The Children and young people provider panel has been established to ensure effective planning and decision making in relation to children and young people who are at risk of becoming looked after by the Local Authority, or already looked after and require a new or different placement.
it looks into all cases where
- A social work single assessment has been carried out and where the assessing social worker, the Team manager and the Service manager have discussed the reasons why the child or young person may need to become looked after.
- Children already looked after in-house where there is a request for a child / young person to move to a Residential placement, IFA or Out of Borough placement following discussions with the Team Manager and Service Manager.
- In exceptional circumstances, to ratify changes in placements that took place in immediate emergencies outside of the panel process.
The Panel will consider:
- Whether the child or young person meets the agreed criteria for becoming looked after, or moving placement, including an application for a secure unit.
- Ensure all other options have been fully explored and that appropriate procedures have been followed.
This includes:
- Identifying whether all child in need/family support options have been tried
- Identifying, if the child does not need to be removed from home, whether all possible family based options, including the use of a residence order have been fully explored
- Agreeing whether the child should become looked after and if so the outline care plan
- Ensuring resources are used to best effect to meet the needs of the child
- Ensure all options have been explored to support current placement, before considering a placement move of any category.