Delegated Authority: Putting it into practice What is it and why now? The previous government began a process which aimed to improve the quality of life for children and young people in care and promote their future life chances. The current government has continued this work including the introduction and revision of statutory regulation, minimum standards and guidance: • Care Planning Regulations 2010 • Fostering Service Regulations 2011 • Children Act 1989 - Guidance and Regulations Volume 4 (updated April 2011) • National Minimum Standards (NMS) for Fostering Services These have resulted in a number of significant changes, which came into effect in April 2011.

What does this mean? The new regulations, statutory guidance and NMS have been shaped by evidence from research, consultation and campaigns, resulting in important shifts in approach. One of these shifts recognises that foster carers play a key role in children’s daily lives, but that this has often gone unrecognised, leaving everyday decisions out of their hands. At the same time, fostered children and young people have expressed their wish to grow up as part of ‘normal’ families without the rules and bureaucracy, which can limit their opportunities and make them feel different. The response to these concerns is an attempt to promote foster carers’ involvement in care planning, as well as giving them the authority, like parents, to make more day-to-day decisions about the children and young people they care for – what is called delegated authority.

All fostered children and young people must now have a Placement Plan made either before or within five days of their placement. These plans must include clear arrangements for delegating authority to the foster carer which have been shared and understood by everyone involved (Care Planning Placement & Case Review (England) Regulations 2010). The standards and guidance are consistent and clear in emphasising that the authority to make the decisions which shape children’s everyday lives should lie, whenever possible, with the foster carer. There should be heightened attention to this delegation when the placement with the carer becomes long-term (Statutory Guidance 3.10).

Areas which the Placement Plan must cover are: Health and well-being • Carers must be aware of the responsibilities and decisions delegated to them and any circumstances where they need to obtain consent for medical treatment (NMS 6.5)

Leisure activities • Carers must be clear about what decisions they are able to make about daily arrangements including education, leisure activities, overnight stays, holidays and personal issues like haircuts (NMS 7.3) • Carers are expected to make ‘reasonable’ and ‘appropriate’ decisions about these issues, without having to seek consent unnecessarily (NMS 7.4)

• Carers should give permission for children and young people to take part in age appropriate peer activities as would normally be granted by any ‘reasonable’ parent. The carer should undertake decision-making and assessment of any risk to the child on the same basis as a ‘reasonable’ parent would do (NMS 7.5) • Children should be able to stay overnight, holiday with friends or friends and relatives of the foster carer and go on school trips if carers consider it appropriate. CRB checks should not normally be sought as a precondition. This Guidance supersedes and replaces LAC (2004)4 ‘Guidance on the delegation on overnight stays for looked after children’ (NMS 7.7)

• If the child or young person in placement visits or has a holiday with their foster carer’s friends or a relative, that individual does not need to be approved as a foster carer (Statutory Guidance 3.23)

Supporting and promoting contact • Carers must understand what decisions about contact have been delegated to them and be able to make these decisions in the child’s best interests (NMS 9.7)

Whose responsibility is it? The child’s social worker is responsible for preparing the Placement Plan which must include full and detailed information about the carer’s authority in all of the areas described in the previous section. It should be discussed and agreed with the foster carer who retains a copy. Good practice would suggest that the supervising social worker, child and in some circumstances the parent, might also be involved in this process.

The Placement Plan should be written by the child’s social worker before the placement begins, unless this is not ‘reasonably practical’. In this situation it must be drawn up within five days of the start of the placement. For placements made before 1 April 2011, a Placement Plan must be prepared as soon as is practical. The Placement Plan should be reviewed, at a minimum, every time the child’s Care Plan is reviewed. However, it should be seen as a ‘living document’ which might change between formal reviews in response to new circumstances, particular incidents or behaviour.

It is essential for foster carers to know and understand what authority has been delegated to them from the start of the placement. It is the child’s social worker who has responsibility for making sure this happens, and that these arrangements (and any future changes) are set out clearly in the Placement Plan, understood by all (including the child, and in some circumstances their parents) and regularly reviewed. This should always involve working closely and in partnership with the carer and their supervising social worker.

What does your fostering service need to do? • Make sure that you have clear policies and guidance on delegated authority which have been written in consultation with foster carers and young people. • Make sure that all of the children and young people placed with your foster carers have a Placement Plan which is clear about delegated authority, is understood by everyone involved and is regularly reviewed.

• Make sure that all of your foster carers have been prepared for, and understand this shift in practice. The standards and regulations expect them to behave as ‘good’, ‘reasonable’ and ‘responsible’ parents and to be able to find a balance in complex situations, e.g. promoting independence while keeping young people in their care safe. Are they all confident and ready to manage this? Do some of them require extra training or support? • Do all of your foster carers have the skills and experience to play an active role in making risk assessments? Are their supervising social workers prepared and ready to support their development in this area?

• Is there regular communication between your foster carers, supervising social workers and children’s social workers? And are these relationships good? This shift in practice will require sharing information, co-operation, trust and mutual respect between members of the team around the child. • Have you thought about what you will do if risks are taken and things go wrong? Is your service ready to cope with this situation? And is full insurance as well more general support for individual foster carers in place? • Do you have systems that will record, monitor, and provide evidence that this shift in practice has taken place across your service?

What else do independent fostering providers need to think about? • Good Placement Plans and risk assessments require accurate, up-to-date information about children’s histories and behaviour. Does your service receive this information from every local authority? What will you do in the future if you don’t receive the information that your foster carers and supervising social workers require? Ofsted has suggested that agencies might want to review their policies and procedures for dealing with situations where repeated requests for this information are not acted upon. • Good Placement Plans are ‘living’ documents which change over time and involve regular, excellent communication between children and the team around them. There are additional challenges when the child’s social worker and the carer and their social worker are from different organisations. How will you manage situations when relationships are not good?

• How will you manage situations when members of the team have different ideas about ‘good’ parenting and good practice? How can you ensure that disputes are resolved and foster carers are treated with respect by all members of the team – even when they work for a different organisation? • How will you ensure fostered children and young people are engaged in making these plans and decisions if their social workers are from other organisations? • How will you ensure that children’s families have information and understanding about delegated authority, and that any different views about the child’s day-to-day care are resolved? • Do your Panel members know about and understand this shift in practice? Do you need to provide additional training for this group?

• How can you make sure that the children’s local authority social workers have a good understanding about what foster carers from your service do, and their role and responsibilities in everyday care? • Being comfortable with, and confident about using delegated authority is easier for foster carers who have long-term placements. Some independent fostering providers are more usually involved in short-term work. If this is the case for your service, how will you support your short-term foster carers to manage and implement this shift? • It is important to be sure that there is clear understanding with local authorities about where responsibility lies if an incident occurs when carers have agreed that children or young people can stay overnight or for longer periods with friends or family members. Would your insurance cover these situations?

How can you promote good practice? It is important to remember that the intention of giving foster carers more say and more influence over children’s daily lives is to recognise their role and promote the best interests of the children and young people they care for. This is welcome, and provides a real opportunity to go beyond compliance to encouraging good practice: • Some foster carers will be more prepared and confident and will have excellent ideas about how to make this work. Learn from these carers and let them play an active role in any training, especially for those who feel less skilled or more anxious about change. • Foster carer support groups can drift or become a focus of unhappiness and discontent; alternatively, when managed

or facilitated they can provide a forum for sharing strategies, building confidence and a place where carers can learn from their peers. Think about how you might use these groups to share worries, identify concerns and develop strategies to implement delegated authority. • The new fostering NMS require carers to keep a training and development portfolio which show that they meet the Children’s Workforce Development Council’s Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Carers. Think about how you might use this material as evidence to show how delegation of authority is being exercised. You can also encourage carers to be creative as not all of their evidence has to rely on

written work. Again, the portfolios of more confident and experienced carers can be used by supervising social workers to develop other foster carers’ skills and identify their learning needs. • Recent research suggests that many local authority children’s social workers know little about fostering. Think about strategies you might use to improve their knowledge and understanding about what foster carers do. For example, you might offer placements with carers to students, organise open days or create opportunities for ‘shadowing’. In the long-term this might even bring the additional benefits of more positive working relationships, and above all, better outcomes for the children and young people you foster.

July 2011

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