Visits & reviews
What is a looked-after child review?
A looked-after child review is the periodic meeting, chaired by an independent reviewing officer, that considers a child's care plan and whether it is meeting their needs.
It is the child's meeting. Their participation, in whatever form works for them, is the point of it rather than a courtesy, and a review where the child was not meaningfully involved has missed its purpose.
The independent reviewing officer sits outside the home and outside the placing team, and can escalate where a plan is not being delivered.
The home's contribution is its evidence about the child's daily life — progress, relationships, difficulties — which is information nobody else at the meeting has.
In practice
A review meeting a young person chooses not to attend.
The adults go ahead. Decisions are made about contact and education, and he is told the outcome afterwards.
Not attending is not the same as having no view, and a review where the child's wishes are represented only by a form somebody filled in is a review they were absent from in a stronger sense than the physical one.
The useful preparation is somebody sitting with him beforehand and asking, in his words, what he wants said.
What goes wrong in practice
- The home's report prepared at the last minute from memory rather than from records.
- The child's participation treated as attendance rather than involvement.
- Actions from the review not brought back into the home's own plans.