The purpose of a Child Protection Review Conference is:
The conference must consider all the children in the household, even if concerns are only being expressed about one child.
The Child Protection Review Conference must decide explicitly if the child is still at continued risk of Significant Harm and hence whether there is an ongoing need for a Child Protection Plan. The same decision-making procedure should be used to reach a judgment on this issue as is used at the Initial Child Protection Conference.
If the Child Protection Plan continues, the relevance of the Category of Significant Harm must be reviewed.
If the child no longer requires a Child Protection Plan, the conference should consider what support may benefit the child and family, who is responsible for providing that support and how it should be reviewed on a regular basis. See Section 7, Criteria for Discontinuing the Child Protection Plan.
Using the ICS Pro Forma, the Keyworker should provide a typed and dated written report including a chronology of significant events, which must be endorsed by his or her manager. This report must be forwarded to the Review and Child Protection Unit five days prior to the Child Protection Review Conference.
Information on all children in the household must be provided and the report should be clear about which children are the subjects of the conference.
The Conference will require as part of a written report:
The report should be provided to parents and older children where appropriate 5 working days before the Review Conference to enable any factual inaccuracies to be identified, amended and areas of disagreement noted. Comments or suggestions made by the child/parents as a result of seeing the report must be included or conveyed verbally to the conference.
In exceptional circumstances where confidential information cannot be shared with the child or parent(s) beforehand, the Keyworker should seek guidance from their manager, who may wish to consult the Conference Chair.
The report should be provided to the Conference Chair at least 5 working days in advance of the Child Protection Review Conference.
All contributors should provide a written report to the conference which should be made available to those attending, preferably in advance of the conference.
Attendees should include those directly involved with the child and family in the same way as at an Initial Child Protection Conference. See Initial Child Protection Conferences Procedure. It is important that any Police involvement with the child, family or household between Conferences is brought to the attention of the Child Protection Review Conference. Therefore the Police must always provide written information to the meeting. Where domestic abuse or a sexual offender is a concern, Police attendance would be expected.
Members of the Initial Child Protection Conference will be informed at the end of the Conference of the date of the Child Protection Review Conference, which will also be recorded in the minutes. However, newly involved professionals will be invited directly to the Review Conference by the Keyworker; the invitation will be followed up in writing by the Child Protection and Review Unit.
The Review and Child Protection Unit will be responsible for the preparation of the minutes (see Section 9, Minutes).
The Keyworker will advise parents, children and foster carers, and will have the same responsibilities as a social worker prior to an Initial Child Protection Conference – see Section 11, Initial Child Protection Conferences Procedure.
Each Child Protection Review Conference will set the date for the next review and note this date in the minutes.
If a Child Protection Review Conference decides that a child no longer requires a Child Protection Plan, the parents will be informed in person, if present at the meeting and in writing by the Conference Chair. Any dissenting views or disagreements with this decision will be recorded in the minutes. See Section 7, Criteria for Discontinuing the Child Protection Plan
Every Child Protection Review Conference should consider explicitly whether the child continues to be at risk of Significant Harm and therefore continues to need safeguarding through a formal Child Protection Plan.
If not, then the child should no longer be the subject of a Child Protection Plan. See also Section 7, Criteria for Discontinuing the Child Protection Plan
The fact that the Child Protection Plan is discontinued should never lead to the automatic withdrawal of services and the Child Protection Review Conference can recommend that services should continue to remain available to the child/family under Walsall’s Child Concern Model.
The Keyworker must discuss with parents and child/ren what services continue to be needed, based on the re-assessment of the child and family and a Child's Plan should be made where appropriate if support continues.
It may be useful for regular meetings to be convened following this decision to provide a formal opportunity to review the provision of services to the child and family and to facilitate ongoing multi-agency support.
A child should no longer be the subject of a Child Protection Plan if:
In the case of the third and fourth criteria as listed above, it is permissible for the Manager of the Review and Child Protection Unit to remove a child’s name from the Record of Children with a Child Protection Plan without the need to convene a Child Protection Review Conference, but only when s/he has consulted with relevant agencies present at the conference which first decided that a Child Protection Plan was required. The decision and the outcome of the consultation should be recorded in the child protection section of the child’s file.
When a child is no longer the subject of a Child Protection Plan as a result of a Child Protection Review Conference decision, notification should be sent, as a minimum, to all those agencies’ representatives involved with the child and those who were invited to attend the Child Protection Conference that led to the Child Protection Plan.
The Conference Chair should also write to the parents and the child (depending on his/her age and understanding) advising them of the decision.
Where a child is Looked After, decisions regarding the continued need for a Child Protection Plan should be made alongside consideration of the Care Plan. The Care Plan will be the primary means of safeguarding the safety and welfare of the child. A Child Protection Plan should only be necessary as a supplement in the following circumstances:
The first Child Protection Review Conference to take place once the child has become Looked After must consider the justification for the child being subject of both a Care Plan and a Child Protection Plan.
When a Looked After Child is no longer living in the situation which gave rise to the child protection concerns that resulted in him/her having a Child Protection Plan and there is no current plan for the child to be returned, his/her Child Protection Plan may be discontinued. The decision to discontinue a Child Protection Plan must be agreed by a Child Protection Review Conference.
The Looked After Child who has a Child Protection Plan will also be subject to statutory child care review procedures.
Looked After Reviews and Child Protection Review Conferences are separate meetings with different purposes. The plans made at Looked After Reviews must be consistent with the Child Protection Plan and the timing of such reviews should usually be arranged so as to follow the Review Conference.
Where a Looked After Review proposes the return of a child with a Child Protection Plan to his or her parents or carers or any other change which might significantly affect the level of risk, the decision (unless this formed part of the original Child Protection Plan) must not be implemented until it has been considered by a Child Protection Review Conference.
Where there is disagreement within the subsequent Child Protection Review Conference, the situation must be brought to the attention of the social worker's manager, who in consultation with the Review and Child Protection Unit Manager, will decide whether or not to proceed with the plan made at the Looked After Review. See also Resolution of Professional Disagreements Procedure.
Where a child with a Child Protection Plan is no longer Accommodated as a result of being removed by his/her parents or where a Looked After Child is returned to his or her parents or carers in court proceedings against the recommendation of the local authority, a Child Protection Review Conference must be convened to consider the risks to the child and the implications for the Child Protection Plan.
If necessary and appropriate, the local authority must take action to protect the child prior to the Child Protection Review Conference. This must not be delayed until after the Child Protection Review Conference is convened if an enquiry or assessment indicates that it is required sooner.
Minutes will be recorded by the Review and Child Protection Unit. These are not a verbatim record but summaries of points arising from each contribution set out in an agreed format.
A record of the decisions and recommendations made will be sent to all those who attended the conference within three working days.
Minutes and decisions will be posted directly to all those who were invited and attended the conference within twenty eight working days of the meeting.
Minutes to family members will be sent directly unless the conference identifies particular reasons why this should not happen. For example:
The Minutes would be expected to address the following:
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