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Child Welfare

What is the process of a child being referred to social services and entering care?

The process in which a vulnerable child enters foster care involves various components and different groups of people – from the social services to the courts and local authority.

If you are a foster carer or thinking of fostering, you might be wondering how a child enters the radar of social services before they enter foster care. Here is information from Beacon Fostering on how a child is referred to social services before potentially entering the foster care system.

Safeguarding policy and referrals

If someone is concerned about a child’s safety or welfare, they can make a referral to their local social services. They can be a teacher, family physician or youth worker acting according to their employer’s safeguarding policy, or it could also be a parent, relative or friend.

Following this, children’s services have 24 hours to consider whether or not they should take further action, thinking of factors such as services that the child and family require, whether the child needs immediate protection and if there is need for further assessment.

Assessment and interview of the child and their family

If children’s services has concluded that the child is at risk, and/or that they and their family is in need of help, they will send a social worker to check in on the family, and interview the child or children away from the unit. This seeks to analyse what the needs of the child(ren) and family are, as well as any risk of harm to them.

The local authorities will also provide information leaflets on what social services do and how they will operate to help the family. If a child is deemed at risk, there is a strategy discussion regarding further steps that authorities will take.