Looked after children Policy

Policy statement

At Roots and Wings Preschool we believe that understanding the importance of attachment, especially for children who have experienced trauma and insecure attachments with primary caregivers, is paramount for successful transitions and for healing, love and nurture at Preschool.

Every time a child moves from one living situation to another it involves separation from a caregiver and the likely disruption of an attachment. Changing practitioners or settings can also disrupt relationships that have particular meaning for children. Children need to create a coherent autobiography for themselves to develop their identity and sense of self.

We at Roots and Wings Community Preschool therefore make ensuring children feel safe, loved, and securely attached to significant adults in their lives our top priority, fostering a feeling of belonging and being nurtured both at home and in the setting.

Procedures

Definition of ‘Looked after Children’:

Children and young people become ‘looked after’ if they have either been taken into care by the local authority or have been accommodated by the local authority (a voluntary care arrangement). Most looked after children will be living in foster homes, but a smaller number may be in a children’s home, living with a relative or even placed back home with their natural parent(s).

We recognise that children who are being looked after have often experienced traumatic situations; physical, emotional or sexual abuse or neglect. However, we also recognise that not all looked after children have experienced abuse and that there are a range of reasons for children to be taken into the care of the local authority. Whatever the reason, a child’s separation from their home and family signifies a disruption in their lives, and a break of attachment to a primary carer, that has impact on their emotional well-being.

At Roots and Wings Community Preschool, we place emphasis on promoting children’s right to be strong, resilient and listened to. Our policy and practice guidelines for looked after children are based on these two important concepts, attachment and resilience. The basis of this is to promote secure attachments in children’s lives as the basis for resilience. These aspects of well-being underpin the child’s responsiveness to learning and are the basis in developing positive dispositions for learning. For young children to get the most out of educational opportunities, they need to be settled enough with their carer to be able to cope with further separation, a new environment and new expectations made upon them.

Principles

• The term ‘looked after child’ denotes a child’s current legal status; this term is never used to categorise a child as standing out from others. We do not refer to such a child using acronyms such as LAC.
• Where applicable, we contribute to any assessment about the child, and to any multi- agency meetings, case conferences or strategy meetings in relation to the child’s learning and development. Our well-being and belonging lead and/or the child’s key person will attend meetings as appropriate.
• In exceptional circumstances, we offer places to two-year-old children who are in care. In such cases, the child should have been with the foster carer for at least two months and show signs of having formed a secure attachment to the carer, and where the placement in the setting will last a minimum of three months.
• We offer places for funded three- and four-year-olds who are in care to ensure they receive their entitlement to early education. We expect that a child should have been with the foster carer for at least two months and show signs of having formed a secure attachment to the carer, and where the placement in the setting will last a minimum of three months.
• Where a child who normally attends Roots and Wings Community Preschool is taken into care and is cared for by a local foster carer, we will continue to offer the placement for the child.

Procedures

• Our well-being and belonging lead is Lou Barlow. She is also the designated child protection co-ordinator, alongside Marlis Juerging-Coles
• Every child is allocated a key person before they start and this is no different for a looked after child. The well-being and belonging lead ensures the key person has the information, support and training necessary to meet the looked after child’s needs.
• Where applicable, we contribute to any assessment about the child, and to any multi-agency meetings, case conferences or strategy meetings in relation to the child’s learning and development. Our well-being and belonging lead and/or the child’s key person will attend meetings as appropriate.
• The well-being and belonging lead and the key person liaise with agencies, professionals and practitioners involved with the child and his or her family, and ensure appropriate information is gained and shared.
• We recognise the role of the local authority social care department as the child’s ‘corporate parent’ and the key agency in determining what takes place with the child. Nothing changes, especially with regard to the birth parent’s or foster carer’s role in relation to the setting without prior discussion and agreement with the child’s social worker.
• At the start of a placement there is a professionals’ meeting that will determine the objectives of the placement and draw up a care plan that incorporates the child’s learning needs. This plan is reviewed at regular intervals.
• The care plan needs to consider such issues for the child as:
  • the child’s emotional needs and how they are to be met;
  • how any emotional issues and problems that affect behaviour are to be managed;
  • the child’s sense of self, culture, language/s and identity, and how this is to be supported;
  • the child’s need for sociability and friendship;
  • the child’s interests and abilities and possible learning journey pathway; and
  • how any special needs will be supported;
• In addition the care plan will also consider:
  • how information will be shared with the foster carer and local authority (as the ‘corporate parent’), as well as what information is shared with whom and how it will be recorded and stored;
  • what contact the child has with his/her birth parent(s), and what arrangements will be in place for supervised contact. If this is to be at the setting, when, where, and what form the contact will take will be discussed and agreed;
  • who may collect the child from preschool, and who may receive information about the child;
  • what written reporting is required
  • wherever possible, and where the plan is for the child’s return home, the birth parent(s) should be involved in planning; and
  • with the social worker’s agreement, and as part of the plan, the birth parent(s) should be involved in the setting’s activities that include parents, such as outings, fun-days etc alongside the foster carer.
• The settling-in for the child is agreed. It should be the same as for any other child, with the foster carer taking the place of the parents, unless otherwise agreed. It is even more important that the ‘proximity’ stage is followed until it is visible that the child has formed a secure attachment relationship with his or her key-person. Such an attachment should make the key-person sufficient to act as a ‘secure base’ to allow the gradual separation from the foster carer. This process may take longer in some cases, so time needs to be allowed for it to take place without causing further distress or anxiety to the child.
• In the first two weeks after settling-in, the child’s well-being is the focus of observation, their sociability and their ability to manage their feelings with or without support.
• Further informal observations about communication, interests and abilities will be noted to form a picture of the whole child in relation to the Early Years Foundation Stage key areas of learning, alongside our normal learning stories
• Concerns about the child will be noted in the child’s file and discussed with the foster carer
• If the concerns are about the foster carer’s treatment of the child, or if abuse is suspected, these are recorded in the child’s file and reported to the child’s social care worker according to our safeguarding children procedure.
• Regular contact should be maintained with the social worker through planned meetings that will include the foster carer.
• Transition to school will be handled sensitively, and the well-being and belonging lead and/or the child’s key person will liaise with the school, passing on relevant information and documentation. The child’s individual file will be passed on to the carer at this stage.

Further Guidance

• Guidance on the Education of Children and Young People in Public Care (DfEE, 2000)
• Who Does What: How Social Workers and Carers can Support the Education of Looked After Children (DfES, 2005)
• Supporting Looked After Learners – A Practical Guide for School Governors (DfES, 2006)
• Love and Nurture in the Early Years (Bradbury & Grimmer, 2024)

Legal Framework

• Childcare Act (2016)
• Adoption of Children Act (2002)
• Children and Social Work Act (2017)
• Children and Families Act (2014)