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These pages are designed to inform you about the rights that you have as a looked after young person in South Tyneside. All Young People have rights but children and young people who are looked after have some very specific rights about the way that they are cared for and treated. The first section is about the UN Convention on the Rights Of the Child which contains rights that applies to all young people and the second part has information for Looked After Children. Un Convention On The Rights Of The Child In
Care - Provision of Accommodation Advocacy Family
and Friends Questions
You Might Have
There are two sorts of being looked after by social services. There is being in care and being provided with accommodation. When the social services are looking after you, you need to know which you are. You are in care only if a court has made a care order because they thought you were at risk of harm. The children act and the courts-a guide for children and young people will tell you more about this. Provision of Accommodation If social services are providing you with accommodation your parents will still have what the law calls parental responsibility for you. This means your parents ,not social services, have the right to decides what happens to you. In looking after you social services are giving help to your parents. Your parents and social services must decide together how you are looked after. Social services must write down what they have agreed with your parents. They must give a copy of this to you. Social services must always ask you what you feel about the plans they have made for you. When you are older and understand what it all means social services have to let you take part in deciding what plans are made for you. If you are 16 or over you should be asked to sign a copy of what your parents and the local authority have agreed and written down but you do not have to do so if you do not want to. In
care If
you are in care, social services must let you keep in contact with
your parents or carers. Your social worker will decide how and when
this is to be done. They must always talk about it with you and
your parents first.
Children under the age of 13 must never be locked up in secure units in children’s homes, or in a youth treatment centre, unless special permission is first given by the government. In all other cases, you must not be locked up unless social services think that: -You have a history of running away, that you are likely to run away again and that you are likely to be at risk of serious harm or -If you are not locked up you are likely to hurt yourself or other people. IF YOU ARE LIVING IN ANY OF THE PLACES LISTED BELOW- -A National Health Service or NHS trust hospital unit such as an adolescent unit. -A state boarding school. -A private boarding school (of over 50 boarders). -A residential care home or mental nursing home. YOU MUST NOT BE LOCKED UP UNLESS THOSE LOOKING AFTER YOU THINK THAT:+ -You have a history of running away, that you are likely to run away again and that you are likely to be at risk of serious harm or -If you are not locked up you are likely to hurt yourself or other people.
Do You Want to Complain or Make a Comment? If you are unhappy about something and would like to talk about it, or you would like to talk about something good, we are here to listen. What Can I Complain About?
How Do I Complain?
What Happens Next? Your problem may be sorted out by just talking to someone. But if not, a person will be asked to look into your complaint, they will want talk to you about your concerns and will then let you know what happens. What If I Am Still Unhappy? If
you feel that no one is listening to you, things have not changed
or you are still unhappy, then don’t be afraid to say so.
There is a Complaints Procedure you can follow – contact the
Complaints Officer and she will be able to give you advice –
don’t worry it will all be kept in strict confidence.
Ever Heard Of Advocacy?
There are a few ways that you can get an advocate: - You can ask the complaints officer to get one for you (ask her to do this when you tell her about your complaint) -
You can ask your social worker to get an advocate for you (your
social worker can only get the advocate for you and can't have anything
to do with the process) -You
can ask for one yourself by ringing NYAS
You can contact NYAS by ringing: 0800 616 101 or to find out more go to their website by clicking the link below.
YOUR WISHES AND FEELINGS Social services must ask you how you feel about any plans they are making for you. They must listen to what you say. They have to take what you want into account when they are deciding what to do. As you get older and understand better what it will all mean, social services have to let you have more say in their plans for you if this is what you want. They may not agree with your plans if they think to do so would hurt you. If you don’t have any say in the plans you don’t have to. Your social worker must explain to you how their plans for you will work. He or she must tell you what else could be done instead. HELP You may find it easier to say what you want if someone whom you trust and get on well with comes along to help you. Ask your Social worker if you can bring someone along with you. You could take a member of your family, teacher or friend. There are also people called childrens advocate whos job it is to help young people. There is a list of them under other people who can help you attached. If you want to find out more get in touch with one of them. OTHER VIEWS Social services must listen to what your parents and other people close to you think should happen. Social services must take into account your religion, racial origin, culture and language. This is very important if you are to live away from home. PLANS
Social
services must make plans about the care of all children they are
looking after. They must try to do this before you moved from home.
But sometimes they may not be able to. Then they have to do it as
soon afterwards as they can. The plan is about how social services
think they can best look after you. This is not just at the beginning
but throughout the time you are living away from home. It will cover
things like seeing your family and friends and where you will be
living. It is very important for you to be able to say what you
want to happen. You should tell social services about anything that
matters a lot to you.
Usually the best place for children to live is with their families. If for a time children cannot live at home social services must do their best to help sort out any problems families are having. They are to do this so that, if possible, children can go back home again. Provision of Accommodation If you provided with accommodation your parents have the right to take you home at any time. Before social services start to look after you they should have talked to you and your parents about when you will go back home. You should have all talked about what would happen before you go home. Usually your parents will tell the social worker when they want to take you home. If you are 16 or over you can refuse to go home. If you are under 16 and do not want to go home you should talk about this with your social worker. If your parents do not agree to you staying away, you may be able to ask the court to make an order saying that you can stay away. Ask your social worker about this. If your parents try to take you home unexpectedly in a way that puts you at risk of serious harm your social worker should ask the court to make an emergency protection order so that your parents cannot take you away. Getting ready to leave care or accommodation Social
services must help you to get ready for the time when you are no
longer looked after by them. They have to do this whether you are
going home or going to live on your own. They should start to do
this well before you are due to leave care. They should help you
to feel good about yourself, to make friends and to get on well
with your family. They independent living support service will help
you to learn to look after yourself-to shop for food , to cook,
to wash and iron clothes, to sew and to manage your money.
If you are being provided with accommodation social services, your parents and you should all agree about contact before you leave home. Independent Visitors Social services may ask a person called an independent visitor to visit you if they think this would be good for you. This might happen if you don’t receive regular visitors or if your parents have not been in touch with you much. Being an independent visitor is not a paid job and they do not work for social services. An independent visitor will try to be like a friend and to help you. If you wish your visitor could come with you to reviews or other meetings. They may also be able to talk to social services for you about anything that is worrying you. They could also help you to make a complaint if your unhappy about how you’re being looked after. You can choose whether your visitor will be a man or woman or perhaps someone of the same race or religious background as you. You can ask for your visitor to stop visiting you or change visitors at any time.
All children’s homes should be visited once a month by someone who is responsibly for running the home. But it cannot be someone who works there. This is so that someone from outside goes to see for themselves how things really are in the home. They then have to write a report about what they find. Nobody should know they are coming so that things cannot be recovered up. The staff of the home should always let you talk in private with the visitors if you want to. Voluntary and Private Childrens Homes Someone from social services must visit a child in a children’s home within seven days if they have been told that that child may not be being properly looked after or may not be being kept safe. If you are unhappy about how you are treated in a children’s home you should get in touch with social services. During the visit you must be seen alone. Social services must read all the homes records about you. Social services can take you away from the children’s home if they do not think that you are being properly looked after. If they are not satisfied with how you are being looked after but think that you should stay there for the time being they must visit you again within four weeks. Some schools which have 50 or less boarders are treated as childen’s homes. Private Boarding Schools Social services must try to make sure that children in all private boarding schools with over 50 boarders are being properly looked after and kept safe. Social services have to visit the school to see the children. They must look at the school records and the building. The children in these schools will not usually be being looked after by social services. Social services should visit once a year unless there are worry’s about the school. If they are they should visit more often. Department of Health Checks The department of health in England and the welsh office in wales can check up on any children’s home, foster home or private boarding school at any time. Someone from the department can see the children. They can look at the way in which the home is being run. They can also see how the children are being treated.
If
you have left care or accommodation after reaching the age of 16,
social services must help you until your 21 if they think that you
are in need and they can give you the help that you ask for. If
you stay in Full Time Education then they must support you upto
25yrs of age.
Money Social services do not have to give you money. They may do so where they need to do this to keep you safe and if you cannot get money elsewhere. Housing Social services do not have to give you somewhere to live. They will know what the housing department can do to help young people leaving care or accommodation. Social services should also get in touch with housing associations for you. They may be able to give young people somewhere to live. Social services must provide you with accommodation if you are 16 or 17 and homeless or at risk of being made homeless and if they believe you are in serious danger. If you are between 16 and 21 social services may place you in a children’s home which take young people of 16 and over if this would keep you safe. Education & Employment Social
services can help you to meet the costs of somewhere to live if
you are carrying on with your education or training. They can also
do this if you are looking for work. They can give you money to
buy books and other things you may need at college or work. Social services should set up groups to give help and support to all young people who have left care. The youth service, voluntary organisations and young care leavers themselves may set up their own groups. You should ask social services what groups there are. If there are not any, you might like to form a group with other young people who have left care or accommodation. Social services will be able to give you some ideas about how to do this. In south Tyneside there is a drop in project which meets on a thursday evening from $pm until 6pm at Edhill Avenue. Publicity Social services must let people know what help they give to young people. They should also give you an easy to read guide for young people before you leave care. If you move, tell social services your new address if you want them to carry on helping you.
When you are being looked after by social services there are rules about how you can be punished. If you are looked after in a children’s home the rules about punishment are written in the law. If you are looked after by foster carers they have to agree not to use physical punishment –that means things like hitting or slapping you. Childrens Home Each
children’s home has to have a written list of the kinds of
punishment which can be used in the home. The list is written in
what is called a statement. It says what the home sets out to do
for children. Every home has to have a statement. You have a right
to see it. If you want to see it ask a member of staff to show it
to you. The statement has to say who can use which punishments and
when. It also has to say who in the home is allowed to say where
and how they can be used. Some kinds of punishment are not allowed in children’s homes. You should not be punished in any of the ways listed below:
Foster Care
What can you do If you are in a children’s home or foster care and are punished in any ways that are not allowed, tell your social worker. If you are not happy with what your social worker does about it you can complain. You can also ask for help from a solicitor on the law society panel. The laws society children’s panel is made up of lawyers who are used to dealing with children’s cases. You can find out more about the panel by asking about one of the organisations. You can get legal aid on the green form. This means a solicitor would take your case and you would probably not have to pay him.
Social
services must hold meetings to talk about how their plans for looking
after you are working out. They have to think about whether these
plans need to be changed. These meetings are called reviews. The
first review must be held not later than four weeks after you first
began to be looked after by social services. The second review must
be three months after that. Then reviews will be every six months.
Social
services must ask you what you feel and think. The review gives
you a chance to say how you want to be looked after. You do not
have a right to go to your review meeting but social services will
usually ask you to come along. You can often stay there for all
of the meeting if that is what you want. Usually social services will ask your parents to come to the review meeting. If your parents being there would make you feel too frightened or upset to go, tell your social worker. The people in charge of the review may say your parents cannot come to the meeting – or they may let them come to only part of the meeting when you are not there. Your social worker may tell you it would be best for you not to go to the review. If this happens try and talk about it to your social worker. Ask the social worker why he or she has said this. Ask what other ways there are for you to say what you want. You might want to write it down or you could perhaps make a tape or recording. If you are still unhappy with what your social worker says you can make a complaint. In South Tyneside we use a computer program called Viewpoint to help you feed your views into the Review. Other people like your foster carers, teachers, doctor or school nurse may also be asked to the meeting.
Why
do social services and others need to keep files? Files are kept so that information that you, your family and others have given can be used to plan and provide effective services. It is important that some record of what has happened in the past is kept so that new workers know what has been going on and are not constantly 'reinventing the wheel'. For young people who have been in care, the records will consist of such things as regular case notes - a bit like a diary (perhaps by residential workers) or more official notes from 6-monthly reviews. However, there can also be a lot of other information in there, such as letters between schools, social workers, therapists, parents and so on.
You
have the right to see everything written on your case file if
social services think you will understand what is written there
when you see it. They will not let you see what is written about
other people, unless they agree. Social services will not let
you see anything which they think will put you in serious danger.
You have the same rights if your file is held on the computer.
If you want to see your file then you should tell your social
worker. Ask him or her how to do this. If you need to know more
about this you should get in touch with one of the organisations
listed in the important numbers section of the site. Health Files If you are 16, you have had the right from 1st November 1991 to see what has been written about you in your health records. Health records are those kept by doctors, dentist, nurses, opticians, child psychologists and psychotherapists. If you are under 16 you may be allowed to see your file if the health authority thinks that you will understand what is written when you see it. At any age you have the right to see any health information held on the computer so long as the health authority is satisfied that you understand what it all means. Education Files At 16 you have the right to see what has been written about you in your education files since September the 1 1990. Access To File Requests (if you have left care) You
can ask to see your file even if you have left care (as Social Services
must keep a copy of your file for 75 years).
mail@dataprotection.gov.uk
Contact
CHILD LINE – 08001111 CHILD
PROTECTION LINE - 0800 800 500 |
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