The Child I am Caring For is Leaving in an Unplanned Way

Disruption Meetings

Unplanned endings for a child you are caring for nearly always leave all those concerned feeling bad. Your  fostering social worker will want to work with you to make sure that everything is done to support you with children and young people cared for by you and to manage difficulties. We would hope that this would be an avoidable situation and that care team meetings and support provided to prevent an unplanned ending.

When you are struggling, use your support mechanisms to help you to find a way forward.

However, not all caring situations work out. Disruption is the word used to describe when a child you care for leaves before they were supposed to.

A disruption can also occur when Children’s Social Care feel that the child being cared for by you is no longer meeting their  needs or you decide that you are no longer able to care for a child or the child decides they do not want to be cared for by you.

It is vital that for whatever reason this ends, you make the move for the child as positive as possible.

A Disruption Meeting may be arranged.

These meetings may be held a little while after the actual disruption so that some of the immediate feelings of upset have reduced. They will consider all aspects of the placement in an attempt to understand what happened and try to heal or move forward with learning for you, professionals and to minimise this happening again for the child/young person. Disruption Meetings can sometimes feel challenging as we are asking everyone to reflect and learn from any themes or practice, but it is important to recognise that their purpose is not to blame anyone but to reach a better understanding of what happened, including whether more support should have been provided. Most carers who have been through  this type of ending have found the Disruption Meeting helpful as a way of closure and healing from the worries and challenges going on at the time.

Who may attend:

• You;
• The child, if appropriate;
• Your fostering social worker and their manager;
• The child’s social worker and their manager;
• The proposed carer;
• Independent Reviewing Officer;
• Any other relevant people. 

The Chair of the meeting should ensure that the circumstances that led to the disruption are reviewed, and that everyone has the opportunity to express their views in order to:

• Find out how and why the disruption happened;
• Learn from what happened and avoid the same thing happening again - for the child/others in your home;
• Identify the positive work and good experiences for the child amongst all the difficulties;
• Support all parties involved and help them carry on and bring some healing or recover;
• Contribute to the future planning for the child/young person;
• Identify work to be done and who will do it;
• If there are any themes for learning.

The Chair will make sure minutes are sent to all those involved. The report of the Disruption Meeting may be presented to the fostering panel.

A Looked After Review should also be arranged.

A review may also be held to look at your approval terms.