care of their parents, there is no evidence of significant harm and a care order is no longer needed.

At the point where it is felt that a care order is no longer required, this should be discussed and confirmed within the Looked After Child Review.

When it is agreed at the Child in care Review, the next step is to consider making an application to the court to discharge the Care Order. Initially, this should be discussed with Children’s Services legal section. The case should then be presented at Legal Gateway for approval, prior to making the application.

Following discharge of the Care Order, the child and their family should be supported by a Child in Need plan for a minimum period of 6 months (with the agreement of the parents) in line with best practice.

Before seeking emergency approval from Head of Service for placement with parents, the social worker should agree the following with the parents and set out in the form of a Working Agreement:

1. Parent understands the child remains on a care order and PR is shared with the Local Authority. Yes / No;
2. Details of the support and services to be provided to the parents and the child during the placement, including visiting arrangements;
3. The obligation on the parents to ensure the child’s health and education and other needs are met. Provide details of who is going to do what;
4. The obligation on the parents to notify the social worker of any change in circumstances including any intention to change address, or any changes in the household in which the child lives;
5. The obligation on the parents to notify the social worker of any serious incident involving the child such as being missing or other safeguarding issues;
6. The obligation on the parents to ensure that any information relating to the child or the child's family, foster carers, or any other person given in confidence is kept confidential and that such information is not disclosed to any person or shared on social media;
7. The circumstances in which it is necessary to obtain the prior approval of the Local Authority for the child to live in a household other than that of the parents;
8. The circumstances in which the placement of the child with the parents will be terminated e.g. if the decision following completion of the assessment is not to approve the placement, or if serious safeguarding concerns arise.