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Section 1: Planning
Why plan?
- To help children and young people.
- To achieve goals.
- To make sure that everyone, including the child or young person, understands what is expected and what is to be done, who will do it and when they will do it.
- To show commitment to improving a child's or young person's situation, through the proposed action.
What is the purpose of the plan?
The plan can:
- help children and young people, families and agencies think about what children and young people need;
- make sure that agencies, families, children and young people are all clear about the help already being given or planned;
- help monitor the child's or young person's progress;
- put in place arrangements to manage risk;
- co-ordinate help for the child or young person, bringing it all together;
- ensure successful change when a child or young person has to move and needs extra help (for example, moving from one school or household to another, to or from a refuge, from child to adult services, or between institutions such as children's homes, secure units or prison);
- outline why compulsory measures may be necessary; and
- make sure the arrangements are in place to manage future risks and needs when a Children's Hearing (Panel) ends a supervision requirement, or where a child or young person leaves care.
When should there be a child's or young person's plan?
- Whenever a child or young person, family or professional thinks a plan would help to identify and meet needs. It is a tool to help children and young people, families and professionals understand what action is needed.
The level of detail in any plan should match the complexity, concerns or needs identified.
The draft Children's Services (Scotland) Bill sets out proposed situations where legislation will introduce a duty on agencies to plan. The draft Bill proposes that, where an agency makes a decision to take action to improve the well-being of a child or young person, they must record this. The draft Bill also proposes that there must be a child's or young person's plan when agencies are working together to meet the needs of a child or young person. In practice this means that a plan must be put in place when more than one agency is involved in meeting the child's needs. Specific examples are:
- when a child or young person is at significant risk or presents a significant risk to others, and a risk management plan is needed; and
- when compulsory measures of supervision may be necessary.
While these proposed legal duties are not currently in place, we would expect agencies to introduce and use plans as part of best practice.
Who starts a plan?
- Anyone who wants to improve matters for a child or young person. The plan is designed to be used by anyone to help identify and record the strengths in the child's or young person's life and what might be needed to make his or her life better. They may be parents, carers, professionals or the children and young people themselves.
- Agencies when they have to work together. Agencies may be voluntary or statutory. They may provide services for children and young people (for example, education or health) or for the adults in their lives (for example, disability services or drug misusing services).
- Certain professionals or agencies when the law requires them to plan. The draft Children's Services (Scotland) Bill proposes additional requirements to plan. The Bill is intended to supplement current planning requirements such as those set out in the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004.
Who should be involved in planning?
- Children and young people should be involved in planning according to their age, stage and understanding. Some children and young people may need help to explain their thoughts and views. Sometimes this may be done by a person whose job it is to make sure the child's or young person's views are taken into account. The draft Children's Services (Scotland) Bill proposes that agencies be under a duty to take into account the views of children in making any material decision as regards a child's well-being.
- Parents. Where a parent has any contact with their child, they should be involved in the plan. However, this is always subject to safety considerations (for example, where the child may be exposed to domestic abuse). In some cases, involving absent parents in the child's or young person's life and plan may be key to his or her current or future wellbeing. The draft Children's Services (Scotland) Bill also proposes strengthening requirements that agencies be under a duty to take into account the views of relevant persons, including parents.
- Carers who have day-to-day care of the child or young person (for example, kinship carers (usually family), foster carers or residential carers).
- Staff in agencies/ professionals who can contribute to the child's or young person's wellbeing or risk management. They may work directly with the child or young person (for example, teachers), or with the adults who care for them (for example, GPs).
- Other important people, such as extended family and friends, depending on the nature of the plan and the child's or young person's circumstances. Sometimes relevant members of the community or victims of an offence can contribute to understanding and improving matters. This may be at 'restorative meetings', where offender and victim and the people supporting them meet to discuss the offence and decide together how to deal with the consequences.
Is a child's or young person's plan always necessary?
- No. Schools and health services routinely assess children's and young people's health and development. Routine assessments or checks should not need an elaborate and detailed assessment or plan.
- All families, carers and professionals should respond to concerns at the earliest possible time. A prompt response that can resolve issues quickly will not generally require a plan for the child or young person.
- A requirement to plan should not prevent children and young people getting the help they need when they need it.
How many plans should there be for a child or young person?
- One plan, which develops as required to meet the needs and risks involved. It must be fit for all necessary purposes. The child's or young person's plan should meet all statutory planning requirements.
How should the plan be designed?
- Ideally, the child's or young person's plan should be as set out in Section 3 of these guidance notes. The proposals in the draft Children's Services (Scotland) Bill set out a basic framework placing a duty on agencies to plan together where there is more than one agency involved with a child or young person. If required, the design of the plan could be set out in subsequent secondary legislation or statutory guidance. Meantime, the plan has been designed to meet the needs of all children and young people when there are concerns that they might not meet their full potential.
- Some children and young people are subject to assessments and plans required by current law (for example, Looked After Child Reviews and Coordinated Support Plans). The child's or young person's plan should meet all statutory planning requirements. Where the plan calls for help from a range of agencies, any specialist assessment must become part of the plan to meet all the child's or young person's needs.
- In every case, all agencies should record relevant information in the same way (ie using the same data standards), so that they can share information with others when necessary.
How flexible can a child's or young person's plan be?
- The plan can be as flexible as necessary in order to meet the child's or young person's needs and to meet current statutory requirements.
- The key parts of the plan are:
- A summary of the needs which have to be addressed.
- What is to be done?
- Who is to do it?
- How will we know if there are improvements?
What makes a good quality plan?
The child's or young person's plan should:
- be as simple as necessary and written so that it can be clearly understood by the child or young person, parents or carers;
- set out the child's or young person's:
- Needs;
- Strengths in their personal, family and environmental circumstances;
- Risks that they face;
- be based on an assessment and analysis of the child's or young person's world - see Section 2;
- be practical, possible and achievable; and
- be regularly monitored and reviewed, and amended as needs or circumstances change.
Action can go ahead without having to wait for every part of an assessment or plan to be completed. Action should be taken to improve matters for the child or young person and to reduce risk as soon as possible, based on the information and evidence available at the time.
Who can the plan be shared with?
- The relevant information in a plan should usually be shared with the people who have contributed to it.
- Access to a plan should be discussed and decided with the child or young person and their family at every stage of planning and a record kept of any consents given to share information.
- The purpose of sharing information is to improve matters for a child or young person. Information should not be shared if it would pose a risk to the child or young person or to others such as a parent or carer.
- Some young people may not want their parents to have access to the entire plan. For example, they may seek contraceptives or contraceptive advice without their parents' knowledge. By law, they can do this in confidence, without their parents' agreement and without the information being passed to their parents.
- A child or young person may be at serious risk of harm or causing harm to others. In that case, information that might help protect themselves or others must be shared with the people responsible for protecting the child or young person or others.
- Children or young people moving on to new circumstances may want plans to be shared in advance with the people who will have responsibility for them in the future.
- Where compulsion may be needed, families should be advised that the child's or young person's plan will go to the Children's Reporter and may go to a Children's Hearing.
- Families should also be told that the child's or young person's plan will go with them and be subject to consents if they move away from home into foster care or into an institution such as a secure unit or prison.
- In some circumstances, there will be legal reasons which control when information can and should be shared.
Can parents or children and young people appeal against a child's or young person's plan?
- In most cases, the child's or young person's plan should be jointly agreed between the children or young people, their parents and professionals.
- Where current law provides a right of appeal for certain types of assessments or plans, that right of appeal remains.
- Parents and children or young people have a right to complain about the content or delivery of specific services. Their views should always be taken into account, except where parental responsibilities and rights have been removed. In some cases, the law allows them to complain to Scottish Ministers or go to a Tribunal.
- Occasionally, professionals may insist on or recommend something to which parents or young people object. If the matter is critical to the child's or young person's wellbeing and the child meets or is likely to meet the grounds for referral to the Children's Hearing, a professional may need to seek compulsory measures and the matter may have to be resolved at a Children's Hearing. The draft Children's Services (Scotland) Bill proposes changes to the grounds for referral to a Children's Hearing
How long does a child's or young person's plan last?
- The plan can be for any length of time, depending on the needs of the child or young person, the exposure to risk, and any statutory requirements for a review.
- Where a child is identified as being at risk or causing a risk to others, reviews should take place often enough for action to be taken quickly if the risk increases. For example, plans for a new-born baby with parents who misuse drugs may need to be reviewed weekly, whilst plans for a teenager with a complex but stable long-term disability may only need to be reviewed every six months.
- Where there is a supervision requirement agreed at a Children's Hearing, the plan should include and explain the terms of the supervision requirement, and may continue after the supervision requirement ends.
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