Child Protection Conferences

A Child Protection Conference brings together family members (and the child/ren where appropriate), supporters/Advocates and those practitioners most involved with the child and family to make decisions about the child's future safety, health and development. If concerns relate to an unborn child, any conference should be held prior to birth at 28 weeks pregnancy.

The tasks for all conferences are to:

• Consider the information presented to the conference and, taking into account the child's present situation and information about their family history and present and past family functioning, to decide whether the child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm;
• Bring together and analyse, in an inter-agency setting the information which has been obtained about:
  • The child's developmental needs;
  • The child's wishes and feelings; and
  • The parents' capacity to respond to the child's needs to ensure their safety and promote the child's health and development within the context of their wider family and environment.
• Recommend what future action and timescales are required in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child, including the child becoming the subject of a Child Protection Plan, what the planned outcomes are for the child and how best to intervene to achieve these;
• Confirm a lead Social Worker from Local Authority Children's Social Care for the child, or any child in the same family who requires a Child Protection Plan. The Social Worker is responsible for ensuring that the Child Protection Plan is developed, co-ordinated and fully implemented to timescale;
• Identify a Core Group of practitioners and family members to develop, implement and review the progress of the Child Protection Plan;
• Consider the need to inform the relevant Embassy if the child has links to a foreign country;
• Put in place a contingency plan if the agreed actions are not completed and/or circumstances change impacting on the child's safety and welfare.

The Local Authority Children's Social Care Team Manager in consultation with a Child Protection Manager is responsible for making the decision to convene a child protection conference and the reasons for calling the conference (or not calling a conference following completion of a Section 47 Enquiry) must be recorded against each child.

A conference may be convened, by agreement with a Child Protection Manager, if requested by a practitioner, supported by a senior manager / named or designated practitioner where there is disagreement between agencies. The Derby and Derbyshire Dispute Resolution and Escalation Policy (see Documents Library, Guidance Documents Section) should be used.

An Interim Supervision Order may be issued at any point during care proceedings, and a Supervision Order at the conclusion of care proceedings.

The following applies to Derby City and Derbyshire County:

Children who are subject to a Supervision Order following the outcome of care proceedings and remain with a parent, will be placed on a Child Protection Plan. Normally, the Safeguarding Plan should continue at least until the order expires. However, exceptionally, where a core group and Child Protection Manager are unanimous that there is no further risk of significant harm, a decision may be made at a review conference to cease a child protection plan. (See Section 4.9 Supervision Orders for further information).

Children who are subject to a Supervision Order following the outcome of care proceedings and are placed with an alternative carer, will be treated as Children in Need and a Child in Need plan should be drawn up, in line with the Care Plan agreed in Court. (See Section 4.9, Supervision Orders for further information).

A conference will be chaired by a Child Protection Manager and should consist of only those people who have a significant contribution to make due to their knowledge of the child and family or their expertise relevant to the case. This is likely to include:

• The child and/or their representative / Advocate;
• Parents and those with parental responsibility and/or Advocate (particularly where parents have a learning disability or mental health problems);
• Upon discussion with the conference chair, significant family members including the wider family;
• Foster carers (current or former);
• Residential care staff;
• Local Authority Children's Social Worker who have led and been involved in an assessment of the child and family and their line manager where necessary;
• Other Local Authority practitioners who have supported the Care Plan;
• Midwifery services, where the conference concerns an unborn or new-born child;
• Health practitioners involved with the child should attend the initial conference (e.g. Health Visitor, School Nurse, Paediatrician, GP and CAMHS) and at subsequent conferences the health representative should consist of the nominated lead health practitioner along with other agreed health staff, as relevant to the health needs of the child;
• A discussion needs to take place at the point of a strategy discussion/meeting in identifying health practitioners who are currently working with the child and who are best placed to attend the initial child protection conference. This is important to ascertain for children over 5 years as a School Nurse may not be currently working with the young person;
• GP's/Paediatricians invited to attend conferences and submit a written report; it is important to understand availability of GP's and Paediatricians at the strategy discussion/meeting and consideration given, if they are unable to attend in person, that a teleconference facility is available;
• Education or early years staff involved with the child, including Education Welfare Officers;
• Other agencies involved with the child including the Youth Offending Team or third sector organisations;
• Practitioners involved with the parents or other family members e.g. Family Support Services, Adult Mental Health Services, Substance Misuse Services, Domestic Abuse Advisors, Adult Offenders Services i.e. National Probation Service, GP's;
• Practitioners with expertise in the particular type of harm suffered by the child or in the child's particular condition e.g. a disability or long term illness;
• Those involved in investigations:
  • The Paediatrician who conducted the medical assessment;
  • The Police should also be invited to all initial conferences whether they have been involved in the investigation or not (attendance will be prioritised when there is an on-going investigation otherwise relevant information will be shared). It is expected in all cases they will provide a report.
• When there is an individual subject to MAPPA arrangements, the lead agency for the MAPPA plan (MOSOVO/Probation);
• Housing Providers;
• A representative of the armed services, in cases where there is a service connection;
• Any other relevant practitioner or service provider.

Either the Local Authority Social Worker and/or Child Protection Manager may seek legal advice prior to the conference.

Solicitors attending conferences must comply with the Law Society guidance: Attendance of solicitors at local authority Children Act meetings 2013.

A practitioner observer can only attend with the prior consent of the Chair and the family, and must not take part in discussions or decision-making.

Practitioners who are invited but unable to attend for unavoidable reasons should:

• Inform the conference administrator;
• Submit a written report to the conference chair and family; and
• Consider with the Child Protection Manager if a well-briefed agency representative to attend and speak to the report is required.

Report templates for initial and review child protection conferences can be found in the Documents Library, Report Forms and Templates.

Agencies are expected to share a report about the child and family in written form with the family, child and other agencies as appropriate, 2 days in advance of the initial child protection conference and 3 days in advance of the review child protection conference, regardless of whether they are able to attend the conference. Where possible, the sharing of reports should take place on a face to face basis and with direct discussion between the author and the family. Reports should be shared in a secure and confidential manner.

Babies and young children should not normally be present during the conference as the environment is often emotionally charged and could further harm the child. Parents can often feel anxious and distressed during these meetings and may not be aware of the impact that this can have on their child. Parents should be assisted to make arrangements for their care where necessary.

All children should be encouraged to give their wishes and feelings and where appropriate attend part of their conference or at the very minimum share their views with the Child Protection Manager.

Location, timing and safety of conferences

It is imperative that all children, both parents (in addition to a person with legal/parental responsibility at the time) have the opportunity to attend and participate in child protection conferences. This may be in person, in writing or through their agreed advocate. No conference should go ahead without the views of children and their parents.

All Child Protection Conferences will be held in local authority locations which are accessible to families and at a suitable time of day. Wherever possible, Local Authority Children's Social Care should provide parents with the opportunity to utilise appropriate day care for their children to enable their attendance at the conference.

The location and timing of the conference should be planned to ensure maximum attendance from the most critical attendees. It may be appropriate for key practitioners to contribute via conference calls. See Section 8, Information for the Conference

Local Authority Children's Social Care is responsible for taking into account privacy, health and safety issues and security arrangements when planning each conference. See also Section 6, Exclusion of Family Members from a Conference.

Conference quorum

As a minimum quorum, at every conference there should be attendance by Local Authority Children's Social Care and at least 2 other practitioner groups or agencies, which have had direct contact with each child who is the subject of the conference.

In some circumstances there may be no health involvement at the Initial Child Protection Conference other than the GP if the child is over 5 years. In these circumstances the conference may go ahead with the Health representation being made via a report from the GP. The outcome of the strategy discussion/meeting and section 47 investigations should try to identify both police and health practitioner representation.

If the Chair makes a decision to cancel the conference there must be a clear case record as to the interim safety plan for the child and this is to be communicated to all agencies by the allocated Social Worker. An early Initial Child Protection Conference date will be set to review the child's and family circumstances.

The Chair may decide to proceed with the conference despite lack of agency representation. This would be relevant where:

• A child has not had relevant contact with 3 agencies e.g. pre-birth conferences;
• Sufficient information is available; and
• A delay will be detrimental to the child.

Where an inquorate conference is held, an early review conference should be arranged.

It is important that the principles of partnership with children and parents are maintained in the child protection process. The following are minimum requirements for all attendees of the conference and the responsibility of the Chair of the conference to uphold:

• Parents must be invited and encouraged to participate in all child protection meetings unless it is likely to prejudice the welfare of the child;
• Parents should be supported to enable them to participate by timely preparation and information, such as leaflets, being provided about the process and their role. Agency reports to conference should be shared with parents 2 days in advance of an initial conference and 3 days in advance of a review conference, securely and confidentially. Where possible, the sharing of reports should take place on a face to face basis and with direct discussion between the author and the family. Reports should be shared in a secure and confidential manner;
• Advocates should be facilitated to support parents where necessary;
• A meeting with the Independent Chair immediately prior to the conference should take place;
• Those parents (and/or children) for whom English is not a first language must be offered and provided with an interpreter, if required. A family member should not be expected to act as an interpreter of spoken or signed language.

Exceptionally, it may be necessary to exclude one or more family members from a conference, in whole or in part. Where a parent attends only part of a conference as a result of exclusion, they must receive the record of the conference. The Chair should decide if the entire record is provided or only that part attended by the excluded parent, and make a case note of the rationale which informed this decision (see Section 6, Exclusion of Family Members from a Conference).

Explicit consideration should be given to the potential for conflict between family members and possible need for children or adults to speak without other family members present. The Child Protection Manager will ensure that adults are kept out of a conference for the least time necessary and will use sensitivity in how and when in the conference confidential information is obtained in order to ensure safety for all who attend.

The child, subject to their level of understanding, needs to be given the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the conference. (See Derby Children's Social Care Procedures Manual, Participation in Child Protection Conferences and Derbyshire Children and Young People Participation Process.

In practice, the appropriateness of including an individual child must be assessed in advance and relevant arrangements made to facilitate attendance at the initial part of the conference and then taken back home or to school by an appropriate person. As soon as possible after the conference the Social Worker must inform the child of the outcome.

Where it is assessed, in accordance with the criteria below, that it would be inappropriate for the child to attend, alternative arrangements should be made to ensure their wishes and feelings are made clear to all relevant parties e.g. use of an Advocate, written or recorded comments.

Criteria for presence of child at conference, including direct involvement

The primary questions to be addressed are:

• Does the child have sufficient understanding of the process?
• Have they expressed an explicit or implicit wish to be involved?
• What are the parents' views about the child's proposed presence?
• Is inclusion assessed to be of benefit to the child?

The test of 'sufficient understanding' is partly a function of age and partly the child's capacity to understand. The following approach is recommended:

• A (rebuttable) presumption that a child of less than 12 years of age is unlikely to be able to be a direct and/or full participant in a forum such as a child protection conference;
• A presumption (also rebuttable by evidence to the contrary) that from the age of 12 and above, a child should be offered such an opportunity.

A declared wish not to attend a conference (having been given such an explanation) must be respected.

Consideration should be given to the views of and impact on parent/s of their child's proposed attendance.

Consideration must be given to the impact of the conference on the child e.g. if they have a significant learning difficulty or where it will be impossible to ensure they are kept apart from a parent who may be hostile and/or attribute responsibility onto them. Consideration must be given in particular to the extent to which it is appropriate for a child to hear details of a parent's personal difficulties and a parent's view about this must be respected.

In such cases, energy and resources should be directed toward ensuring that, by means of an Advocate and/or preparatory work by a Social Worker, the child's wishes and feelings are effectively represented.

Direct involvement of a child in a conference

All practitioners who attend a conference must be mindful of how they communicate with the child and family and ensure they are not spoke over, but rather are included in the conversations held.

In advance of the conference, the Chair and Social Worker should agree whether:

• The child attends for all or part of the conference, taking into account confidentiality or parents and/or siblings;
• The child should be present with one or more of their parents;
• The Chair meets the child alone or with a parent prior to the meeting.

If a child attends all or part of the conference, it is essential that they are prepared by the Social Worker or independent Advocate who can help them to present their views. Normally, attendance would be at the initial part of the conference and the child then taken back home or to school by an appropriate person. As soon as possible after the conference the Social Worker must inform the child of the outcome.

Provision should be made to ensure that a child who has any form of disability is enabled to participate.

Consideration should be given to enabling the child to be accompanied by an Advocate or their nominated representative who will provide support. See the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Partnership website and the Derbyshire Children's Independent Advocacy Service.

Indirect contributions when a child is not attending

Indirect methods include written statements, e-mails, text messages and recorded comments prepared alone or with independent support, and representation via an Advocate.

All children should be encouraged to give their wishes and feelings and where appropriate attend part of their conference or at the very minimum share their views with the Child Protection Manager.

Childcare practitioners should all be able to represent a child's views and a particular responsibility falls upon the Social Worker to do so. It is important that the child feels involved in the whole process of child protection assessment rather than merely receiving an invitation to the conference.

Babies and younger children

Babies and young children should not normally be present during the conference as the environment is often emotionally charged and could further harm the child. Parents can often feel anxious and distressed during these meetings and may not be aware of the impact that this can have on their child. Parents should be assisted to make arrangements for their care where necessary.

In all circumstances, it is important that the professionals within the conference are able to demonstrate that they are able to fully represent and articulate the child’s lived experience. The understanding of this should be developed through various interventions such as high-quality direct work and observations of the child or baby within the home environment and other settings as required.

The conference Chair, or other participants, must be notified as soon as possible by the Social Worker if it is considered necessary to exclude one or both parents for all or part of a conference. The Chair should make a decision according to the following criteria:

• Indications that the presence of the parent may seriously prejudice the welfare of the child;
• Sufficient evidence that a parent may behave in such a way as to interfere seriously with the work of the conference such as violence, threats of violence, racist or other forms of discriminatory or oppressive behaviour, or being in an unfit state (e.g. through drug, alcohol consumption or acute mental health difficulty). In their absence, a friend or Advocate may represent them at the conference;
• A child requests that the parent / person with parental responsibility is not present while they are present;
• The presence of one or both parents would prevent a practitioner from making their proper contribution through concerns about violence or intimidation (which should be communicated in advance to the conference Chair);
• The need (agreed in advance with the conference Chair) for members to receive confidential information that would otherwise be unavailable, such as legal advice or information about a criminal investigation;
• Conflicts between different family members who may not be able to attend at the same time e.g. in situations of domestic abuse;
• Where a parent or carer is subject to either Police or Court imposed bail, Police advice should be sought;
• The chair’s final decision on attendance of all parties will be based on the best interests of the child.

If the reason for the exclusion is due to potential violent or threatening behaviour, it is expected that the allocated Social Worker will complete a risk assessment and share the risks with key agencies involved with the family.

Where a worker from any agency believes a parent should, on the basis of the above criteria, be excluded, representation must be made, at least 3 working days in advance, to the Chair of the conference.

The agency concerned must indicate which of the grounds it believes is met and the information or evidence on which the request is based. The Chair must consider the representation carefully and may need legal advice.

If, in planning a conference, it becomes clear to the Chair that there may be a conflict of interest between the children and the parents, the conference should be planned so that the welfare and safety of the child remains paramount.

Any exclusion period should be for the minimum duration necessary and must be clearly recorded in the conference record.

It may also become clear in the course of a conference that its effectiveness will be seriously impaired by the presence of the parent/s. In these circumstances the Chair may ask them to leave.

Where a parent is on bail, or subject to an active Police investigation, it is the responsibility of the Chair to ensure that the Police representative can fully present their information and views. The parents should also be supported to participate as fully as circumstances allow without the risk of incriminating themselves in any criminal investigation. In some circumstances this might mean that if the Police representative may be asked to leave a conference after providing information.

Conferences should not be the place where parents are arrested if they have a police / court summons against them. In these circumstances where it is known by agencies that there is a police warrant in place in respect of a parent, agencies should encourage the parent to present themselves to the police prior to the conference. This will ensure that parents are not arrested during the conference.

The decision of the Chair over matters of exclusion is final regarding both parents and the child/ren.

If, prior to the conference, the Chair has decided to exclude a parent, this must be communicated to them, and the Chair must ascertain how they will share their views about their children to conference. The Chair must ensure arrangements are in place to provide feedback to parents on the outcome of the conference and about the complaints procedure.

Those excluded should ordinarily have been provided with a copy of the reports from all agencies prior to the conference, unless it is considered unsafe to do so. They should also be provided with the opportunity to have their views recorded and presented to the conference. The Chair will determine whether or not the excluded parent should receive the record of the conference.

If a decision to exclude a parent is made, this must be fully recorded in the record. Exclusion at one conference is not reason enough in itself for exclusion at further conferences.

If children and/or parents do not wish to attend the conference they must be provided with full opportunities to contribute their views. The Social Worker must facilitate this by:

• The use of an Advocate or supporter to attend on behalf of the child or parent;
• Enabling the child or parent to communicate their wishes and feelings by using suitable tools to support their voice being heard;
• Agreeing that the Social Worker, or any other practitioner, expresses their views.

The Child Protection Manager must record the absence and the reasons for absence.

In order for the conference to reach well-informed decisions based on evidence, it needs adequate preparation and sharing of information on the child/ren's needs and circumstances by all agencies that have had significant involvement with the child and family, including those who were involved in the assessment and the s47 enquiry. All reports must be clear and distinguish between facts, allegations and opinions. Professionals should be sufficiently prepared to share their views in relation to a plan moving forward alongside views in relation to visiting arrangements to see the child.

Virtual Meetings – Sharing Reports for Conference

There will be occasions when conferences are held virtually using a digital platform such as MS teams.

In order for practitioners to make an informed decision regarding the safety of a child and the need for a Child Protection Plan it is important that information is shared in a timely way offering practitioners the opportunity to read the information and make an informed view prior to the conference taking place.

There is an expectation that each agency takes responsibility for sharing their reports with the parents and practitioners involved with the conference.

For this to happen it is expected that all agencies who are represented in a strategy meeting where a decision has been made to proceed to an ICPC, notify the key representatives in their agencies who are responsible for attending child protection conferences. It is advisable for agencies to share their central email addresses with all practitioners at the strategy meeting and inform their agency representative that all reports for ICPC’s must be shared at a minimum 2 days before the conference.

For Review Child Protection Conferences there will already be a core group of practitioners in place supporting the family and progressing the child protection plan. In these cases, agency representatives are expected to share their reports prior to the review child protection conference and with the professional members of the core group and the family 3 days in advance of the review conference taking place in order to ensure that all conference members are fully prepared to engage in the discussion within the meeting.

Agencies must take great care to ensure they comply with their agency data sharing policies and UK GDPR.

The child protection admin office will ensure that the following information is shared with attendees:

• Practitioner email addresses;
• The Child Protection Conference Agenda;
• The Confidentiality Statement.

Report Sharing

The reports should be provided to parents and older children (to the extent that it is believed to be in their interests) at least 2 working days in advance of the initial conference and a minimum of 3 working days before a review conference to enable any factual errors to be corrected and the family to comment on the content.

The reports should be available to the conference Chair at least 2 working days prior to the initial conference and 3 working days in advance of the review conference.

Consideration should be given to support any additional needs of the parents and the children.

Where agencies make a decision to translate the document, they must take into consideration the time to translate within the timescale for submission to conference.

Local Authority Children's Social Care report

Local Authority Children's Social Care should provide all conferences with a written report that summarises and analyses the information obtained in the course of the assessment undertaken in conjunction with the child protection enquiries under Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 and information in existing records relating to the child and family. Reports to Review conferences should include a clear analysis of the implementation and progress of the Child Protection Plan including any new information or obstacles to implementation. The report for a child protection conference should be consistent with the information set out in the Derby & Derbyshire Safeguarding Partnership procedures.

Where decisions are being made about more than one child in a family the report should consider the safeguarding needs of each child.

The record of the assessment by the Social Worker should form a part of the report to the initial conference.

The conference report should include information on the dates the child was seen by the Social Worker during the course of the Section 47 enquiries, if the child was seen alone and if not, who was present and for what reasons.

All children in the household need to be considered and information must be provided about the needs and circumstances of each of them, even if they are not the subject of the conference.

Within Childrens Social care it is expected that all reports are agreed by their manager.

Reports from other agencies

All reports submitted by agencies for conference should be written using language and terminology that can be understood by all practitioners and families; information about their involvement with the family should be submitted in a written legible report which should be signed (or electronically signed) for the conference.

All agencies should use the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership template for Multi-Agency Reports for Initial Child Protection Conferences (ICPC) (see Document Library, Report Forms and Templates Section) or for reviews the template for Multi-Agency Reports for Review Child Protection Conference (RCPC) (see Document Library, Report Forms and Templates Section).

GP's should use the GP ICPC Report template and the Child and Parent/Carer Profile templates which can be found within GP's electronic systems or in the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Documents Library.

Medical reports will not be shared amongst conference members. A copy should be provided to the Conference Chair. The Paediatrician attending the meeting will interpret relevant information for the conference; however their report should be written using language and terminology that can be understood by all practitioners and families. If the Paediatrician is not able to attend in some circumstances, they will support this process either in person or via the teleconferencing process.

Information from children and families

Children and family members should be helped in advance to consider what they wish to convey to the conference, how they wish to do so and what help and support they will require (e.g. they may choose to communicate in writing, by other means or with the help of an Advocate).

The Chair of a child protection conference will be a Child Protection Manager, accountable to the Director of Children's Services. They must not have or have had operational or line management responsibility for the case. Wherever possible, the same person should also chair subsequent child protection reviews in respect of a specific child.

The Child Protection Manager‘s role must remain independent and they do not make the ultimate decision regarding whether a child is to be subject to a Child Protection Plan as this is the social work and agency decision UNLESS there is a split decision in this circumstance the child protection manager will analyse the information heard and make the ultimate decision recording the rational for this in the minutes or summary of the meeting. There may be a requirement, albeit rare where the child protection manager makes a professional judgement to overrule the decision of the conference. For instance, this situation may occur when the child protection manager has significant concerns about the impact on the safety of the child.

If a decision is made that a child requires a protection plan to safeguard their welfare, the Chair should ensure that:

• The risks to the child are stated and what is needed to change is specified;
• All plans must ne risk focused and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Timebound);
• Professional visiting arrangements must be clearly set out including details of contingency planning;
• A qualified Local Authority Children's Social Worker is identified as a Lead Social Worker to develop, co-ordinate and implement the Child Protection Plan;
• A Core Group is identified of family members and practitioners;
• A date is set for the first core group meeting within 10 working days of the initial conference and timescales set for subsequent meetings;
• A date for the child protection review conference is set;
• The outline Child Protection Plan is formulated and clearly understood by all concerned including the parents and, where appropriate, the child.

In Derby City, all participants to conference will leave with a clear Decision Outline and Recommendation (DOR). The record will be available on the Local authority systems within 24 hours. In Derbyshire a summary and plan from the conference is sent out within 5 working days.

If the conference determines that a child does not need the specific assistance of a Child Protection Plan but does need help to promote their welfare, the Chair must ensure that:

• The conference draws up a Child in Need plan or makes appropriate recommendations for a plan;
• The conference considers any local protocols in place referred to as "step down procedures" or Family Group Conference processes.

Threshold for a Child Protection Plan

The conference should consider the following question when determining whether a child requires a multi-agency Child Protection Plan:

• Has the child suffered Significant Harm? and
• Is the child likely to suffer significant harm in the future?

The test for likelihood of suffering harm in the future should be that either:

• The child can be shown to have suffered maltreatment or impairment of health or development as a result of neglect or physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and professional judgement is that further ill-treatment or impairment is likely; or
• A professional judgement, substantiated by the findings of enquiries in this individual case or by research evidence, predicts that the child is likely to suffer maltreatment or the impairment of health and development as a result of neglect or physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

If a child is likely to suffer significant harm, then they will require multi-agency help and intervention delivered through a formal Child Protection Plan.

The primary purposes of this plan are to:

• Ensure the child is safe from harm and prevent them from suffering further harm;
• Promote the child's health and development; and
• Support the family and wider family members to safeguard and promote the welfare of their child, provided it is in the best interests of the child.

Decision that a child needs a Child Protection Plan

If a decision is taken that the child is likely to suffer significant harm and hence in need of a Child Protection Plan, the Chair should determine which category of abuse or neglect the child has suffered or is at risk of suffering. The category used (that is Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Sexual Abuse or Neglect, will indicate to those consulting the child's social care record the primary presenting concerns at the time the child became the subject of a Child Protection Plan.

The need for a protection plan should be considered separately in respect of each child in the family or household.

Where a child is to be the subject of a Child Protection Plan, the conference is responsible for recommendations on how agencies, practitioners and the family should work together to ensure that the child will be safeguarded from harm in the future. This should enable both practitioners and the family to understand exactly what is expected of them and what they can expect of others.

The conference should design a plan that takes account of the known risks and relevant assessments to design specific and measurable targets for improvement. The progress against the targets should be reviewed at regular and specific points.

The plan should:

• Describe specific, achievable, child-focused outcomes intended to safeguard each child. A clear outcome focussed plan will enable the family and core group of professionals to understand objectives and measure the impact of the actions designed to meet those objectives;
• Describe the actions required for each child by family, practitioners and, where appropriate, the child themselves, including the nature and frequency of contact by practitioners with children and family members;
• Set a timescale for the completion of these actions;
• Reflect the requirements of a MAPPA plan if there is one, and vice versa;
• Regular core groups and review processes must take place in order for the protection plan to progress and avoid any elements of drift. It is expected that the core group will develop clear measures to evidence what success looks like to parents;
• All core group participants will work towards achieving the objectives of the child protection plan and will work open and honestly with family members;
• Lay down points at which progress will be reviewed, by the core group and next conference;
• Identify a contingency plan to respond if the family is unable to make the required changes and the child remains likely to suffer significant harm.

If the conference decides that a child is not likely to suffer significant harm then the conference cannot make the child the subject of a Child Protection Plan. The child may nevertheless require services to promote their health or development. In these circumstances, the conference should consider the child's needs and make recommendations for further help to assist the family in responding to them. Where appropriate, an outline child in need plan may be drawn up.

The decision must be put in writing to the parent(s), and agencies as well as communicated to them verbally.

Discontinuing a current Child Protection Plan

The conference should use the same decision-making process to reach a judgement for when a protection plan is no longer needed. This includes situations where other multi-agency planning might need to replace a Child Protection Plan.

A child may no longer need a Child Protection Plan if:

1. A review conference judges that the child is no longer likely to suffer significant harm and no longer requires safeguarding by means of a Child Protection Plan;
2. A child has come into care and is sufficiently protected in this way;
3. The child has moved permanently to another local authority (in which case the Child Protection Plan can only cease after the receiving authority has convened a transfer child protection conference and confirmed in writing responsibility for case management);
4. The child has reached 18 years of age, has died or has been judged to have permanently left the UK, when their name can be removed.

A plan may only be discontinued at the first (3 month) review conference if:

• Criteria b, c or d (above) apply; OR
• The original concerns are evidenced to be unsubstantiated to the satisfaction of conference attendees; AND
• The review conference is attended by key agencies including those who attended the initial conference, OR they have been consulted prior to conference and expressed their views in writing.

It is the exception rather than the rule that a child will be removed from a Plan at the first Review.

No Child Protection Plan may be discontinued at any review whilst key safeguarding actions are incomplete.

Where a child has come into care, the need for a plan will be considered at the first Looked After Review, chaired or attended by the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) after consultation with the relevant Child Protection Manager, Team Manager and agencies present at the last conference.

In a small number of cases a plan maybe discontinued prior to the Looked After Review if is known that the child has come in to care and this status is stable. There will be a discussion between the Child Protection Manager, Team Manager and the Independent Reviewing Officer.

It is permissible for the Local Authority Child Protection Manager to agree to the discontinuing of a Child Protection Plan without the need to convene a child protection review conference only when:

• One or other of the criteria c or d outlined above are satisfied; AND
• The manager has consulted with relevant agencies present at the conference that first concluded that a Child Protection Plan was required.

When this process is followed to discontinue a Child Protection Plan, the consultation with other agencies and the decision to discontinue the Child Protection Plan must be clearly recorded in the Local Authority Children's Social Care child's record and the child health record.

When a child is no longer subject of a Child Protection Plan, the notification should be sent, as a minimum, to the parents, the agencies' representatives who were invited to attend the initial conference that led to the plan and other practitioners who have subsequently joined the core group.

This applies both when a plan is discontinued at a conference or, as described above, when it is permissible for the Local Authority Child Protection Manager to agree the discontinuing of a Child Protection Plan without a conference.

When a Child Protection Plan is discontinued, the conference must agree with the parents and child/ren what services might be needed and required, based on the needs of the child and family. Where applicable, a Child in Need Plan (CiN Plan) should be developed for any continuing support.

All children who have been subject to a Child Protection Plan will be supported by a CiN Plan for a minimum of 3 months. The plan can however be discontinued by agreement of ALL the CiN membership following the first CiN Review.

Any CiN Plan following step down from a conference must be robust, with:

• A clear plan addressing any outstanding actions and with a contingency in the event of further concerns, as agreed in conference. The plan must be circulated within 2 weeks of the conference;
• The plan must identify appropriate visiting frequency for all agencies;
• In Derby: a CiN review should be booked at 3 months and there will be 6 weekly network meetings;
• In Derbyshire: CiN reviews booked 6 weekly.

The case must not be closed without a review, even if the family will not engage, although the review may be brought forward if appropriate.

If an agency does not agree with a decision or recommendation made at a child protection conference, it will be recorded formally within the Decisions Outcome and Recommendations forms and the Child Protection conference records. It is important that all dissents are properly considered and there is a transparent process within which concerns can be raised and responded to.

It is important that the dissent process should only be used where the decision and outcome of the meeting is being challenged. The Derby City and Derbyshire joint Child Protection Conference Professional Dissent Process can be found in the Documents Library, Guidance Documents.

Other issues relating to practice or how the conference is managed should be raised via Derby and Derbyshire Multi Agency Dispute Resolution and Escalation Policy.

Parents and, on occasion, children, may have concerns about which they wish to make representations or complain, in respect of one or more of the following aspects of the functioning of child protection conferences:

• The process of the conference;
• The outcome, in terms of the fact of and/or the category of primary concern at the time the child became the subject of a Child Protection Plan;
• A decision for the child to become, to continue or not to become, the subject of a Child Protection Plan.

All complaints received by parents/carers will be responded to under the statutory complaints procedure. Complaints about aspects of the functioning of conferences described above should be addressed to the conference Chair. Such complaints should be passed on to the Chair's manager. Complaints about the outcome and decision should be passed to the Social Worker and their manager for consideration at the next Core group meeting, and a response given by the Chair.

Whilst a complaint is being considered, the decision made by the conference stands.

The outcome of a complaint will either be that a conference is re-convened under a different Chair, that a review conference is brought forward or that the status quo is confirmed along with a suitable explanation.

Complaints about individual agencies, their performance and provision (or non-provision) of services should be responded to in accordance with the relevant agency's own complaints management process.

Local Authority Children's Social Care is responsible for administering the child protection conference service and the organisation of child protection conferences including:

• Arrangements for sending out invitations to children, parents and practitioners;
• Information leaflets for children and for parents translated into appropriate languages.

A record of the conference will be made and available to all participants.

In Derbyshire, the conference record, approved by the conference Chair, should be sent to all those who attended or were invited to the conference within 5 working days of the conference, in Derby City within 20 working days. Any amendments should be received within 1 week of receipt of record.

A copy of the conference record should be given to and discussed with the parents by the Local Authority Social Worker within a maximum of 15 working days in Derbyshire and 20 working days in Derby City. The conference Chair may decide that confidential material should be excluded from distributed conference records.

In Derby City the outline plan, approved by the conference Chair is given to all conference attendees including the parents/ carers at the end of all conferences. This is called the decision, outline and recommendation (DOR). The DOR will detail categories of harm to the child; recommendations of actions and who is responsible for undertaking these and when these should be completed and the date of the core group and the next conference will be included and the name of the Social Worker.

In Derbyshire all participants will be provided with a copy of the outline plan and decision. The record will be available on MOSAIC within 24 hours.

Where a friend, supporter or Solicitor has been involved, they will not receive a copy of the record.

The Local Authority Children's Social Worker should inform the child about the outcome of the conference; this should take into account the age and level of understanding of the child concerned. Relevant sections of the record should be explained to and discussed with the child by the Local Authority Children's Social Worker. The conference Chair should decide whether a child should be given a copy of the record. The record may be supplied to a child's legal representative on request.

Where parents and/or the child/ren have a sensory disability or where English is not their first language, the Local Authority Children's Social Worker should ensure that they receive appropriate assistance to understand and make full use of the record. A family member should not be expected to act as an interpreter of spoken or signed language.

Audio Recording of Conferences

The Data Protection Act 2018 does not prevent parents recording meetings.

If a parent requests to record a conference it is advised that the conference Chair has a discussion with them in advance of the meeting to explain how conferences are captured within Derbyshire and they will receive a summary decision and plan. In Derby City parents will receive copies of the notes of the meeting.

Conference records are confidential and should not be shared with third parties without the consent of either the conference Chair or an order of the court.

In criminal proceedings the police may reveal the existence of child protection records to the Crown Prosecution Service, and in care proceedings any records from the conference may be revealed in the court.

The record of the decisions of the child protection conference should be retained by the recipient agencies in accordance with their record retention policies.

Each local authority should designate an experienced Social Care Manager who has responsibility for:

• Ensuring that records on children who are subject of a Child Protection Plan are kept up to date;
• Ensuring enquiries about children about whom there are concerns or who are subject of Child Protection Plans are recorded and reviewed in the context of the child's known history;
• Managing notifications of movements of children who are subject of a Child Protection Plan, Looked After Children and other relevant children moving into or out of the local authority area;
• Managing notifications of people who may pose a risk of significant harm to children who are either identified within the local authority area or have moved into the local authority area;
• Managing requests for local authority checks to be made to ensure unsuitable people are prevented from working with children. E.g. prospective child minders, foster carers etc.

Information on each child known to Local Authority Children's Social Care should be kept up-to-date on the local authority's electronic record system. This information should be confidential but accessible at all times to legitimate enquirers. The details of enquirers should always be checked and recorded on the system before information is provided.