Permanence Planning Guidance

1. Defining Permanence

The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review defines permanence as the long terms plan for the child's upbringing and provides an underpinning framework for all social work with children and families from family support through to adoption. The objective of planning for permanence is therefore to ensure that children have a secure stable and loving family to support them through childhood and beyond and to give them a sense of security, continuity, commitment, identity and belonging.

Permanence for children has three particular aspects:

1. Legal - e.g. staying with birth parents who have Parental Responsibility; Adoption; or Court Orders such as a Child Arrangements Order or Special Guardianship Order;
2. Psychological - when the child feels attached to an adult who provides a stable, loving and secure relationship;
3. Physical or environmental - a stable home environment within a familiar neighbourhood and community where the child's identity needs are met.

2. Principles for Permanence

1. Every child will have an agreed written Permanence Plan in place at the second Looked after Child Review in accordance with the Care Planning Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 and the Adoption and Children Act 2002;
2. The London Borough of Merton will ensure that systems for assessment, planning and review, are robust, legally compliant and informed by best practice and research;
3. Permanence planning will be child focused and the child's needs will be paramount;
4. Decisions relating to the permanent placement of children will respect the child's ethnic origin, cultural background, religion and language but not be restricted by it in securing timely permanence for the child;
5. The needs of children with additional needs and disabilities will be taken into account as part of the planning and matching process;
6. Children will be consulted in the care planning process (this consultation will be age appropriate), but will be reassured that the burden of decision making does not fall upon them. Children will be prepared for their permanence journey in an age appropriate manner, ensuring that they have the information and support to help them make significant transitions;
7. Parents and carers will be worked with in partnership to ensure that they are consulted with and involved (where appropriate) in decision making about their children;
8. Where siblings become Looked After, careful consideration will be given to their individual needs. When required, sibling assessments will be undertaken using the CoramBAAF Together and Apart Assessment Tool;
9. Every looked after child will be given information on how to make complaints or representations if required and how to access Advocacy services.

3. Key Objectives in Permanence Planning

The objective of planning for permanence is to ensure that children have a secure, stable and loving family to support them through childhood and beyond. Every reasonable effort should be made to prevent drift and delay for children or young people. Decisions need to be taken quickly as possibilities for reunification decrease markedly after four months, and the younger the child at the making of a permanent placement, the greater likelihood of him or her developing good attachments throughout childhood and into adulthood.

The question "How are the child's permanence needs being met?" must be at the core of everything we do.

Where it is necessary for a child to leave his or her family:

• This should be for as short a time as needed to secure a safe, supported return home; or
• If a child cannot return home, plans must be made for alternate permanent care. Family members and friends should always be considered in the first instance with the permanence secured through the appropriate legal order to meet the child's needs;
• Where it is not in the child's best interests to live within the family network, it will usually be in the interests of the child for alternative permanent carers to be identified and the placement secured through adoption, long term foster care, Child Arrangements Orders or Special Guardianship Orders;
• Residential group living is provided only when a need for this is identified within the Care Plan and when substitute family care is not appropriate;
• For older children arranging for their independent living must be considered.

Where it is clear that families and children are unable to live together, planning must be swift and clear to identify permanent alternative settings.

Wherever possible, care should be provided locally unless clearly identified as inappropriate.

Contact with the family, Connected Person and extended family should be facilitated and built on (unless clearly identified as inappropriate).

The professionals involved will work in partnership with parents/families to meet the above objectives. The wishes and feelings of the child will be taken into account. The older and more mature the child, the greater the weight should be given to his or her wishes.

When undertaking permanence planning, all workers have a duty to promote the child's links with his or her racial, cultural and religious heritage by:

• Wherever possible promoting placements enabling the child to be brought up within the same racial, cultural and religious environment as his birth family;
• Identifying a placement which will promote links for the child's race, culture and religion, if the above is not possible.

Practice promoting race equality according to the child's assessed needs must therefore be evidenced within the child's Permanence Plan.

4. Family Group Conference

When consideration is being given to a child becoming looked after, permanence planning and long term outcomes should be given due attention. To facilitate this a Family Networks and Family Group Decision Making Procedure should be convened to enable mapping of the family and social network options.

5. Legal Gateway/Planning Meetings

The purpose of the LPM is to:

• Advise whether the threshold for legal proceedings is met;
• Advise whether to initiate proceedings;
• Consider action required pre-proceedings(NOI) and in relation to issuing proceedings.

6. Tracking and Permanence and Care Planning Meetings

Tracking Meetings and Permanence and Care Planning Meetings have been in place since 2013. These meetings were introduced with an objective to ensure that the local authority care and permanence plans are clear and with specific actions identified to achieve them.

Six weekly tracking meetings are held in respect of all Looked After Children to support management oversight of the care and permanence planning and identify cases where factors may be impacting on permanence outcomes.

Permanence and Care Planning Meetings are convened on all Looked after Children aged between 0-14 years (in certain circumstances meetings will be held on older children in order to support permanence planning).

The purpose of the PCPM is to:

• Monitor the progress of the care plan, including parallel planning;
• Plan for permanence;
• Ensure early identification of factors that may impact on timeliness of Permanence Planning and escalate to senior management where necessary;
• Track progress on Family Finding cases;
• Support preparation of cases for presentation at Panel.

7. Options for Permanence

The options for permanence are:

7.1	Staying at Home
7.2	Placement with Family or Friends/Connected Persons?
7.3	Adoption
7.4	Early Permanence
7.5	Permanent Fostering
7.6	Special Guardianship
7.7	Child Arrangements Orders

7.1 Staying at Home

This option must always be considered. It is important that this is pursued in a robust and diligent manner from the earliest point in order to ensure the quickest possible passage through the legal process; and in particular to demonstrate that all appropriate help and support has been provided to the parents and their support network. Staying at home offers the best chance of stability and research shows that family preservation has a higher success rate than reunification (this must be balanced against the risk of harm to the child).

Where there have been long-standing concerns, it is likely that there will have been a Pre-Proceedings Meeting under the Care and Supervision Proceedings and the Public Law Outline Procedure.

The Pre-Proceedings Meeting should address which assessments or processes could be achieved prior to the application for Care Proceedings. These may include:

• Referral to Family Group Conference;
• Assessment by independent professionals;
• Evidence of a comprehensive evaluation of the child's needs through a robust assessment.

7.2 Placement with Family or Friends/Connected Persons

If the assessment concludes that the child cannot safely remain at home, every effort must be made to secure a placement with a family member or friend/Connected Person as their carer. This will be either as part of the plan to work towards a return home or - if a return home is clearly not in the child's best interests - as the preferred permanence option. It is very important to establish at an early stage which relatives or friends might be available to care for the child, to avoid the kind of delays that can happen during court proceedings where this work has not been done.

7.3 Adoption

See Placement for Adoption for detailed procedures.

Adoption remains unique in that it transfers Parental Responsibility from the birth family and others who had Parental Responsibility including the local authority permanently and solely to the adopters and provides a child with a permanent and legally endorsed place within a new family. The Welfare Checklist in Section 1 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 gives a useful guide to the considerations that should be taken into account when considering adoption for a child. While some level of direct or indirect contact with birth parents is increasing as part of adoptive arrangements, this cannot be the principal consideration for this type of placement. Siblings should normally be placed together but where this is not in the children's best interest contact arrangements will be an important consideration in placement planning.

The child is deemed to be the child of the adopter(s) as if he or she had been born to them. The child's birth certificate is changed to an adoption certificate showing the adopter(s) to be the child's parent(s). A child who is not already a citizen of the UK acquires British citizenship if adopted in the UK by a citizen of the UK.

Research strongly supports adoption as a primary consideration and as a main factor contributing to the stability of children, especially for those under four years of age who cannot be reunified with their birth or extended family.

Adopters may be supported, including financially, by the local authority and will have the right to request an assessment for support services at any time after the Order is made. See Adoption Support Services for detailed procedures.

A child subject to an Adoption Order will be entitled to additional education and Early Years support. This will be accessed through the designated teacher in the child's school/Early Years setting.

See Promoting the education of looked-after and previously looked–after children

Adoption has the following advantages as a Permanence Plan:

1. Parental Responsibility is held exclusively by the carers;
2. The child is no longer Looked After;
3. No future legal challenge to overturn the Adoption Order is possible;
4. Decisions about continuing contact will usually be made by the new parents (on the child's behalf) who are most in touch with the child's needs, although this will be subject to any Contact Order made by the Court at the time of the Adoption Order;
5. The child is a permanent family member into adulthood;
6. As a previously Looked After Child, the child is entitled to additional education support throughout their school career.

Adoption has the following disadvantages as a Permanence Plan:

1. It involves a complete and permanent legal separation from the family of origin;
2. There is no review process.

The plan for adoption has to have been presented to the Agency Decision Maker and agreed, to enable the plan for adoption to be progressed. In order to make an informed recommendation the Agency Decision Maker needs to have access to all of the available information regarding the case. This will include any reports submitted during the proceedings.

If the case is in court then an Application for a Placement Order has to be made and the Adoption Plan cannot be implemented until the Placement Order is granted.

Further advice on all of the processes required for the Panel can be obtained from the Quality Assurance Manager.

Permanence for relinquished babies

A plan for permanence needs to be considered for relinquished babies as soon as the local authority is notified. Children and Families Court Advisory Support Service (CAFCASS) should be notified to witness the consent form during the initial 6 week period. (Consent given by a mother before 6 weeks is ineffective).

Where birth mother approaches the service to relinquish their child – pre-birth counselling should be offered, counselling should be offered to the father if appropriate. Counselling should explain the options, stay with mother, short term foster care, long term placement with wider family, placement for adoption. Information should also be provided on the legal implications of adoption.

The social worker will commence the Child Permanence Report, in light of the introduction of Regionalisation of Adoption, the Social Worker should consult with their line manager in respect of carrying out procedures in line with Adopt London South.

Early Permanence placements can be considered, the prospective adopters will be part of Adopt London South, however the fostering element of their role will remain Merton's responsibility.

7.4 Fostering for Adoption

A child for whom adoption is thought to be a likely outcome may be placed with prospective adopters who have been given temporary approval as foster carers. This can be where the child's plan is likely to become adoption, but other options have not yet been ruled out for that child.

Approved prospective adopters can be given temporary approval as foster carers under 25A of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010. Temporary foster carer approval was previously carried out at the same time as the adopter approval process, however in light of the development of Adopt London South as part of Regionalisation of Adoption the prospective adopters would need to be approved by Merton ADM.

7.5 Permanent Fostering

A permanent fostering arrangement can be with either a family member, Connected Person or friend who has been approved as a foster carer specifically for the child, or with an in-house or Independent Fostering Agency carer. In the latter cases this may originate as a permanent arrangement, in that a carer has been sought to meet the needs of a particular child and the match agreed by the appropriate panel; or it may have developed from a short term arrangement in which case the carer will need to be reassessed in view of the long-term nature of the relationship.

Permanent fostering arrangements will be confirmed through a selection/matching meeting chaired by a Head of Service or a Team Manager.

Long-term or permanent fostering is distinct from other permanency options in that the child remains 'Looked After' and thus subject to all relevant procedures including reviews and medicals.

Long-term fostering has the following advantages as a Permanence Plan:

1. The local authority retains a role in negotiating between the foster carers and the birth family over issues such as contact;
2. There is continuing social work support to the child and foster family in a placement that is regularly reviewed to ensure that the child's needs are met;
3. It maintains legal links to the birth family who can still play a part in the decision making for the child.

Permanent Fostering has the following disadvantages as a Permanence Plan:

1. Lack of Parental Responsibility for the carers;
2. Continuing social work involvement;
3. Regular Looked After Reviews, which may be regarded as destabilising to the placement;
4. Stigma attached to the child due to being in care;
5. The child is not a legal member of the family. If difficulties arise there may be less willingness to persevere and seek resolution;
6. Post care and/or post 18 the carers have not legal responsibility towards the young person.

7.6 Special Guardianship Orders

See Applications for Special Guardianship Orders for the detailed procedures.

Special Guardianship confers the lead Parental Responsibility to the holder(s). It does not remove Parental Responsibility from the parent(s). It lasts until the child reaches 18. After that time, there is no formal legal connection between the Special Guardian and the child.

It was designed as an option for foster carers who wished to make a permanent commitment to a looked after child where adoption was not appropriate, for example where the child retained attachments to their birth family and did not wish to break these, or where there were cultural or religious objections to adoption.

It has become increasingly used by family members as an alternative to the child being looked after in the long-term. For many family members, Special Guardianship is preferable to adoption as it does not complicate family relationships, e.g. being both the biological grandmother and the legal mother.

The following persons may apply:

1. Any guardian of the child;
2. A local authority foster carer, (including Connected Person foster carer) with whom the child has lived for 1 year immediately preceding the application;
3. Anyone who holds a Residence Order / Child Arrangements Order with respect to the child or who has the consent of all those in whose favour a Child Arrangements Order is in force;
4. Anyone with whom the child has lived for 3 out of the last 5 years;
5. Where the child is subject of a Care Order, any person who has the consent of the local authority;
6. Anyone who has the consent of all those with Parental Responsibility for the child e.g. Anyone, including the child, who has the leave of the court to apply.

The parents of a child may not become the child's special guardians.

Special Guardianship has the following advantages as a Permanence Plan:

1. The carers have Parental Responsibility and clear authority to make decisions on day to day issues regarding the child's care;
2. There is added legal security to the Order in that leave is required for parents to apply to discharge the Order and will only be granted if a change of circumstances can be established since the original Order was made;
3. It maintains legal links to the birth family;
4. The child will no longer be in care and there need be no social worker involvement unless this is identified as necessary, in which case an assessment of the need for support must be made by the relevant local authority;
5. A child subject to a Special Guardianship Order will be entitled to additional education support throughout their school career.

Special Guardianship has the following disadvantages as a Permanence Plan:

1. The Order only lasts until the child is 18 and does not necessarily bring with it the sense of belonging to the special guardian's family as an Adoption Order does;
2. As the child is not a legal member of the family, if difficulties arise there may be less willingness to persevere and seek resolution;
3. Although there are restrictions on applications to discharge the Order, such an application is possible and may be perceived as a threat to the child's stability;
4. Although a parent requires leave to apply for a Child Arrangements Order, they can apply for any other Section 8 Order (i.e. Contact Order, Prohibited Steps Order or Specific Issues Order) as of right.

7.7 Child Arrangements Orders

A Child Arrangements Order may be used to increase the degree of legal permanence in a placement with family or friends/Connected Persons, or a permanent fostering placement, where this would be in the child's best interests.

Where a child would otherwise have to be placed with strangers, a placement with family or friends/Connected Persons may be identified as a preferred option and the carers may be encouraged and supported to apply for a Child Arrangements Order where this will be in the best interests of the child.

A Child Arrangements Order confers Parental Responsibility, to be shared more equally with the parents than with Special Guardianship, which in some cases may be a more appropriate arrangement.

The holder of a Child Arrangements Order does not have the right to consent to the child's adoption nor to appoint a guardian; in addition, he/she may not change the child's name nor arrange for the child's emigration without the consent of all those with Parental Responsibility or the leave of the court.

Whilst support may continue for as long as the Child Arrangements Order remains in force, the aim will be to make arrangements which are self-sustaining in the long run.

The making of a Child Arrangements Order can now be made until the child is 18 and will have the effect of discharging a Care Order.

The following people may apply for a Child Arrangements Order:

• A parent or guardian;
• A party to a marriage (whether the marriage is subsisting or not) where the child was brought up as a child of the family;
• A person with whom the child has lived for 3 years. (This need not be continuous but must not have started more than 5 years before or ended more than 3 months before the making of the application);
• A local authority foster carer with whom the child has lived for 1 year;
• Where a Child Arrangements Order is already in force, a person who has the consent of those in whose favour the Child Arrangements Order was made;
• Where the child is Looked After, a person with the consent of the relevant local authority;
• In any other case, a person who has the consent of all those with Parental Responsibility.

Anyone else who wishes to apply, including the child, must apply to the court for leave to make the application for a Child Arrangements Order.

A Child Arrangements Order has the following advantages:

1. It gives Parental Responsibility to the carer whilst maintaining the parents' Parental Responsibility;
2. The child will no longer be Looked After and there need be no social work involvement, therefore, unless this is identified as necessary;
3. There is no review process;
4. The child will not be Looked After and so less stigma is attached to the placement;
5. Any contact is likely to be agreed and if considered necessary by the Court, set out as part of the Child Arrangements Order;
6. A child subject to a Child Arrangements Order will be entitled to additional education support throughout their school career.

A Child Arrangements Order has the following disadvantages:

1. It is less secure than Adoption or Special Guardianship in that an application can be made to revoke the Child Arrangements Order. However, the Court making the Order can be asked to attach a condition refusing a parent's right to seek revocation without leave of the court;
2. There is no formal continuing support to the family after the Order is made although in some instances, a Child Arrangements Order Allowance may be payable by the local authority;
3. There is no professional reviewing of the arrangements after the Order unless a new application to court is made, for example by the parents for contact or revocation. (N.B. New applications to court may be expensive to defend, and the carers would have to bear the cost if not entitled to assistance with legal costs).

8. Permanence and Local Placement

Where a child is placed with long term carers, it is important that the child has access to the friends, family or community within which they were brought up and which form part of their identity and their long term support network. For these reasons children should be placed in local provision wherever possible.

Any decision to place a child away from his or her community should be based on the particular needs of the child, and considered within the context of a Permanence Plan. Where an alternative family placement is sought in the area of another local authority, the likely availability and cost of suitable local resources to support the placement must be explored. In the case of an adoptive placement, this will be required as part of the assessment of need for adoption support services (see Adoption Support Services Procedure), but should be carried out in relation to any permanent placement.

9. Assessing and Planning for Permanence

Assessments of a child's needs in relation to his or her Permanence Plan must:

1. Focus on outcomes;
2. Consider stability issues, including the child's and family's needs for long-term support and the child's needs for links, including contact, with his or her parents, siblings, and wider family network.

Social workers must ensure the child's Permanence Plan is clearly linked to previous assessments of the child's needs.

Appendix 1: Identifying Permanence Options presents a brief, research-based checklist of considerations about Adoption, Child Arrangements Orders, Special Guardianship Orders and Long-term Fostering.

In considering the child's needs, full consultation with family and community networks should be undertaken to establish the child's attachments and supports.

In all cases, the child's own wishes and feelings must be ascertained and taken into account.

To ensure senior management oversight of permanence planning all looked after children will be reviewed at monthly tracking meetings. These meetings will be divided into two age cohorts (0-5 years and 6-18 years). The tracking meeting will be chaired by a Head of Service. Team Managers will be expected to present up to date progress reports on the individual care plans of the children and young people in their teams.

When a child or young person becomes looked after a Permanence and Care Planning Meeting will be convened to ensure that parallel planning is in place for every child. The actions agreed at these meetings will be reviewed regularly to ensure that children and young people do not experience drift in terms of achieving permanent outcomes.

By the time of the second Looked After Review, the child must have a Permanence Plan (incorporated into the Care Plan), to be presented for consideration at the review.

Where the Permanence Plan includes a Parallel Plan, the social worker must ensure that the parents are informed of the reasons why two plans are being made to meet the child's needs and prevent unnecessary delay.

10. Good Practice Guidance

The following practice guidance is not exhaustive. It is drawn from research and consultation with young people, parents, carers and practitioners.

10.1 Supporting reunification with birth or extended family

Research points to:

• The importance of clearly communicating to the family what needs to happen to enable the child to return home, and within what timescales;
• The importance of exploring family ties and long term relationships with family, school and community;
• The use of Family Group Conferences as an effective way of facilitating both the above.

10.2 Identifying the best permanence option

Issues to consider:

• The assessment process must ask how stability for this child will be achieved;
• Long term stability means the sense of a permanent home with the same family or group of people, as part of the same community and culture, and with long-term continuity of relationships and identity;
• Short or medium term stability or continuity will be important for children who are going to stay in care for a brief period before going home and for children who are going to need new permanent arrangements. The quality of a child's attachments and life will be detrimentally affected by uncertainties, separations from what /who is known and changes of school and placement;
• Educational experiences, links with extended family, hobbies and friendships and support to carers, contribute to guarding against disruption and placement breakdown;
• The importance of carefully listening to what children want from the placement, helping the relationship between carer and child to build, making thorough plans around contact with family, providing vigorous support during crisis times and taking a sufficiently flexible attitude to adoption by carers;
• The older a child is, the less likely it is that the child will secure a permanent family through adoption;
• The larger the family group of children, the harder it is to secure a single placement that will meet all the needs of all the children.

10.3 Twin Track or Parallel Planning

Social workers are encouraged to consider working to this model; working towards a child's return home whilst at the same time developing an alternative Permanence Plan, within strictly limited timescales.

Where children's cases are before the court in Care Proceedings, the Court require twin track planning to be reflected in the Care Plan - see also Care and Supervision Proceedings and the Public Law Outline Procedure.

10.4 Placement/Contact with Siblings - Issues to Consider

It is important to assess the extent and quality of relationships in a sibling group.

Usually, and especially where there is a pre-existing and meaningful relationship, it will be important to actively seek to maintain sibling relationships within any Permanence Plan, including those where an alternative family placement is sought.

Issues from research:

• The most enduring relationships people have are likely to be with their siblings;
• The impact on separated siblings of losing vital support, a shared history and continuity affect stability in the placement;
• More successful outcomes occur for children placed together with their siblings. Children should therefore be placed with their siblings unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as dysfunctional interaction that cannot be remedied, incompatible needs or where the lack of appropriate placement would lead to unacceptable drift. The immediate non-availability of a suitable placement should not prevent rigorous home-finding efforts within an agreed time frame, based on balancing the potential for success against the risk of undue delay;
• The importance of identifying strengths and difficulties in sibling relationships in order to make appropriate permanent placement decisions. It is important to ascertain the perceptions and wishes of the child and their family, to assess the shared experience of siblings and the children's individual permanence needs. This involves thorough consideration of issues of gender, race, disability, identity and attachment;
• The importance of including regular contact between siblings within the Permanence Plan wherever possible, if they cannot be placed together.

10.5 Direct contact with birth family members and others

Contact must always be for the benefit of the child, not the parents or other relatives.

It may serve one or all of the following functions:

• To maintain a child's identity. Consolidating the new with the old;
• To provide reassurance for the child;
• To provide an ongoing source of information for the child;
• To give the child continuing permission to live with the adoptive family;
• To minimise the sense of loss;
• To assist with the process of tracing;
• To give the adopters a secure sense of the right to parent. This will make the parenting task easier.

Direct contact will generally work best if all parties accept/agree to:

1. The plan for permanence;
2. The parental role of the permanent carers;
3. The benefit of contact;
4. The adoptive parents being present.

Direct contact is not likely to be successful in situations where a parent:

• Disagrees with the plan for permanence;
• Does not accept the parental role of the permanent carer and their own minimal role with the child;
• Has proved to be unreliable in their commitment to contact in the past;
• Has not got a significant attachment with the child.

The wishes of the child to join a new family without direct contact, must be considered and given considerable weight at any age.

If direct contact is a part of the Permanence Plan, a formal agreement setting out how contact will take place, who with, where and how frequently must be negotiated before placement, and reviewed regularly throughout the child's life.

10.6 Indirect contact with birth family members and others

We do not all share the same sense of family - it means different things to different people. It helps when children are helped to understand to whom they are related, especially if they have complicated family trees including half-brothers or sisters living in different places. Identity is built on solid information.

Wherever possible, indirect contact between the child and his or her new family with people from the past should be facilitated:

1. To leave open channels of communication in case more contact is in the child's interests in the future;
2. To provide information (preferably two-way) to help the child maintain and enhance their identity and to provide the birth relative with some comfort in knowing of the child's progress.

Indirect contact must be negotiated prior to placement, and all parties should be asked to enter into an agreement with one another about the form and frequency that the contact will take. Renegotiations of the contact should only take place if the child's needs warrant it.

All parties to the agreement will need to accept that as the child becomes older and is informed more fully about the arrangements for indirect contact, the child will have a view regarding its continuation. No contact arrangements can be promised to remain unaltered during the child's childhood. Those involved need to accept that contact may cease if it is no longer in the child's interests. Alternatively, an older child may need to change to direct contact.

10.7 Clearly communicating the Permanence Plan

• Communicating a Permanence Plan effectively involves setting it out clearly and concisely as part of the Care Plan, in a way that acts as a useful reference to all involved during the Review process;
• All looked after children will have an agreed written permanence plan in place at the second Looked after Child Review;
• Good quality Care Plans set out clear, concise statements about intended outcomes;
• Make timescales clear.

10.8 Legal routes to permanence

For younger children unable to be returned home where adoption is the plan, a Care Order and Placement Order are likely to be necessary unless parents are clearly relinquishing the child and are in agreement with the plan and the placement choice.

For children for whom adoption is not appropriate, each case will need to be considered on its merits. The decision between Special Guardianship Order, Child Arrangements Order and Permanent Fostering under a Care Order will depend on the individual needs of the child set alongside the advantages and disadvantages of each legal route.

Appendix 1: Identifying Permanence Options

Child Arrangements/Special Guardianship Orders	Adoption	Long Term Fostering
Child needs the security of a legally defined placement with alternative carers, but does not require a lifelong commitment involving a change of identity.	Child's primary need is to belong to a family who will make a lifelong commitment.	Primary need is for a stable, loving family environment whilst there is still a significant level of continued involvement with the birth family.
Child's relation, foster or other carer needs to exercise day to day parental responsibility and is prepared to do so as a lifelong commitment.	Child's birth parents are not able or not willing to share parental responsibility in order to meet their child's needs, even though there may be contact.	Child has a clear sense of identity with the birth family, whilst needing to be looked after away from home.
There is no need for continuing monitoring and review by the Local Authority, although support services may still need to be arranged.	Child needs an opportunity to develop a new sense of identity whilst being supported to maintain or develop a healthy understanding of their past.	There is need for continuing oversight and monitoring of the child's developmental progress.
Child has a strong attachment to the alternative carers and legally defined permanence is assessed as a positive contribution to their sense of belonging and security.	Child expresses a wish to be adopted.	Birth parents are able and willing to exercise a degree of parental responsibility.