EXTERNAL PLACEMENT REVIEW PANEL (EPRP)

TERMS OF REFERENCE

  1. Aim

To reduce placement moves and increase placement stability

  • Effective monitoring and scrutiny of placements and support services to ensure wherever possible children achieve stability
  • Allocating resources to support the best possible outcomes for children looked after to ensure young people gain the best possible chance of stability
  • Promoting placement stability by getting the right resources and accommodation in place straight away to meet every child’s individual needs
  • Supporting the social worker in making decisions to achieve permanence for young people as soon possible
  • Making best use of local resource to meet the placement accommodation and support needs of children looked after
  • Ensuring that all partner agencies provide the necessary resources to meet specialist, complex or additional needs.
  • Supporting permanence by bringing young people back into the area
  1. Purpose

The Panel will, where appropriate:

  • Consider all young people with two or more placement moves in the year;
  • Request appropriate information to support discussion and decision making;
  • Challenge practice where necessary to best support stability;
  • Make recommendations to agree if appropriatethe extension of current external placements;
  • Make recommendations to agree if appropriate changes to external care placements, including moving from an internal to an external placement;
  • Decide whether or not additional resources should be allocated to support a current placement;
  • Review all Out of Area placements and ensure children placed ‘at a distance’ continue to be supported to a high standard.
  1. Membership

The core membership of the Panel will be as follows:

  • Service Manager – Children Looked After (Chair)
  • Team Manager – Children Looked After Team
  • Team Manager or rep – Fostering Team
  • Placement Finding Team
  • Virtual School
  • Commissioning
  • Youth Offending Team (YOT)
  • Calderdale Therapeutic Services (CTS)
  • Finance
  • Pathways
  • Residential

The Panel is serviced and supported by the PA to the Service Manager.

  1. Accountability

The Panel is accountable to:

  • Children Looked After whose cases are considered by the Panel
  • Head of Service Early Intervention and Safeguarding
  • Corporate Parenting Panel
  1. Frequency of meetings
  • The Panel will meet fortnightly (unless otherwise agreed)
  1. Review

These terms of reference were agreed at 5th April 2016 meeting and will be reviewed after twelve months of operation.

Review due 5 April 2017.

Anne Tully

Service Manager – Children Looked After

1