Further core group meetings should take place at least once every six weeks, more frequently if required. The purpose is to ensure the care and support, protection plan is being delivered and is achieving the agreed child-focused outcomes.
The tasks for these meetings are:
- review actions completed by the family and practitioners and the extent to which they have contributed to improving the lived experience of the child and protected them from harm ;
- identify in detail the risks of ongoing significant harm to the child and how these are to be addressed;
- review any completed assessments of the needs of the child and their family and how findings will contribute to further developing the plan, ascertain progress of any commissioned specialist assessments not yet completed and how any findings to date will contribute to further developing the plan;
- agree how the core group will continue implementing the multi-agency work in accordance with conference recommendations;
- monitor progress against the child-centred well-being outcomes, specified in the plan and refining the plan as necessary;
- ensure that parents, and children where appropriate, are fully engaged in the implementation of the plan, and understand the rationale informing the contribution of each agency involved;
- ensure any instances of a practitioner or core group member being denied access to the child and/or home is reported to the other core group members, care and support protection co-ordinator and in their absence the relevant social services manager;
- consider the work that has been undertaken by family members and practitioners and the degree of success, as measured against the child-centred objectives and positive outcomes for the child;
- respond to requests to prepare reports for courts or conferences about the likely effect of specific interventions, or their success with the carers.
The following questions should be considered at each meeting (further detail provided in pointers for practice):
- What has been achieved since the last meeting?
- How well are we working together: child, family and practitioners?
- What has the child and those in contact with them noticed about quality changes to their lived experience?
- Is the child at continuing risk of significant harm ?
- If the plan is not working, do we understand why not?
- If there are identified barriers to change, what are we doing to address them?
- What do we need to achieve before the next meeting?
All core group members should leave the meeting with a clear and shared understanding as to what they are expected to have achieved by the next meeting.
Any actions should be specifically linked to achieving the desired child-focused outcomes. This ensures both the family and practitioners understand both the rationale informing the actions expected of them and the measures of progress.
Pointers for Practice: Progressing The Plan At Core group Meetings And Securing Effective Engagement By Members
Core group tasks at subsequent core group meetings
Prior to each core group meeting members should:
- ensure they are familiar with the plan and work completed by their agency to date;
- establish any contacts the child and family have had with their agency and the nature of any relevant contacts, such as appointments in health services;
- prepare a summary of the work they have completed on the plan and the outcomes achieved against what was expected;
- identify any challenges encountered and any assistance required to achieve the aims of the plan;
- specify family strengths identified that has contributed to improving the outcomes for the child.
Attendance
An effective core group requires active participation by all practitioner members. Therefore, members should make every effort to attend core group meetings. Parents and children are given confusing messages about the importance of attendance and participation if practitioners do not prioritise meetings.
If, however a core group member is unable to attend a meeting they should provide a report that provides sufficient detail regarding contact, work undertaken, challenges and successes, to enable those at the core group to assess the quality and effectiveness of the family and practitioner’s engagement with the plan.
Chairing and participation
Any practitioner member of the core group can chair- it is not the sole responsibility of the care and support protection co-ordinator (social worker).
The core group needs to be chaired effectively.
The chair should:
- ensure the group remain task-focused and the timescales for actions do not drift;
- probe to ensure actions are achieving child-centred outcomes;
- challenge both the family and practitioners if there is a lack of meaningful; engagement with the plan.
Record core group meetings
All core group meetings must be recorded in writing, including notes on the actions agreed and decisions taken. The record of the meeting should be distributed to core group members. Good practice suggests the record should be circulated within 5 working days.
The record should include:
- attendance - and apologies received;
- a review of the record of the previous meeting for accuracy and any outstanding matters;
- actions undertaken by family and practitioners on the plan since the last meeting: progress and outcomes;
- evaluation of plan progress in terms of achieving child-focused outcomes;
- any adjustments, revisions agreed with timescales;
- plan of work to be completed and by whom before next meeting;
- date of next meeting.