Review of Social Care Personal Budget Support Plans (Children with Disabilities Section 17 of the Children Act Reviews)

Advice to Social Workers

Introduction

The Section 17 Children with Disabilities Review Form is a tool to help social workers work and families progress the child’s Social Care Personal Budgetsupport plan which has been agreed with Newcastle City Council. Social care support plans and Personal Budgets are now linked to the child’s Education Health and Care Plan and therefore new information in the social care review needs to be fed into the review process for the Education Health and Care Plan. The aim of the review is to work in a joined up way with the family and there other supports. Where possible the social worker will seek to join the social care review with other review cycles the annual education review etc. When this is not possible the review should still include the perspectives of other services and supports particularly Education and Health services.

The support plan begins to change from the moment it is agreed. This is just the natural progress of life. The review process is about learning, change and accountability. The process is a natural extension of support planning, which is a means of thinking about the child’s life, what they want to change, and how they will use their Social Care Personal Budget as one of the ways to make change. Reviews are a way of ensuring that the social workerand other people involved in the family come together with the family regularly to keep alive the changes that children outlined in their plan.

For many people, these activities form the heart of social work practice - supporting people to review their progress, helping with problem solving and planning next steps. This is a crucial role for social workers in helpingchildren to work towards the lives they dream about and describe in their support plans. It is also a crucial aspect of other council responsibilities: the creation of safe and sustainable communities in which all citizens are included.

A part of the plan will usually be about maintaining support and ensuring that the child’s and the family’s needs are met. This is also part of the review process, checking that the support the family is using is working well and meeting the child’s support needs. It is not an audit but part of the review is to take stock of how families are managing the finance and offer support where necessary.

The plan should reflect what is important to the child but also what is important for the child. Good support plans balance these two themes well. Similarly the review needs to take into account what needs to be in place to help the child thrive for example education, participation opportunities, independence skills and future employability.

Children’s Services have specific skills and duties connected to the safeguarding of children. In every review social workers should be reassured that risks are well managed and the safety aspects of how the plan is progressing are thought through.

The support planning is based clearly around the Children and Childrens Plan 2015-2020three priorities Safe, Equal and Achievingand the review follows these themes. The council also has a statutory duty to provide quality short breaks to disabled children’s families. The review will look to ensure that good short breaks, freely chosen, which help the family to stay strong in loving and caring for their child are in place.To recap,Social Care Personal Budgets for children is about supporting the disabled child, the whole family and improving the families’choice and control in their lives and over their resources.

It is also about getting better at supporting disabled childrento:

  • Maintain and improve their health
  • Become more equal with their non disabled peers
  • Enjoy their childhood
  • Make and spend time with friends
  • Achieve and make progress by learning
  • Learn new skills that make work and purposeful activity in the future a real possibility
  • Take part in their community and know that what they give is valued
  • Combat poverty and ensure they receive all the financial entitlement they are due
  • Stay safe

What social workers specifically need to address in reviews of support plans are the following:

  • To promote the progress of the child towards the Children and Childrens Plan three priorities
  • To find out what has worked and what has not worked in the period we are reviewing
  • To promote change towards what is working
  • To provide information advice and guidance about opportunities and activities in the community
  • To assist families to continue parenting and receive the support they need
  • To support families to manage the Social Care Personal Budget
  • To promote good bookkeeping and help the family prepare for audit
  • To ensure there are sufficient resources that meet the support needs of the child

Preparing for the Review

Prior to the review the social worker should:

  • Listen to the child about what they want to happen next in their life and what they want to say atthe review.
  • Think about what the review means for the child and how they can be involved in the review. A meeting that seems boring to the child makes it unlikely that they will participate. A meeting that is colorful, lively and sensitive to the child’s needs in most situations will help the child to participate.
  • Remember at all times that it is the child’s meeting.
  • Gather together important people in the child’s life and create actions for a better life.Ideally this should include a mix of people who love and care about the child and paid supporters and professionals. Reviews are often more concrete when the supporters who work directlywith the child are present.
  • Prepare to facilitate the meeting ensuring that everyone participates and that the discussion can get to a clear action plan at the end of it.
  • Re-read the support plan and action list prior to the review.

In the preparation and the review itself social workers should act to makethe goals of the support plan easier and simpler. Our aim is to increase the openness and trust in our relationships with families. The ideal relationship which we should strive towards is where social workers are seen by the family to be facilitators helping them stay in control of their lives.

At the Review

Good reviews are:

  • Child centered and ensures that everyone is treated equally and everyone has an equal contribution to make.
  • Well prepared and keep the child at the center of all decisions made.
  • Transparent and power is equally shared.
  • Focused on finding out about what is important to and for the child now and in the future, what help & support they need to get there, and check out if what’s important to them is working or not working.

The discussion should include

  • What is important for the child
  • What they want to change
  • How they will be supported
  • How they will spend their money and manage their support
  • How they will stay in control
  • What they are going to do next

The result should be a clear set of actions which reflect the person as a whole. The process should feel positive, and clearly outcome focused.

Completing the Paperwork

The paper work is important because it helps everyone to remember the discussion and to be accountable for the actions which people have committed to follow through. TheSection 17 Children with Disabilities Review Formis designed to capture the discussion about the life of the child and the progress they are making and to make changes and is designed to be completed at the review. The form alsochecks that the family are managing the money and is better completed separately before the review meeting with the person who is managing the money. In most cases this will be a parent or carer.

Pages 1 and 2

The first two pages are to collect basic details and look at what is working and what is not working.

The review should remember what the goals of the plan were and explore what has been tried. This is an opportunity to check progress and find out what is new in the family’s life that can be built upon or needs attention. This is a chance to explore together opportunities that were unknown at the time of writing the plan.

The discussion may have thrown up good examples of what the child has enjoyed and what has worked. There is a danger that we can pass over these experiences in order to move quickly to solve problems. This however is vital information often showing the good experiences which may build confidence, self esteem and skills. As well as providing important information about the child’s existing strengths and gifts, the question “what are you pleased about?” can also remind people of abilities they may have forgotten and raise their morale in the process.

In looking at the question “what are you concerned about” it is important to support the family to think about what they can do to change this. The role of the worker is not to problem solve on behalf of the family but support the family to think about creative solutions. In this first section the In Control visual map can graphically help children and families to understand how their thoughts are developing.

Throughout the whole form the review is directed to concrete actions. How effective the review is in supporting the family to change will depend on having clear actions that are timed and an identified individual who has committed to take the action forward.

The Councilstrongly wishes to promote mutual support and shared learning amongst Social Care Personal Budget users. It is important that families not only learn from their practice of greater choice and control but are able to share that learning. The last question on page two “What have you learnt and who can you share learning with?”actively promotes one of our key goals: family learning.There are forums wherechildren and parents who use Social Care Personal Budgets can discuss this learning. It is also important to think with the family how others may learn from their pioneering practice who may not yet have aSocial Care Personal Budget in a creative way. Social workers should consider with families sharing learning at disabled families networks, in local, regional and national forums.

Pages 3 and 4

The questions that follow are a quick check to ensure that the familyhas in place what they need to operate a successfulSocial Care Personal Budget. The purpose of this check is to be helpful and to provide any additional support to ensure issues such as employment and managing the money are being carried out safely. In most reviews this quick check can iron out problems and help families to get support when needed.

If there are issues of disagreement or where the social worker is wondering whether the progress the family wants to make can be supported by the council the “Support Planning Guidance” and the “Financial Advice to Families with aSocial Care Personal Budget” are good documents to think about what is possible to support within aSocial Care Personal Budget.

It is understood that the review is not a mini audit but it remains a key social work role to support families to organize their resources and helping families manage their Social Care Personal Budget is part of this work. There are other professionals who have skills to support the families in more detail with financial advice for example the Direct Payment Advice Service and the council’s finance teams. The Direct Payment Advice Service will be able to support families using direct payments with information and advice. If there are clear issues of concern the social worker should seek support from the Council Finance Direct Payment Team and they will offer guidance and support.

The questions “Views of the child, Views of family members” are crucial in hearing the child and family’s voice. This should also aid the review participants to think about the whole family, how the lives of the child’s brothers and sisters are affected and how the support of the extended family is working out.

The questions “what will you do next?” and “does the support plan need to be updated?” leads to families being invited to detail their preferred outcomes in specific, concrete and measurable terms. Goals help people to determine steps forward and evaluate progress. Sometimes the careful detailing of goals can of itself be informative, when people realise that some of what they hope for is already happening.

Martin Donkin
Project Manager Social Care Personal Budgets Pilot
Email

Phone 0191 277 4700

December 2015 2012

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