Monitoring and Supervision of Adoptive Placements

1.	Arrangements for and frequency of visits for supervising the placement must be made at Placement and Introductions Planning Meetings and set out in the Adoption Placement Plan - see The Child's Journey - Placement for Adoption Procedure, The Placement. This will involve at a minimum: The child's social worker visiting the child within the first week of the placement and then weekly shared with the adoption social worker until the first review; Thereafter, the frequency of visits will be determined by need and agreed at the child's review. If not specified, this will be set for every 6 weeks for the first year and after this, on a 3 monthly basis as a minimum requirement. Where there are any concerns, additional visits should be arranged. The adopters' social worker will also carry out visits at intervals agreed in the Adoption Placement Plan - and more frequently if circumstances require. The visits should continue until an Adoption Order has been made or until the placement is terminated;
2.	Visits must be made by suitably experienced qualified social workers or social workers/student social workers who are supervised by suitably qualified and experienced social workers - see Section 5, Reports to Adoption Panel, of the Adoption Panel;
3.	Records of all visits must be made and copies placed on the child's Adoption Case Record. Between visits, the social workers involved must discuss progress in the placement and exchange copies and read each other's recording of visits during the monitoring period;
4.	Where there are concerns that the placement is at risk of breaking down, a Disruption Review must be convened immediately by the child's social worker;
5.	The child should be seen alone (if appropriate according to their age and level of understanding) at all of the visits, whether undertaken by the child's social worker or the adopters' social worker, and their wishes and feelings recorded, If there is a specific need for adopters to be seen separately then the reasons for this must be clearly recorded;
6.	The child's social worker will arrange for the child to continue to have health assessments in line with their Individual Health Plan and that the Individual Health Plan continues to be reviewed up to the Adoption Order;
7.	The procedures to be followed where a placement disrupts are set out in Disruption of Adoptive Placement Procedure;
8.	Visits to the child and adopters after the Adoption Order will be made as and when required under the Adoption Support Plan - see Adoption Support Services.