3.2.7 Reunification Policy and Procedure

1. Background

National Statistics taken from Ofsted 2021 report states, out of the 12 million children living in England, just under 400,000 (3%) are in the social care system at any one time. More than 80,000 of these children are children in care. As of 31 March 2021, across England, there were 151 Local Authorities responsible for ensuring and overseeing the effective delivery of social care services for children.

There were 2,706 children’s homes of all types as of 31 March 2021, a 10% increase (246 homes) from the previous year (2,460). 2022 saw a greater increase in children’s homes than the previous year, when there was a 7% increase. These homes were registered for 12,732 places, a 5% increase from 12,175 as of 31 March 2020. In the previous year, the number of places had only grown by 1% (12,035 to 12,175 places).

Returning home to a parent or other relative is the most common outcome for children who are in care. In England and Wales in 2019/20, of those that left care, 29% of Children Looked After return to the care of their birth family (NICE 2021).

However, research has shown that, for many children who return home, this breaks down and children can experience further maltreatment/ trauma which results with them subsequently returning back into the care system.

Research indicates a number of factors which contribute to these high rates of reunification breakdown including: lack of (or poor quality) assessments; passive case management; a lack of appropriate services and support for children and parents; and inadequate planning and preparation for return home and monitoring post return (Farmer and Parker 1991; Biehal 2006; Farmer 2009; Farmer et al 2011; Wade et al 2011; Farmer and Lutman 2012; Thoburn et al 2012; Farmer and Wijedasa 2013 and Farmer 2014).

More recent research tells us that Looked after children leaving care most commonly return home to their birth parents (29%), but two-thirds of children who return home to birth parents re-entre care within 5 years (NICE 2021).

2. The Reunification Framework

Lincolnshire Children’s Services have adopted the Signs of Safety and the Department of Education NSPCC and University of Bristol Reunification Frameworks. These frameworks support robust trajectory planning and include assessments and safety planning in order to maximize chances of success. Social workers should refer to these documents on Lincolnshire County Council’s sharepoint; they contain a wealth of tools and resources. For information on sharepoint please refer to: Signs of Safety, Restorative Practice and Family Finding. Alternatively, resources and training are on Lincs2learn.

Where care proceedings have been issued, the East Midlands Regional PLO Toolkit should be accessed to inform any relevant plans for reunification. In this chapter, the procedure for using the framework is explained with links to the resources.

It is critical that assessment of risk, protective factors and analysis of parenting capacity changes are seen as continuous live activities throughout the entire process. Please refer to the Signs of Safety trajectory planning for guidance when formulating your plan of assessment and transition for the child and their family. Working collaboratively with the child/young person, parents, and other professionals including foster carers and residential staff teams with any reunification plan will be critical to the success of the plan. Care plans should be reviewed robustly by the Independent Reviewing Officers.

Social Workers should critically evaluate the parents/carers’ ability to make and sustain effective change and set realistic and achievable timescales, ensuring that sufficient support and guidance is offered along the way. The Valuing Care tool supports the assessments and needs of the child and must be reviewed in line with the planned trajectory and statutory processes.

In Lincolnshire, we have developed the Reunification Policy and procedure to align with our existing policy and procedures. Throughout the reunification activity all the statutory processes for children in care must continue to be followed.

Please refer to the workflow maps:

• Reunification Safety Planning Road Map;
• Reunification Care Order Workflow Map;
• Reunification Section 20 Workflow Map.

3. Identification and Decision Making

The reunification framework can be implemented with all children in care where a return home is an option. The framework can apply to:

• Children on the edge of care;
• Children who are accommodated by the Local Authority under Section 20 Children Act 1989;
• Children who are subject to Section 31 Care Orders Children Act 1989: and Children who are subject to Section 38 Interim Care Orders Children Act 1989.

Please note where care proceedings have been issued a care plan of reunification must be approved by the Court, have the scrutiny and oversight of the Child’s Guardian and the child’s Independent Reviewing Officer who will seek to ratify a plan for reunification after thorough scrutiny of the proposed plan.

Reunification can and should be considered for any child in the care of the Local Authority. There should always be a discussion about reunification prior to every child in care review and if it is felt this is option for the child and family a proposed trajectory should then be agreed as part of the care plan update. It is important that parents understand what is expected from them and what assessments will be undertaken within clear timescales. The trajectory should be actively reviewed in supervision and during Child in Care reviews.

The Valuing Care tool is an integral part of this process as it will identify the child’s needs and will inform any intervention required to enable the parent to reflect on any gaps in their skills and knowledge. Identifying a care plan of reunification can be considered by a range of practitioners including the allocated Social Worker, Practice Supervisor, Team Manager, Independent Reviewing Officer, or any other professional working with the family. Parents can also request consideration for a plan of reunification at any time.

Should reunification be an option for the child there should be a case discussion with the Team Manager, and the trajectory should be recorded on a case note highlighting what needs to be completed and by when in order to move towards success. The trajectory should be kept under constant review with updates being recorded in supervision.

3.1 Voice of the Child

The voice of the child should be clearly documented and interwoven into the care planning process. If any plan of reunification is to be successful it is important that the child understands their journey and is included in conversations about returning home/to the care of a parent, person with parental responsibility or connected person. An advocate should be offered to the child where considered appropriate and under any circumstances where there are opposing views about reunification. Once the child has returned home their voice should be captured within statutory visit records and their review. It is important to ensure the child’s needs are being met and they are fully aware of the next steps which may be to discharge the care order.

3.2 Identify Risk and Safety Planning

The signs of safety tool kit should be used to identify the risks and support with safety planning. The NSPCC Reunification Practice framework guidance can be used to categorise any risk and will compliment safety planning. Please refer to the trajectory example for guidance (Please see toolkit and resources). This work should not be completed in isolation and must include the child, family and the wider network that has been identified through assessments and include professionals where appropriate.

The use of professional support is essential and central to strengthening the support around a child as they initially return to their network. Whilst the overall aim should be for families and their support networks to be safe and sustainable, research tells us that if professional support reduces too quickly, the chance of maintaining reunification also reduces.

Consideration should always be given to the range of services available such specialist, targeted and universal. It is anticipated that initially specialist and target services may be considered to provide a higher level of support reducing over time to universal services as safety increases and the family become less reliant on professional support. Good multi agency arrangements ensure that key partner agencies are central to the planning and implementation of support plans across key areas of need.

Safety plans should be recorded in the child’s care plan so this can be robustly reviewed. The safety plan should always be discussed during visits to the child/family to ensure that is current and relevant to the identified risk. The social worker should also use supervision to review the safety plan.

In order to maximise success and enhance safety planning it is essential that an informed network is built around the child and family. The use of the Family Group Conferencing (FGC) Service and / or Family Networking Meetings (FNM) is critical in bringing together a group of people who know and understand the risks so that a clear plan can be formulated to support a return to the family network. When formulating the plan, it is important for the network to understand the bottom lines or non-negotiables. Prior to a FGC being held the Social Worker should brief the FGC Coordinator of any expectations so that they are clear when engaging the network in safety planning. If a FNM is used, then the Social Worker should map out the expectation to the network.

4. Planning and Assessment

The trajectory must identify the assessments to be undertake and the time scales. Any assessment must consider the previous and current chronologies so that all risks are identified and understood. Any assessments within the proceedings that make recommendations for work with parents to be completed before they could successfully parent safety must be understood and considered. The social worker will need to read and digested the previous court documentation, and child in care review reports.

A planning meeting should take place with the family so they are aware of the planned trajectory, assessment timeframes, identified risks and safety planning that will need to be completed.

The child must be seen alone so they are also aware of the plan, any assessments to be undertaken, risks and safety planning.

The progress of assessments should be kept under review in supervision with any significant concerns being discussed with the Team Manager.

There needs to be consideration of other siblings, including separation/reunification, the likely impact and any risks that might be posed. Where a child returning to their network has siblings they will not reside with, consideration should be given to promoting and maintaining these relationships.

4.1 Ratifying the Decision

The plan of reunification will be discussed at every Child in Care review. The IRO will keep the trajectory under constant review which may include planned assessments. Once assessments have been completed and concluded as positive, the IRO should read all of these prior to ratifying the plan of reunification. Once the child has returned home a Child in Care review should be arranged within 20 working days due to the child’s change of circumstances.

4.2 Reunification for any Child Accommodated under S.20

Please refer to the Ceasing to Look After a Child Procedure.

4.3 Reunification for any Children on an Interim Care Order.

Please refer to the East Midlands Reginal PLO Toolkit.

4.4 Specialist Assessment

To support the reunification plan, the social worker will need to complete the Specialist Assessment on MOSAIC, adding the placement with parents’ assessment and appropriate letters within this step. This should be completed when any child subject to a Care Order is to have overnight stays or a move home with a parent or carer who hold parental responsibility. This assessment must be approved by the Children’s Services Assistant Director, prior to any overnight stays. The parents’ home and child’s bedroom must be seen as part of this process. A safety plan must be agreed and recorded within the assessment as well as the child’s care plan. As part of this assessment a PNC and agency checks should be completed on anyone in the household who is over 18 years of age.

Any child with a planned trajectory to move and live with a family member who does not hold parental responsibility should refer to the Placement with Connected Person under Regulation 24 procedure.

It is the responsibility of the social worker to record the change of placement and to inform the Independent Reviewing Officer of any moves so an early review can be held. For any child returning home whilst care proceedings are still in place, please refer to the PLO guidance.

If a child who was accommodated under S.20 has returned home, please refer to the Ceasing to Look After a Child procedure.

5. Discharging the Care Order

Once the child has been living at home for at least 6 months and there is positive evidence the child’s needs are being met consistently, the discharge of the Care Order should be planned.

The primary aim of any placement with parents is to test out reunification and the child should not remain under any order for longer than necessary. If the Care Order is discharged the usual procedures should apply. It is important to remember once the discharge of the care order has been agreed, if continued support to the child and parent is required this should be the least intrusive. This could be continued support under S.17 Child in Need or Team around the Child.

6. Leaving Care Service

It is important to notify the child and their family of their entitlement to a Leaving Care service when we are looking at reunification. This entitlement will need to be documented within the discharge report and in care and pathway plans when S.20 agreements are coming to an end. Please refer to the Leaving Care and Transitions Procedure for leaving care entitlements.

7. Visits to the child

Once the Specialist Assessment has been authorised by the Children’s Services Assistant Director and the child has returned home, statutory visits commence as per usual procedure. Where a care order has been made in relation to a child under Section 31 of the Children Act (1989) and the child is placed back home they must be visited within one week and then at intervals of no more than six weeks. The child’s individual circumstances should reflect the level of visiting. During visits the Social Worker must see the sleeping arrangements for the child and should see and speak to the child alone unless the child is of sufficient age and understanding to refuse, or where the social worker considers it inappropriate to do so (having regard to the child's age and understanding). Any difficulties in communication must be identified and appropriate specialist resources considered to allow the child to express their wishes and feelings.

8. Review Process

Children need to come into care for a number of reasons, however in Lincolnshire we believe that parents have the ability to change and should always been given the opportunity and support to do so. Research suggests that when ‘looked after children’ are compared with children who have not been in care, they tend to have poorer outcomes in a number of areas, such as educational attainment and mental and physical health (Rahilly and Hendry, 2014). Reunification should always be discussed and considered within the review process, assessments need to be robust, and risks understood to ensure good safety planning. The trajectory should focus on the discharge of the Care Order to allow the child and their family to lead a family life without statutory intervention.