Child Protection and Welfare Practice Handbook - Health Service ...

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Child Protection and Welfare Practice Handbook
what resources are needed to increase or strengthen protective factors
• and sustain change;
identified roles and responsibilities of all professionals;
• identified roles and responsibilities of family members;
• provision, supports and interventions to be put in place, with specific
• detail about what they should achieve;
contingency planning and what this will mean for the individual child;
• timescales for review;
• explicit timeframes for each stage;
• the name of the professional (social worker) who will be responsible
• for overseeing and coordinating the work;
•
details (including membership) of the Core Group.
3.1.9 Core Group
Core Groups are recommended as good practice in many jurisdictions and
supported as good practice by official Inquiries. They are currently not a
required action under the Children First: National Guidance (2011). They
are included here as a way of ensuring good information sharing, continued
interagency involvement and shared monitoring of risks, plans and progress.
The Core Group is an interagency group jointly responsible for implementing
and reviewing the detailed Child Protection Plan following a Child Protection
Conference.
Membership
Membership of the Core Group should be identified at the Child Protection
Conference and should include:
• social worker (key worker), who leads/chairs the Core Group;
• parents and relevant family members;
• child/young person if appropriate;
• professionals involved with the child/parent, e.g. public health nurse,
teacher, parent’s social worker or support worker, education social
worker;
• foster carers or residential care staff if involved with family;
• other members identified as appropriate.
Roles and responsibilities of Core Group members
All members of the Core Group are jointly responsible for:
• collecting and sharing information to assist the social worker in carrying
out further assessment;