Sussex Child Protection and Safeguarding Procedures
Sussex Child Protection and Safeguarding Procedures Sussex Child Protection and Safeguarding Procedures

3.1.11 Management of Supervision Orders in Family Support
  1. This protocol is to cover the circumstance where it is intended that a Supervision Order within Care Proceedings be implemented and managed in the Family Support setting
  2. When the Court is thinking of making a Supervision Order, our legal representatives should seek, and expect, clarity from the Court about the desired outcome of the disposal.
  3. Before the Final Hearing, the Social Work Fieldwork Team should have met with the Family Support Team that will be required to implement the order, and agreed how the desired outcome could be achieved, when the work will start, and the name of the allocated worker. These Guidelines could be made available to the Court with a view to them being incorporated in the order where this would be helpful to parties, but the order should allow for subsequent flexibility.
  4. Within the proceedings, we should seek as a bare minimum a simple contract between the department and the family stating their willingness to work in partnership with the Family Support Team to achieve the outcome.
  5. The core of the work that will then take place during the twelve-month life of the Supervision Order will be a single Family Support Plan, drawn up with the family as true partners and involving other services as necessary. This should be "family-centric", realistic and achievable. The Family Support Team key worker will be responsible for ensuring that the plan is formally agreed by the Practice Manager and subsequently reviewed by the PM with the family at least every six months. Other reviews of progress should take place at an appropriate frequency, convened and chaired by the key worker, following the established Family Support Review model.
  6. The progress of the case should be discussed routinely in supervision as per policy.
  7. The PM chaired review taking place three months prior to the lapse of the Supervision Order must address the following:
    1. the degree to which the work has achieved the desired outcome
    2. recommend whether or not any further support could/should be in place and, if so, specify the nature of that support
    3. specify the degree of risk that would be present if the family and the department ceased to work together
    4. recommend whether a continuation of the order should be sought. In the event that this seems a possibility, legal advice should have been sought prior to the review.
  8. The review must be electronically copied to the Senior Reviewing Officer and legal services for their overview of the recommendations at least one month before the lapse of the order. Their view should be requested and recorded.
  9. The final decision about the conduct of the case, whatever it is, will need the endorsement of the Family Support Service Manager.
  10. If an extension of the order is needed, this will require a Legal Planning Meeting and the re-involvement of the fieldwork team to progress.

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