Permanency Planning

Permanency planning is the process of assessing and preparing a child for long term care when in out-of-home placements such as kinship, foster care or institutions. A care plan must centre on what is in the child’s best interests, and therefore requires an ongoing assessment of the child and her needs. A guardian may be appointed as a further protection of a child’s rights.

The ultimate goal of permanency planning is to ensure a secure environment with lifelong bonds that will support the child into adulthood. For most children this will be provided by their birth parents and relatives, and therefore family reunification should be the primary goal. Where reunification is not possible or suitable for the child, adoption or Islamic kafalah is usually the next best option since it offers more stability and enables the child to develop a lasting attachment to carers.

Each child is an individual and brings a unique set of requirements. The choice of placement must therefore consider the child’s cultural and religious background, abilities and any special needs, attachments to significant people and how such relationships can be maintained, their education, health and overall development. Ideally, children should be kept close to their original communities in order help maintain their identity and to reduce disruption to their everyday lives.

While short term care such as fostering can provide a safe place for a child and time to assess their needs, it is often an unsuitable long term option since it is a temporary arrangement that is prone to breakdown. Social workers or other child protection paraprofessionals in the community must determine the use of short term care and the development of longer term plans with the full participation of the child, birth family, and prospective caretakers, providing opportunities for contact with each other, and preparing all for moves.

All placements should be monitored regularly to ensure the child is safe and his/her physical, emotional, and educational needs are met. This includes children who have been recently returned to their birth family or who are newly placed with adoptive parents. Monitoring enables the provision of family support services, and helps to reduce placement breakdown and incidences of abuse.

The resources in this section focus on the factors that should be considered when planning a child’s care, and the advantages and disadvantages of placement options.

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Rural Child Welfare Practice: Issue Brief

Child Welfare Information Gateway, 01 Feb 2018

This issue brief highlights the importance of understanding the concerns and needs of children and families in rural communities in the United States

Promoting Permanency for Teens: A 50 State Review of Law and Policy

Anna Johnson, Richard Speiglman, Jane Mauldon, Bill Grimm, and Miranda Perry - National Center for Youth Law, 01 Feb 2018

This paper explores the diversity of U.S. state policies and practices for teens in foster care in two potentially competing areas: teens’ need for a permanent connection to a family (either their birth family, or an adoptive or guardian family), and teens’ developmental and practical needs in transitioning to legal adulthood, independence, and self-sufficiency.

The Emotional and Sensory Dimensions of Child Welfare

Sharon Pinkney, 12 Jan 2018

This chapter, from the book 'New Directions in Children’s Welfare,' explores the emotional and sensory dimensions of child welfare as an embodied practice which takes place across diverse sites, spaces and places.

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Concurrent Planning for Timely Permanence

Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2018

This bulletin for professionals explores concurrent planning, which is an approach that seeks to reduce the amount of time children spend in foster care by considering all reasonable permanency options the moment a child enters the system.

Initial evaluation of the ‘Why Not?’ initiative developed by Care Visions

CELCIS: Vicki Welch and Kenny McGhee, 2018

This short document provides a summary of initial learning from data gathered for an evaluation of the Why Not? initiative in Scotland. The Why Not? initiative within Care Visions services was started in 2014 to ‘improve the way young people are supported when ageing out of care, by offering a different experience of relationships beyond care.’

Changes in out of home care and permanence planning among young children in Scotland, 2003 to 2017

Woods, Ruth & Henderson, Gillian - Adoption and fostering, 2018

The current study addressed gaps in research on early out of home care and permanency planning through a comparison of two samples of children in Scotland: 110 children born in 2003, and 117 born in 2013, all of whom were placed under compulsory measures of supervision prior to three years of age.

Core Concepts and Principles of Effective Case Management: Approaches for the Social Service Workforce

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, 2018

Developed by members of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance’s Case Management Interest Group, this resource aims to define case management.

Findings from an evaluation of Family Finding: Experiences of Family Finders and older youth

Elizabeth Jane Greeno, Berenice Rushovich, Sarah Catherine Williams, Joshua Brusca, Kantahyanee Murray - International Social Work, 22 Dec 2017

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to assess the experiences of child welfare workers trained in Family Finding and to assess the experiences of the youth who participated in Family Finding.

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Why youth run: Assessing run function to stabilize foster care placement

Kimberly Crosland, Ruby Joseph, Lindsey Slattery, Sharon Hodges, Glen Dunlap - Children and Youth Services Review, 06 Dec 2017

This paper describes results from focus groups conducted with child welfare providers, educational personnel, and youth with histories of running away from foster care placements.

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Achieving positive change for children? Reducing the length of child protection proceedings: lessons from England and Wales

Judith Masson, Jonathan Dickens, and Kay Bader - Adoption and Fostering, 24 Nov 2017

This article will discuss the impact of reforms on time limits in decision-making for children, questioning whether they achieve both good decisions for children and justice for families.

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