Policy and Practice Guidance on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who move across agency and local authority boundaries

Purpose

1. To ensure no child or young person misses out on their entitlement to services, whether universal or specialist, because they move across agency boundaries.

2. This policy has been agreed by the South West Regional Authorities and is based on the principle that any agency providing a service to a child retains responsibility for that child until that responsibility is formally (usually by letter) acknowledged by the appropriate new agency. This may require a significant change in established working practice for many agencies.

[Please note: Retaining responsibility does not require the originating* agency to continue providing a service. This policy does not apply to children on child protection plans or to Looked After Children as local authorities will have procedures in place to manage these children moving across agency and local authority boundaries. It does apply to all children including those children and young people assessed to be children in need, including those where need concerns may be considered high.]

Scope

3. This policy applies to all agencies, whether statutory (schools, health, police, social care) or non statutory (community and voluntary providers) who provide services to children, young people and their families. It includes those agencies providing services to adults who live in families and/or care for children (adult mental health services, services to adults with learning disabilities, drugs and alcohol services and services to victims of domestic abuse etc.).

4. This policy applies to all children and young people who may be disadvantaged through the loss or disruption of services following a move from one area to another. It particularly applies to vulnerable groups of children whose parents or carers are not ensuring all their needs are being met; or who experience a number of moves, by virtue of their culture or circumstances, that may mean agencies will have difficulty maintaining appropriate contact. For example:

All children who may be being affected by difficulties experienced by their parents/carers such as those in violent relationships, fleeing violence, those with substance misuse issues, mental health issues, parents with learning difficulties, abusive parents avoiding detection;
Children with complex needs, such as children with disabilities or emotional/behavioural difficulties;
Children at risk of sexual exploitation
Children of asylum seeking or new arrival immigrant parents (who may experience additional problems with language and culture);
Children from travelling communities;
Children in contact with adults who may be a risk to children (Allegations Management).

Introduction

5. The basic premise for this policy is that any agency who provides services to children, young people and their families must maintain responsibility for children until they are able to formally pass that responsibility to a new provider in the area that the child or young person is currently living. In this way links between agencies can be established to aid communication if this becomes necessary to avoid children being lost between service providers.

6. When families move frequently, it is difficult for any agencies working with children and young people to monitor a child’s welfare and to identify risks. This issue can be significantly compounded when families move across local authority or agency boundaries. In these circumstances details about vulnerable children and the services they require can be lost. Serious Case Reviews have highlighted how this can mean services to children can become inconsistent or incomplete. Thus agencies are not in a position to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

7. Professionals in all agencies should be alert to the possibility that a child or family who has moved may not be in receipt of universal services as well as specialised services that have been assessed as being required.

8. A referral to Children’s Services social care should be made where staff working with children, young people and their families are concerned that children are being moved by parents or carers to avoid working with service providers and that because of the move there is a possibility that:

the child or children are unable to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development (Section 17 Children Act 1989); or
that their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired (Section 17 Children Act 1989); or
when there is a likelihood the child is at risk of significant harm (Section 47 Children Act 1989).

Practice Guidance

9. All staff working with children young people and their families should seek permission to share information from parents/carers once they become aware that a move is about to take place or has taken place.

10. Agreements about sharing information should be sought early on in the relationship between providers and parents/carers of vulnerable children, including those listed in para 3 above; this can be done in much the same way as agreements are made to share information in other circumstances, in order to deliver services.

11. If agreement to share information is not reached, then the reasons for this should be recorded, together with any action identified.

[* 'originating agency' means the agency providing a service where the family previously lived; a 'receiving agency' is an agency providing services in the area to which the family has moved.]

12. Once a move is known about the case holder or practitioner working with the child young person or family should prepare a ‘closing summary’ of the work carried out, including key identification and contact details of the family and within the originating agency, a summary of progress made, difficulties experienced and a view of what service is still required.

13. The closing summary and a letter of referral must be sent to an agreed service provider in the new area (or most appropriate service provider where agreement has not been reached). For response within 5 working days.

14. Case responsibility for transferring information about the child or young person remains with the originating agency until written confirmation of acknowledgement from the receiving agency is provided. Where acknowledgement is not received this should be escalated as per point 18 below.

15. In those instances where a case holder or practitioner discover that a family have moved and no information is known about their whereabouts efforts must be made by the originating agency to trace where the family have moved to. This will be done by establishing what is known within the originating agency and then by making enquiries of other agencies known to be working with the children, young person or family, making enquiries of what is known within the community in which the child, young person or family lived. If it becomes apparent that the family’s whereabouts is not known consideration about making a referral to social care (see paragraph 7) should be made. If warranted the children should be reported missing to the appropriate local police station (this may be decided after consultation with social care).

16. Case responsibility for missing children should rest with the originating agency until the child is found and a referral and case responsibility is transferred with written confirmation being provided. Originating agencies with case responsibility for missing children should review progress on establishing the whereabouts of the child or young person on a regular basis (every two weeks) until case responsibility is passed on appropriately. Where progress is not being achieved the originating agency continues to have responsibility to ensure the appropriate agencies are taking necessary steps to establish the whereabouts of the child or young person.

17. Where, in the case of a woman’s refuge for instance, the service user moves on without notice or indication of where they have moved on to, and the service provider holds concerns, these should be passed to the referring agency or the local authority where the service has been provided, or to the police (if warranted).

18. The ‘resolution of professional disagreements in work relating to the safety of children’ should be used in those cases where case responsibility is not accepted by the receiving agency or in those cases where the originating agency is unhappy by the response of the receiving agency (through not providing a service for instance).

Information Sharing

(from ‘Information Sharing: Guidance for practitioners and managers’, DCSF October 2008)

Seven Golden Rules:

Remember that the Data Protection Act is not a barrier to sharing information but provides a framework to ensure that personal information about living persons is shared appropriately.
Be open and honest with the person (and/or their family where appropriate) from the outset about why, what, how and with whom information will, or could be shared, and seek their agreement, unless it is unsafe or inappropriate to do so.
Seek advice (from your manager, supervisor or designated safeguarding person) if you are in any doubt, without disclosing the identity of the person where possible.
Share with consent where appropriate and, where possible, respect the wishes of those who do not consent to share confidential information. You may still share information without consent if, in your judgement, that lack of consent can be overridden in the public interest (because it amounts to a possible child protection issue). You will need to base your judgement on the facts of the case.
Consider safety and well-being: Base your information sharing decisions on considerations of the safety and well-being of the person and others who may be affected by their actions.
Necessary, proportionate, relevant, accurate, timely and secure: Ensure that the information you share is necessary for the purpose for which you are sharing it, is shared only with those people who need to have it, is accurate and up-to-date, is shared in a timely fashion, and is shared securely.
Keep a record of your decision and the reasons for it; whether it is to share information or not. If you decide to share, then record what you have shared, with whom and for what purpose.

All agencies from the originating area have a responsibility to share information with receiving agencies seeking to provide a service where there is cause to believe a child or young person is at possible risk of harm.

Health Visiting and School Nursing Services

Within the health visiting and school nursing service it is accepted best practice that information and health records regarding the movement of vulnerable children across boundaries is managed by the national Named Nurse structure.

What this means in practice is that a practitioner, on discovering that a vulnerable child has moved or is moving out of area, will inform the Named Nurse of this with an account of their involvement with the child and identification of the concerns. The Named Nurse will ascertain who the Named Nurse is in the receiving authority and have a telephone conversation about the child, the concerns and the ongoing work with the child and then send the health records, (accompanied by a summary of the discussion), by recorded delivery to the receiving Named Nurse who will allocate a new worker as a priority. The new worker will also encourage GP registration/referral to Children’s Social Care etc. in the new area if this has not already happened.

September 2010

Working Across Boundaries