Introduction
A care team is required for every child in care, except for permanent care and adoptive placements.
A care team is the group of people who jointly look after a child while the child is in care. Each care team has a convenor (lead for the care team).
A CSO or ACCO providing the placement or kinship care case contracting is responsible for establishing, leading and convening the care team. The convenor will usually be a CSO or ACCO staff member.
Child Protection is responsible for establishing, leading and convening the care team (with the convenor usually being the allocated child protection practitioner) if:
- the placement is provided by the department
- a kinship placement is not receiving contracted case management from a CSO or ACCO.
See Care teams - advice for additional information.
Procedure
Child protection practitioner tasks
- Actively participate in the care team for all children in court ordered placements except for permanent care and adoption placements, or when case management is contracted to a CSO.
- Record on the relationships tab on CRIS who the members of the care team are, contact details and their role and responsibility within the care team.
- Support staff in a CSO or ACCO providing the placement or kinship care contracted case management and those involved in the day-to-day care of the child by:
- providing necessary statutory authorisations or consents
- sharing information needed to provide good care with all care team members
- supporting collaborative care arrangements (including contact (access) arrangements) being made in the best interests of the child.
- If the case is contracted and you are the allocated child protection practitioner from the contracted case management team overseeing the case contract, support and monitor the effective working of the care team
- Share information about the child’s case plan with the care team.
- Update the essential information categories as new information and evidence is received and review the risk assessment and case plan as required.
- Share MARAM assessments, including safety plans, subject to information sharing provisions, as they are completed and endorsed.
- Actively support the care team to contribute to safety and behavior support planning for young people with high risk behaviors and be aware of care team members roles and responsibilities within the safety and/or behavior support plan (see high-risk youth procedure for more information on behaviour support plans and safety plans).
- Provide information about any safety plans or behavior support plans to the service provider so the LAC records and Care and Placement Plan can be updated.
- Participate in the care team process and consider the care team’s views in the development of the child’s case plan. Any care management concerns that are unable to be resolved by the care team must be referred to the case planner for resolution. In certain cases, such as a high-risk child who is in crisis or is experiencing unstable placement arrangements, the case management process may require greater child protection or more frequent meetings. In such cases the case planner will determine whether day-to-day care management processes are led by Child Protection, including in cases where case management has previously been contracted to a CSO or ACCO.
- Ensure the child’s voice is heard during care team meetings, if they feel comfortable attending in person, or practitioners may use the SAFER ‘My Views’ resources to collect the child’s wishes and feelings and bring to the care team (with the child’s permission).
Care team convenor tasks
- Establish, lead and participate in the care team.
- Raise with the case planner any concerns or issues regarding parents participating in the care team.
- Lead care and placement planning, and for Aboriginal children, cultural plan preparation, within required timelines.
- Where Child Protection is the care team convenor, document care team meeting minutes and notes on CRIS to accurately reflect case progress and who is taking responsibility for different tasks and timelines.
- Confirm responsibility for all required actions are clearly allocated to a specific member of the care team.
- Track progress of actions and arrange appropriate follow-up as required
- Facilitate the care team process.
- Resolve disputes between care team members in the best interests of the child.
- Where a dispute cannot be resolved within the care team, escalate to the child’s case planner for resolution.
Care team tasks
Note: responsibility for specific tasks should be allocated to a specified care team member.
- Make the arrangements for the child’s day-to-day care.
- Engage the child in an age-appropriate manner to have a say and keep them informed about the arrangements being made for their day-to-day care.
- Encourage the child’s parents to be part of their child’s care team unless the case planner has determined this is not safe or practical, until the child returns to parental care, or reunification is not consistent with the court order.
- Encourage and support the child’s carer or parent(s) (where appropriate) to be part of the child’s care team.
- Manage the contact arrangements for the child with their parents, siblings and extended family.
- Obtain, utilise and update the essential information about the child that is needed by all care team members using the Looking After Children Essential Information Record.
- Assess and respond to the changing needs of the child in care and monitor the outcomes for the child using the Looking After Children Assessment and Action Records.
- Develop, implement and review the child’s care and placement plan using the Looking After Children Care and Placement Plan or the 15+ Care and Transition Plan and the Looking After Children Review of the Care and Placement Plan, at least every six months.
- Develop, implement and review cultural plans for Aboriginal children.
- Support the implementation of positive cultural connections for children from culturally and linguistically diverse groups.
- Manage day-to-day liaison with pre-schools or schools and participate in student support groups for school aged children. This may include facilitating education assessments and deciding which member(s) of the care team will be directly involved in developing the child’s individual education plan with the school.
- Obtain and compile information needed by the child’s GP, mental health worker or any other specialist undertaking health assessments for the child.
- Ensure initial health checks are conducted within four weeks of entry to care and any necessary follow up assessments or health reviews occur.
- Confirm the health check occurred, obtain the outcomes of the health check and implement any recommendations arising from these health assessments.
- Support the child to maintain positive connections and relationships with their family, friends, school, community and culture and/or support the child to reconnect and rebuild their network of relationships.
- Support the child to experience the ‘ordinary plenty’ of a good life by developing their interests and enabling them to participate in a range of community activities.
- Monitor and respond to all incident reports including tracking history and patterns of incident reports following the CIMS process.
- Undertake any actions needed to support the child following any adverse events, whether directly or indirectly, including critical incidents.
- Plan for, engage and prepare the child to return home or to move to another placement if required and ensure up-to-date care records are transferred to the new care team where applicable.
- Plan for, engage and prepare a young person to leave care and make a successful transition to adulthood at the required age, if not returning to parental care or moving to permanent care.
Case planner tasks
- Determine whether parents are to be encouraged to participate in the care team.
- Resolve disputes between care team members in the best interests of the child.
- Endorse review risk assessments and reviewed case plans where required.
Team manager tasks
- Arrange a suitable care team convenor in cases where Child Protection is responsible for convening the care team and the allocated child protection practitioner cannot chair.
Additional information