Supervision Order Procedure

1. Introduction

Under Section 31 (2) of the Children Act 1989 on the conclusion of care proceedings the local authority can be granted a Supervision Order; while a Supervision Order has the same threshold criteria as a Care Order the two orders are completely different in application. A Care Order gives the local authority Parental Responsibility for a child, a Supervision Order does not, but it places a responsibility on the local authority to "advise, assist and befriend" the child and by extension, the people with whom the child lives.

A Supervision Order is designed to allow the local authority to keep a reasonable amount of control over the child where there has been harm or a risk of harm but not enough continuing harm to warrant a Care Order.

2. The Supervision Order Plan

A plan as to how a Supervision Order is to be implemented will be submitted to the court during proceedings. Children and young people who are subject of a Supervision Order in Derbyshire will have a child's plan in place to ensure that any agreed actions by the family and professionals are clear and outcome focused. The plan will mirror the detail as presented to the court within the Court Care Plan. The plan should be specific and purposeful in its aim to reduce risk and build on strengths to support the child in their care arrangement.

For each Supervision Order, consideration must be given as to whether the best type of plan for the child is a Child Protection Plan, or a Child in Need Plan.

• A Child Protection Plan should be considered appropriate for a minimum of 6 months where a child is returning to carers in whose care the significant harm originally occurred;
• A Child in Need plan may be considered appropriate where a child is going to be living with carers who were not responsible for the significant harm e.g. a Special Guardianship Order with grandparents.

3. Child in Need Meetings and Reviews

For those subject to a Child in Need plan and a Supervision Order the following meeting schedule will apply:

• The Child in Need plan is recorded on Mosaic and will be subject to regular 'multi-agency network /Child in Need meetings, at a minimum of 6 weekly, for the duration of the Supervision Order (the Child's Plan on Mosaic should be categorised as a Supervision Order Plan via the drop down selection');
• The Child in Need meeting will be chaired by the case holder. A Supervision Order Review meeting will be held at 3 and 9 months. These reviews will be of the Child in Need plan and will be chaired by a Service Manager who is not the direct line manager for the Social Worker to afford a degree of independent scrutiny of the plan;
• A rigorous overview should be conducted at the review 3 months prior to the expiry date of the Supervision Order to determine if there is a need for the Supervision Order to be extended. Legal advice should be sought if it is felt a further period of supervision is required. 3 months allows sufficient time for a further application to be made to the Court.

At any time it may be necessary to "step up" a Child in Need case to Child Protection and this should always be considered an option if the level of concern or risk begins to escalate

All Child in Need/Child Protection meetings and Supervision Order reviews should have clear minutes available to ensure that actions are clearly understood by the child/young person their family and professionals and the plan on Mosaic updated after each meeting has taken place.

It is expected that children subject to a Supervision Order are visited at a minimum of every 4 weeks and that the child/ren are spoken to alone. The visit will be recorded on Mosaic using the headings in the Stronger Families Safer Children Well-being grid.

If the child is subject to a Child Protection Plan, then the usual Child Protection processes apply; including timescales around visiting (see the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures for more information).

4. Children Out of County

If a child who is subject to a Supervision Order moves out of county, the local authority area into which the child moves must be notified of the child's move.

Where this is known in advance, the social worker will write to the relevant local authority advising of the move and include a copy of the Supervision Order and a copy of the single assessment and child's plan. This should happen even if Derbyshire are remaining responsible for the Supervision Order and the child's plan.