How a decision is made
Every decision involves all the necessary people working together to use their expertise and what they’ve learnt about your situation. Decisions will always be made with your best interests at heart, and consider everything that has happened to you. Sometimes, as a assessment goes on, some decisions will have to be changed to make sure you get the support you need. If this happens, you will always be told about it and what it will mean. And you will nearly always be asked what you think about it, unless decisions change because you are not safe.
Focusing on what needs to be done
The person in charge of your care will work with you and your family to plan what needs to happen. Many of the services your family will get help from will be for parents or carers as they are the best people to support you. When this is the case, what the services want to achieve will always relate to what’s best for you, even though your parents or carers will be the ones getting the help. Practitioners will visit your home to make sure everything is working properly for you. Talking to all the people in your family when you need help or support is often really important. When practitioners ask all your family members to come together to think about how they can help this is called ‘family group decision-making’. It is a way for families to come together and make important decisions about a child’s safety and happiness and to help find the best solution for the child. In these meetings, sometimes called family group conferences, families can use all the help and support from the family’s wider network. It’s important that everyone feels safe and has all the information they need to make a good plan. These meetings are completely voluntary and an independent person, called a ‘co‑ordinator’, helps organise the meeting, making sure everything goes smoothly and that at the end of the meeting everyone agrees what the plan is for help and this is written down.
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