5.1.6 Disruption Meetings

Consideration should always be given to convening a Disruption Meeting in relation to children whose placement has ended abruptly or on an unplanned basis.

For children whose adoptive placement disrupts, a Disruption Meeting must take place - see Disruption of Adoptive Placement Procedure.

An "off line" manager will usually chair the meeting. In complex cases, however, consideration will be given to appointing an independent person as chair.

Those invited, or asked to contribute, should be:

The child;
The parents;
The child's social worker and manager;
The link worker/keyworker (for residential care) and home manager;
The foster carer(s) and supervising social worker;
The child's Independent Reviewing Officer;
The child's current carers;
Other relevant staff/professionals.

The meeting will ensure the child (depending on his or her age and level of understanding) is given the opportunity to understand the reasons for and be supported with managing the transition.

Where appropriate, foster carers must be supported to maintain links with children who leave their care.

The precise agenda will depend on the child/circumstances, but the chairperson should ensure the circumstances leading to the disruption are properly reviewed, and that all concerned are provided with opportunities to express their views freely with a view to establishing:

How and why the emergency/disruption occurred;
To learn from what happened and avoid the same thing happening again - for the child or others in the placement;
To contribute to the future planning for the child;
To identify work to be done and to ensure it is completed;
To ensure that appropriate notifications and other post placement arrangements have been undertaken.

Minutes should be taken, recorded on the child’s file and circulated to all concerned.

In relation to the disruption of an external residential placement, consideration needs to be given to further use of the resource by the authority.

In relation to the disruption of a permanent foster placement, where the foster carers are in-house approved carers, consideration should be given to holding an early Foster Carer Review to consider the foster carer's approval - see Review of Foster Carers Procedure.

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