Local Keywords

Absconded

A child is to be considered 'an absconder' if they are absent from their place of residence without authority and whilst this is not out of character it is in circumstances that give concern for the safety of the child, or where there is potential danger to the public. There may be a history of such behaviour by the child. Children who break their bail or remand conditions will automatically fall within this definition and such cases should be reported to the police immediately.

Adoption and Permanence Panel

The Adoption and Permanence Panel contributes to the running and quality assurance of the local authority's adoption service and receives annual reports on the service and its performance.

Adoption Plan Review

Under the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005, Adoption Reviews must be held in relation to children where authority to place the child has been obtained by the local authority either through a Placement Order or the obtaining of witnessed parental consent to the placement. This supersedes the requirement to hold Looked After Reviews (Me and My World Reviews) in relation to the child.

Area Panel

The Area Panel is a Regular meeting of heads of service within each locality with invitees according to the cases presented. The Panel is chaired by AD and administered by their PA. The meeting to coincide with Area Managers Branch Meeting and should be convened fortnightly.

The panel will meet to consider the multi-agency responses and help make planning decisions in respect of care packages, resource deployment and financial implications, for children who are at risk of becoming looked after or excluded.

The panel will also consider those children who are in care proceedings, experiencing significant family breakdown and on CPR as well as those whose situations are causing concern/where the professional feels "stuck" and sees the need for additional resources and multi-agency support.

The Panel will not consider children with a severe disability as other panel processes are already in place.

There will be a maximum of 4 cases/families per panel.

Case File

A Case File is a folder which can be held on Eclipse, the Brighton and Hove Children's Service Shared Drive facility and as a paper file, which contains information relating to work with an individual service user and contains case records; financial statements; legal documents; service agreements; correspondence and reports. As a main principle of this policy it is not a requirement to hold a hard paper copy of a particular document or piece of recording unless no alternative exists for storing that particular piece of recording.

To see more detailed Guidance, go to Recording Policy for Children's Social Work.

Case Record

A Case Record is the written account of the Brighton and Hove Children's Services intervention. It is contained on the Integrated Children's System (ICS) within Eclipse, the 'Shared Drive' facility and in paper files. It details contacts with the service user, their family and/or carers; work undertaken and to be completed; case objectives, procedures to be followed; the assessment; care plan; placements; movements and reviews.

To see more detailed Guidance, go to Recording Policy for Children's Social Work.

Confidential Information

Confidential information relates to all documents filed with the court. These are confidential to the parties to the proceedings. This confidentiality lasts indefinitely and does not end at the conclusion of the proceedings. Thus documents cannot be released to anyone outside the Brighton and Hove Children's Services e.g. other local authorities, Probation or other departments within Brighton and Hove without the leave of the court.

To see more detailed Guidance, go to Recording Policy for Children's Social Work.

Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategies

Strategies prepared pursuant to Sections 6(e) to 6(6) inclusive of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998

Data

Data is a term used in our Recording Policy to describe any set of information relating to an individual or individuals, which is being processed either electronically or manually with the intention that it is required for the purposes of recording, planning or auditing.

To see more detailed Guidance, go to Recording Policy for Children's Social Work.

Data Owner

A party who determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal data are to be disclosed (sometimes referred to as the data controller).

Depersonalised Information (Data)

Data which is provided to another party (the recipient) in a format where it is not possible to identify any living individual.

Missing

A child will be classed as 'missing' if they are absent and staff or carers do not know where they are or when they are likely to return, and/or there are any circumstances giving rise to concern for the child. Such behaviour is likely to be out of character for the child and their absence should be reported immediately to the Police.

Multi Agency Team or Panel

A formally constituted team or panel comprised of representatives of different agencies, at least one of the objectives of which is consistent with one or more of the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. An example would be the Brighton and Hove Youth Offending Team. It is envisaged that the list of such teams or panels will be determined locally.

Personal Information

Personal Information (data) - data which relate to a living individual who can be identified either

• From the data;
  
  or
  
  
• From the data, and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller.

and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.

Privileged Information

Privileged information relates to any communication between solicitor and client i.e. Legal Services and Brighton and Hove Children's Services staff. This covers records of memos and letters, and minutes of legal planning meetings etc. These should not be made available to Children's Guardians.

To see more detailed Guidance, go to Recording Policy for Children's Social Work.

Public Interest Criteria

Can include, but are not limited to:

• The prevention of crime and disorder;
• The detection of crime;
• The apprehension of offenders;
• The protection of vulnerable members of the community;
• Maintaining public safety;
• The administration of justice;
• Diverting young offenders.

Recipient (Data)

Any party to whom data is disclosed.

Resource Allocation Panel

Definition to follow in next draft

South East Adoption Consortium

The South East Adoption Consortium is a consortium of six local authorities that joined forces to improve services to children needing permanent families and prospective adopters. The Consortium partners are Brighton and Hove, Bexley, Bromley, East Sussex, Kent and Medway.

The Consortium aims to maximise placement choice for children approved for adoption by sharing prospective adopters.

In addition to the family finding activity the Consortium offers a valuable forum for discussing policy and practice issues. The Consortium authorities also collaborate on certain recruitment and training activities.