Reviews

The Children, Schools and Families Service 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 are called “reviews” and will usually be one meeting with everyone involved in your care attending.

 Your first review should be four weeks after you were first “looked after”.  The next one should be in three months and then after that they will happen every six months.
If your plan changes or you are unhappy with how it is progressing you can request an additional review.

The review is a chance for you and everyone involved in looking after you to say how he or she thinks things are going for you. 

The person in charge of your review (called ‘the chairperson’) is an Independent Review Officer.  The Independent Review Officer is separate from your social worker and as well as managing the review is there to listen to your views. They will meet with you before your review to listen to your views. If you do not attend your review they will try to meet with you afterwards to share with you the decisions made at the review meeting.

Before your review your Social Worker should talk to you about who you want to be invited to your review.  Apart from yourself, this will usually include your social worker, your parents or carers, members of your family, and other people involved in your care.  If someone is invited who you don’t want to come to your review or you don’t want direct contact with make sure your Social Worker and the chairperson know before the meeting.  If there is someone you want to come to your review who hasn’t been invited (for example, your teacher or an advocate), ask your Social Worker to invite them. 

We would like you to attend your reviews so that you can take part in the discussions about your plans. If you want to go, you may want to bring someone with you to support you, such as an adult you trust or an Advocate from Voice. If you prefer, you could write down how you feel and this could be read out at the meeting. There is a special form that you will be asked to fill in which asks you what you think about how you are being looked after. 

For some reviews you will be given the opportunity to speak to someone totally independent, called a Consultation Assistant, and they will record your views either on a form or through a Computer Programme. They will then pass these onto your Independent Review Officer who will always try as hard as they can to make sure everyone at the meeting knows your views and feelings.