Child Protection Plan, CPP.
Child Protection Plans Explained.
case conference.....
The basics on how it works is...
The child protection plan is the next stage up to a child in need plan and it basically means your child needed a care protection plan and issues needed to be addressed in order to protect your children
Child Protection plans are maintained with case conferences and are held with an independent reviewing officer (chair) which it's very formal with minutes being taken and can seem quite intimidating at the time.
Try to stay calm! The moment you lose your temper they will label you as being mentally unbalanced.
While you are on a Care protection plan you wont have much choice other then to comply with them and to do what they ask of you if you refuse to co-operate then you give them grounds to escalate your case further on to court proceedings called Public Law Outlines.
You will had to attend case conferences with an independent reviewing officer the first conference will be the decider on whether your family need to be placed on a child Protection plan or not if they decide that your children need safeguarding and placed on to a child Protection plan then the second conference will be held 3 months later after that case conferences will be held at every 6 month intervals.
Inbetween the case conferences you will had to attend another set of meetings regularly which are called core group meetings and these are held every 4-6weeks. They are not as formal as the case conferences and are usually held at your childrens school, children's services office or can even be held at your home. These are purely to check that the case conference plans are being met and kept and what progress is being made.
They may insist that you do a parenting assessment.
They may request that you have a psychological assessment.
They may ask you to attend parenting classes.
They might carry out unexpected spot checks.
They might insist on a hair strand test for the misuse of drugs.
They might even insist on regular weekly urine tests for the indicator of any misuse of drugs, This can be over a very lengthy period of time, anything from a few months right up to a year.
They might insist that you work with an outside agency like swift or similar.
They may ask you to attend cognitive behavioral therapy counselling.
They will also set out what the situation is with your partner aswell and who can and cannot be around your children supervised or unsupervised.
Advice on how to help get your case stepped down from Child Protection plan to Child In Need Plan.
If you are looking at having your case reduced down from care protection plan down to child in need plan then you should have been given a form to fill out called "notes for conference".
This is what the independent reviewing/chair officer iro/ico needs to hear from families and what they will be looking for first before they will even consider stepping down any case.
You have to play it smart they hate handing these forms out infact very few families even know they exist.
Print off the form at the top of this post and fill it in.
On this form you will have sections to fill out which are as follows..
Why are people worried about my children?
Write the original concerns in this box as this show you have insight of the concerns raised and you have the understanding of them.
What things do people need to know more about?
I can understand where the original concerns have come from and can see why children's services felt the need for a child Protection plan and to work with my family.
What things work well in my family?
I have worked hard with all the professionals involved with my familys case and we have learnt a lot from children service's during this time on child Protection plan and while working with them.
Are my children safe?
Yes I now feel I have done everything asked of me and everything possible to address all the concerns that have been raised.
What things do I need to know more about?
I believe I have learnt a great deal while working with children Services and I think that I have gained knowledge and insight and there is nothing that has not been covered in the work I have completed but of course I would not hesitate to contact the childrens services if any other concerns arise.
What things need to change? And who can help us to make those changes?
Nothing I have had all the changes ask of me by children service's and i feel that I have achieved a lot in order to be a better mother.
You also get a blank box for you to add you own comments in.
My advice for this box is to add the following..
Thank you for all your help and input but at this present time i do not feel that my children need to stay on a child Protection plan any longer as there is nothing now that cannot be maintained via a child in need plan. i thank all the professionals who have helped and worked with me.
The children’s father is supposed to have been risk assessed again by the time this conference comes around but nothing has been started yet. Is this grounds for us to be lowered to cin as the professional isn’t carrying out her part of the plan but we have followed everything to the letter for compliance. I just want them to go away and leave us alone.