Transfer of Cases Protocol

• Social Worker from the Safeguarding or Children with Disabilities Team attends the Initial Child Protection Conference and the Initial Core Group. A manager from the Assessment Team or the Children with Disabilities Team will attend the conference;

• All cases being considered for PLO/care proceedings should be presented to the Legal Gateway Panel following HOS approval.
  Exception to this procedure would be emergency situations where immediate action is necessary. This would require HOS agreement. At this stage allocation of case to a Safeguarding worker will be considered to ensure a timely handover;
• Referral and Assessment Social Worker and their manager will attend the first Pre-Proceedings Meeting in PLO. The allocated Safeguarding Social Worker should also be available for this meeting. Transfer should take place at the Pre-Proceedings meeting for PLO cases;
• In cases where a decision is made to issue care proceedings. The Referral and Assessment Social Worker and manager should be present at the PLO meeting and the Safeguarding Social Worker should attend. The Referral and Assessment Team should complete necessary legal documentation and attend the First Case Management Hearing (FCMH); this will involve SWET, and chronology assessment. The Referral and Assessment worker should also ensure where necessary all LAC documentation is completed. The transfer to the Safeguarding Team should occur at the first Looked after Child Review. If the decision is made to issue care proceedings on a pre-birth case and the case has transferred to the Safeguarding Service at the time of the birth, then the Safeguarding Social Worker will be responsible for producing the SWET;
• The Safeguarding worker should be available for the FCMH to ensure correct timetabling of intervention is planned;
• The Referral and Assessment Team should ensure that a Personal Education Plan meeting is arranged and attended within 20 school days of the child/young person being accommodated;
• A handover/transfer meeting with the Referral and Assessment Team, Safeguarding Team and the family should take place either on a joint visit or a meeting just prior to the start of the first Statutory Review;
• If a child is to be placed with an extended family member and care proceedings is to be issued, then the Referral and Assessment Social Worker will ensure a referral has been made to the Kinship Care team for a viability assessment.
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• The IFD will accept referrals at any stage of pregnancy, however early that might be.
• Where pre-birth rag rating tool indicates risk is HIGH/RED at the outset by IFD, then the case will be transferred straight to safeguarding service for allocation to safeguarding social worker for full Pre-birth assessment. This will be case where there have been previous care proceedings and significant previous involvement within the last two years
• Where it is not determined to be high risk, the case will transfer to the referral and assessment team for an initial C&F assessment and dependent on the outcome will follow the above transfer points for CIN/CP/PLO.

See also Care and Supervision Proceedings and the Public Law Outline Procedure.

• Cases to be transferred to the Safeguarding Team on the completion of the C&F Assessment and a plan in place;
  
  
• A handover/transfer meeting with the Referral and Assessment Team, Safeguarding Team and the family should take place either on a joint visit or just prior to the start of a Child Action meeting;

See Children in Need moving across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure, Annexe A: North West Children in Need Moving across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure.

• Cases to be transferred to LAC Teams on conclusion of final hearing;
  
  
• Long-term fostering/residential placements and Care and Supervision order cases;
  
  
• Children accommodated long term under s.20 where this decision has been ratified at Legal Gateway where there is no realistic plan of rehabilitation.

• UASC to transfer to LAC team upon spontaneous arrival in Bolton once a placement has been identified and child made LAC;

• Referral and Assessment Team Manger will highlight to LAC manager prior to completion of C and F assessment any PF cases. LAC manager will identify allocation of LAC worker;

• Pathway Plan allocated to Leaving Care worker 5 months prior to young person’s 16th birthday;
• A joint visit to the young person between the Social Worker and Leaving Care Social Worker will be undertaken;
• Pathway planning commences; Allocated Social Worker and Leaving Care Social Worker work together to aim for a smooth transition, the Leaving Care Social Worker will not be responsible for statutory tasks but will attend meetings to gather information;
• Allocated Social Worker should update and provide as much information, written and verbal, as possible to Leaving Care Social Worker so they are able to get to know the young person well. Leaving Care Social Worker will explore views of the allocated social worker regarding transition planning and will advise from a Leaving Care perspective;
• Cases to be transferred to Leaving Care Team when a young person is 16; in exceptional cases where this is not possible, discussion and agreement to take place between Team Managers;

• LAC Team Managers to inform LCT Team Managers of potential areas of difficulty so that an earlier or later transfer can be agreed, e.g. GCSE’s, complex needs, etc.
• LAC TM to identify in supervision young people due for transfer so that timely preparation and update can be made;
• LAC TM to audit file for transfer to ensure it is fit for purpose and up to date;
• All cases are a work in progress and we should aim to avoid completing files just at the point of transfer;
• Teams should aim for timely transfer as a late transition impacts upon deadlines for LCT reports.