Corporate Parents Looked After Children

For many children who come from a looked after care status, moving around from home to home can lead to many negative issues such as low self esteem, lack of self respect, increased levels of truancy as they feel not wanted or that they don’t belong. Children in a looked after care status may be looked after by grandparents. Lack of money for pensioners may lead to little or no activities for the child and they may not be able to go out to play, have few friends or be bullied by their peers, much depends on their grandparents age and also their ability to be able to encourage and promote activities with the child.

The sooner any issues or concerns are raised the sooner the child or young person can be monitored and help or assistance given.

Children Act 2006 – Is an Act that defines the new duties imposed on the Local Authorities in respect to improving the Every Child Matters outcomes for pre-school children. The Act also defines new rules in relation to childcare for working parents as well as parental information services. It is aimed at improving the well-being of young children. It emphasises the importance of safeguarding children and young people within an educational setting. If a child discloses neglect or abuse; an establishment should have instructions to help the child. This could be referral to an outside organisation or internally.

Section 17 – States that services should be put into place to ‘safeguard and promote the welfare of children within the (local authority) area who are in need’.

A corporate parent is where a local authority has taken full parental responsibility of a child or young person, this could be for a number of reasons and a full care order will have been obtained from the courts. (Section 31)

In this assignment I am going to explain the roles and responsibilities of two members of the work force that look after children and young people and evaluate the regulation of care provision for looked after children and young people.

It is important to ensure children and young people are protected from harm within the setting, as the parents are leaving their children in your care with the expectation that they can trust you and your colleagues to keep their children from harm. It is difficult for parents to leave their children in an education or care setting and then go to work; they need to be confident that their children will be in safe supportive hands with people that will help them develop.

M1- Discuss how policies and procedures help children, young people and their families whilst the child is being looked after.

I make sure that individuals are provided with care by making sure they are clean, rested, fed and that they are supported in their intellectual, social and emotional needs. You communicate with other people to provide seamless care such as arranging and attending appointments or carrying out treatments.

When considering a child’s needs and routines in your setting, it is important that we communicate with the parents and find out a little about the home setting so we can carry it on when they come into our care, the more we talk to the parents the more we can help the child’s emotional needs and routines.

This Act, which regulates the childcare in England, formalise the important strategic role of local authorities play through a set of duties. These duties require

Children may need to be taken into care/fostered due to many reasons, such as child neglect or abuse, parental loss, imprisonment, hospitalization or bereavement. Occasionally, children may sometimes be taken into care due to their behavioural problems. Despite this, it is important to understand that young people may need to leave due to problems related to themselves, and not just their families. An example would be if a child had been diagnosed with an illness that the family are not able to take care of, the child may have to be hospitalized or cared for professionally. Or the child may present difficult behaviour

Children are placed in foster care because of society's concern for their well-being. Any time spent by a child in temporary care should be therapeutic but is often harmful to the child's growth, development, and well-being. They could be beaten by their foster parents, which will cause move truma in their life. When children

In simple terms this is putting the child at the centre of all aspects of child care. This helps you to realize a child’s needs assess their development and any likes and then adjustments can be made to suit different children. Children should be encouraged to make appropriate decisions, which should improve their self confidence and it is important to let the child go at the pace their comfortable with. The following should be considered:

Extra care housing is a preventative model, supporting independence and avoiding admissions into residential care;