Monitoring Visits to Children Subject to a Child Protection Plan

1. Introduction

The following procedures are minimum standards in ensuring that children who are subject to a Child Protection Plan are properly seen, including visited at home and monitored.

The Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Luton Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures.

Central Bedfordshire monitors that home visits are undertaken to see all children every 10 working days. This is a minimum standard for home visits to children subject to a Child Protection Plan. In some instances, cases the Child Protection Plan may require that the lead social worker has contact with a child more frequently.

There is also an expectation that children are to be seen by a member of the Core Group e.g. School, Nursery, Health Visitor and will be clearly indicated in the Child Protection Plan and reviewed at core group meetings. In the exceptional circumstances that it is deemed that this level of oversight is not required, for example the assessed risks have significantly decreased this will be recorded in the Child Protection Plan, or proposed changes of the Plan will be agreed by the Child Protection chairperson.

It is the Lead Social Worker’s responsibility to ensure all children with a Child Protection Plan should be visited within their homes as part of the continued monitoring and assessment of risk. During such visits, the child should be seen and spoken to alone (dependent on age).

2. Undertaking Home Visits

Social workers should be clear with the family regarding the purpose of the visit.

Social workers must ensure children’s bedrooms are seen according to the Child Protection Plan at least on alternate home visits.

During such visits, all children must be seen, and all children aged 4 above should be seen alone regularly and younger children may be seen alone (with parent's agreement) and babies awake at every visit. For this purpose, a child under 18 months is a baby and the focus should be on his or her interaction with, and attachment to his or her main carer. A child of 18 months old or a little older may not want to leave their main carer, but the social worker should attempt to engage him/her in some sort of play to see if they are capable of sustaining this. This may also give indications as to whether there are injuries/difficulties in movement. 

Following any social work visit, the ‘Record of a Child Protection visit’ should be completed for all children who have a Child Protection Plan - and explanation as to which children were seen with their parent/carer, or alone, or not present.

Visits to children should be considered in supervision to include ensuring the child is seen alone (dependent upon age) regularly, reasons for children not being seen (alone) and evidenced management oversight of this.

3. Home Visits Where Children are not seen

If a home visit to a child subject to a Child Protection Plan is undertaken according to the Child Protection Plan and the child is not seen, the Lead Social Worker should discuss this with a Team Manager, within 24 hours. The Team Manager will assess the risks and take emergency action if the child is deemed to be at immediate risk of harm or set a timeframe for a further visit to be undertaken at least within 5 working days either by the Lead Social Worker or a duty worker.

If a child is still not seen after the further visit is undertaken, the Lead Social Worker should discuss this again with a Team Manager within 24 hours.

The Lead Social Worker should undertake checks with other agencies to establish if the child has been seen during the last 10 working days whilst attending school or nursery, or whether any other professional during the course of his or her duties has seen the child.

The Lead Social Worker or duty social worker should attempt to make contact with the family directly or through any other agency and ensure that a visit is undertaken within 24 hours of the last visit.

If the Lead Social Worker has difficulty obtaining direct access to the child, the relevant Practice Manager or Head of Service, and the Chair of the Child of the Child Protection Conference should be informed as well as other core group members.

In these circumstances formal agreement must be reached that a member of another agency carry out the face to face contact, or that a Review Child Protection Conference is called. Such a decision must be recorded and authorised by managers of the agencies concerned.

4. Action to be taken if a Child is not seen by a Social Worker within 20 calendar days

If a child is not seen by a Lead Social Worker during a period of 20 calendar days, the Team Manager must assess the risks according to the concerns relating to that specific child/ren and decide if emergency action is required. If the risk is not assessed to be immediate, Team Manager should make contact with the family either by telephone, email or letter within 3 working days to set up a meeting with the parent within 3 working days of the contact or letter being sent.

The Lead Social Worker and Team Manager should meet with the parent and discuss the importance of social work visits to monitor any child with a Child Protection Plan. A written agreement should be drawn up regarding future contact with the child/ren including home visits by social work staff.

The Lead Social Worker should inform the Core Group of the difficulties in obtaining direct access to the child or children.

5. Action to be taken if a Child is not seen for 30 working days  by any Agency

Where the child has not been seen for 30 working days by any agency involved with the family, the Child Protection Chair should be notified and an urgent Core Group meeting should be set up, chaired by a Team Manager to discuss an action plan for seeing the children / family. If necessary, alternative strategies should be put in place to establish the best opportunity to engage with the family, for example through a teacher or health visitor, if this brings a solution to seeing the child.

The Lead Social Worker should also discuss this action plan with the Conference Chair who is responsible for chairing the Child Protection Review Conference for the particular child.

6. Recording Home Visits and Contacts With Children

The Lead Social Worker must maintain a record of a Child Protection Visit for every home visit. Best practice is that the record will be written in the child's voice. The record needs to indicate:

• Time and date of the visit stating who was present, confirming the Lead Social Worker spoke with the child, whether the child was seen alone or providing a clear reason why not;
• Any information gained or observations made during the visit relevant to the identified risks to the child. If the view about the risks has worsened greatly this should be discussed with a manager as soon as possible;
• Circumstances of all family members including details of any new adults or young people present in the home;
• Specific information about key subjects such as sleeping arrangements and if the bedroom/s for the child/ren were seen;
• Factual reports of the child’s presentation and behaviour, including the child’s wishes and feelings;
• Any new incidents or injuries which must be subject to full Child Protection Enquiries.

The Lead Social worker should complete a case note for every contact with a child which is not at a home visit clearly indicating the type of contact e.g. direct work and a title which indicates information about the contact e.g. “visit to a child at school”. The record needs to include details of where the child was seen and if they were seen alone. It also needs to record the child’s presentation and behaviour and their wishes and feelings.

7. Changes to Frequency of Visits Between Child Protection Conferences

Any proposed changes to the frequency of visits and/or contact with children as laid out in the Child Protection Plan, between Child Protection Conferences, must be discussed with and agreed by the Child Protection Chair, who should complete an IRO/Child protection case note. Where there is a difference of professional opinion, the matter should be referred to respective line managers in order that some agreed way forward can be agreed. However no child subject to a Child Protection plan should be visited at home less than every 10 working days.

Any changes to frequency of visits between Child Protection Conferences must be recorded either as an IRO/CP chair case note or Management decision in supervision.

8. Visiting When There is a Step Down from Child Protection Plan to Child in Need Plan

The visiting/contact arrangements need to be agreed by the professional network and Child Protection Chair at the conference where the Child Protection Plan is ended and a Child in Need Plan established. Usually there would only be a gradual reduction in visiting as the family and children will, most likely, still be in need of continued support. This is especially true where there have been considerable concerns regarding risks to the child/ren or their vulnerability, for example:

• Where the children have been subject to a Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time;
• Have been subject to a Child Protection plan for over 15 months; or
• Where there have been specific concerns such a Child Exploitation.

Contact with the children should not be reduced unless there are clear indications that the family/protective network in the community are managing the risks and will be included in the Child in Need Plan.