The child protection plan
If the people at the meeting decide you need a child protection plan, practitioners work together to understand your needs and what they need to do to keep you safe. This will include deciding who the people are who need to be involved, known as the ‘core group’. A child protection plan sets out the things that will happen to make sure you are kept safe and well. Within 10 days of the initial child protection conference, the core group will create a detailed plan to keep you safe. Within three months, the core group reviews the child protection plan to check if it’s working. If there are no ongoing concerns about harm, the plan will end and your family may receive other types of support and help. If there are still concerns, the plan is updated, and another review is held within six months. The goal is always to ensure your safety and well-being, working with your family wherever possible to provide the best outcome. If the plan doesn’t work and it’s not possible to keep you safe at home, the people responsible for the plan will consider whether you need to go and live somewhere else. If they decide this is what needs to happen to keep you safe it will include taking legal steps for you to be looked after by your local council. Sometimes people call this going into care, and it can include living with someone in your wider family or friends network or with foster carers. Sometimes children can’t stay at home with their families. When this happens, it’s called going into care or becoming looked after. Sometimes this can be for a little while and for some children it can be for their whole childhood. Going home from care is called ‘reunification’, and you will receive help and support then as well.
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