Definition of Looked After Children (CLA)
Children and young people who are being accommodated, or who have been taken into care, by a local authority (i.e. under Section 20, or Sections 31 or 38 of the Children Act 1989) are legally defined as being ‘looked after’ by the local authority.
All local authorities have responsibilities for children who are looked after (CLA) and act as a ‘corporate parent’. They must safeguard and promote the welfare of all children and young people they are looking after.
All CLA will have a Care Plan devised with the Social Worker. This may also include a Health plan.
Health Assessment
A health assessment is a regular check-up for all children and young people in care, carried out by a doctor or nurse. Once completed, the social worker will use this, together with any other medical information such as eye or dental records to create a health plan.
Refer to: Health Assessment for looked after children for further information.
Surrey Virtual School and Personal Education Plans
The education of all looked after children is overseen by Surrey Virtual School (SVS) who aim to promote the educational achievement of children in Surrey's care. Each child in Surrey's care has a dedicated Education Support Officer (ESO) who works to ensure they have a suitable school place, access to Pupil Premium Plus funding and a high quality Personal Education Plan (PEP) in place to monitor their educational achievement.
A PEP meeting is held termly by the child’s Social Worker and the Designated Teacher for looked after children from their school. The PEP should outline a child’s individual strengths and needs and any support they need to make progress and fulfil their potential. PEPs should also highlight any particular areas of need and indicate if further assessment is required to identify if the child has special educational needs and/ or a disability.
Assessment of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
If it has been agreed that an Education, Health and Care needs assessment is required, the assessment must be carried out by the authority where the child lives (i.e. ordinarily resident), which may not be the same as the authority that looks after that child.
If a looked after child is being assessed for special educational needs or disabilities, in Surrey, they will be assigned an Education Health Care and Needs Assessment (EHCNA) officer, who will take account of the information set out in the Care Plan.
The EHCNA officer will also seek advice from other relevant professionals involved in the child/young person’s life due to them being looked after. These will include:
Social Worker
The looked after child’s social worker (in close consultation with the SVS) should be asked to provide information and advice as part of the needs assessment process. Views should also be sought from the child’s carer who will advocate for the looked after child.
Designated Doctor or Nurse
A medical expert, typically a paediatrician, who leads on the health aspects of a child's care.
Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO)
The appointment of an IRO is a statutory requirement for local authorities under the Adoption and Children Act 2002. IROs make an important contribution to the goal of significantly improving outcomes for looked after children. Their primary focus is to quality assure the care planning process for each child, and to ensure that his or her current wishes and feelings are given full consideration.
Designated Teacher in school
All maintained schools and academies and free schools must appoint a Designated Teacher for looked after children. Where that role is carried out by a person other than the SEND Co-ordinator (SENCO), then the Designated Teachers should work closely with the SENCO to ensure that the implications of a child being both looked after and having SEND are fully understood by relevant school staff.
Annual Review
If a child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) an Annual Review of the plan should happen annually. This will involve the child or young person’s Education Health Care Plan Coordination Officer (ECO) and education setting. For a CLA where appropriate this should coincide with one of the child or young person’s reviews in their Care Plan. This could be done as part of the review of a child/young person’s Personal Education Plan (PEP) which feeds into the review of the wider Care Plan.
Social workers and SEND teams work closely together to ensure that transitions from being looked after to returning home are managed effectively, to ensure continuing provision.
Surrey treat CLA as high priority in terms of:
- carrying out an EHC needs assessment,
- issuing an EHCP,
- carrying out Annual Reviews,
- processing the transfer of an EHCP between local authorities and
- finding a suitable school placement.
Moving between local authorities
A significant proportion of looked after children live with foster carers or in a children’s home and may attend schools in a different local authority area to the local authority that looks after them. If Surrey have placed a child in another authority, we will review that authority’s Local Offer and discuss with the equivalent SEND team professionals to ensure a suitable placement is secured.
If a Surrey looked after child with an EHCP moves to another local authority, their EHCP will be transferred to the authority in which they are now living (ordinarily resident). The local authority in which they live is responsible for providing a suitable education and the SVS and Surrey SEND teams will work with other local authority SEND teams to ensure this is done with focus and without delay.
Transition from Children Services to Adult Social Care
When children reach 16 years the health and care support they receive from Children’s Services is transferred to Adult Social Care. For more information regarding this transition refer to: Moving from Children's services to adult social care services