Managing the demand for placements

The number of children looked after at 31 March increased by an average of 1.4 per cent per year between 2000 and 2002. Councils cannot avoid making a placement where this is in the best interest of the child, and it is unacceptable to seek to contain the numbers in this way. (For this specific reason, expenditure on placements is often described as being 'demand led' and the budget can be volatile). On the other hand, good overall management of children's services can help to reduce the need to place children. Some of the most important measures are listed here.

1. Ensure robust and timely assessment. Good assessment will provide a sound basis for planning for the child. It will give information about the strengths within the child's family and community network and will enable alternatives to accommodation to be fully explored. See the Assessment component of this module.
2. Ensure that social workers are very clear that accommodation can have an adverse impact on a child's life chances and should be used only where this is in a child's best interests.
3. Consider the use of family group conferences at point of entry to the care system. Research shows that social services are often unaware of the potential within the family and community network. See Good Practice: Hull (3).
4. Check that a range of alternative solutions is available for families where there is an immediate risk of breakdown. See Family support module.
See Good Practice: Milton Keynes.
5. Ensure there are effective family support services for adolescents. (Many young people entering the care system do so as adolescents. According to the Department of Health, 10,500 children aged 10-15 became looked after in 2001/2. This compares with 8,400 children aged under 5). See Good Practice: Milton Keynes (2).
6. Ensure that there are rigorous gatekeeping processes for access to placements, which are understood and endorsed by all relevant agencies.
7. Ensure that these processes address what should happen in an emergency situation. Emergency placements should be quickly followed by an assessment (or reassessment) and the development of an appropriate longer term care plan.
8. Remember that the chances of a child or young person returning home reduce after the first 6 weeks. This suggests that it is a priority for children to be allocated quickly to a social worker (or to remain allocated) in the first weeks after their placement. The child's first formal review is likely to be very important.
9. Ensure that the scope to place children within their extended families is fully explored. Family Group Conferences9 may be a useful tool here. See Good Practice: Hull (3).
10. Prioritise the development of an effective adoption service for those children identified as being suitable for a permanent placement with a new family. See Good Practice: Hull (2).
11. Regularly monitor performance in all of the above areas. In some cases, it will be possible to test your comparative performance using national indicators, for England see:National Indicators for Children's Services, for Wales see relevant NAWPIs at www.lgdu-wales.gov.uk
12. Ensure that care orders on children returning to birth families are discharged at the earliest opportunity and replaced by supervision orders if necessary.
13. Encourage the use of residence orders for those placed with extended families or friends, or with long-term foster carers.

9The Family Rights Group has a Family Group Conferences Project www.frg.org.uk/Projects/projects.asp