Going to panel

[happyaunt]

hi

Both myself and my husband have put ourselves forward to care for my 5month old niece who has been in foster care since the being of june we have passed all of our assessments and child services cant see any reason to why she cannot be placed with us until she is 18 every thing has been extremly positive im just wanting to know what to expect from the panel as its now only 3weeks away and we are worried they wont pass us to foster her.

[happyaunt]

hi thankyou for your reply

ihave made note of what you said and done it many thanks on your advice is there anything i need to take on going to panel

[ozzy3396]

ied is spot on ... smile be nice .... be yourself

[happyaunt]

thankyou for your replies

i know every case is different but do the panel go against what the SW recommends ?

[David Roth]

The panels don't follow the social worker's recommendations 100% of the time, but they usually do. If they don't, it will usually be because the social worker has written a poor report, and the panel might ask them to go away to get some more information and come back to the panel, or because it was a close-run decision, and the panel might tilt the other way from the social worker.

The panel actually don't have the final word. They just make a recommendation which goes to the agency decision maker (ADM), a senior manager within the department, who has final responsibility for making the decision.

If the social worker is recomending you be approved, then the chances are that is what will happen.

[David Roth]

Last point: you don't say which panel it is that you're going to. Are you going to foster your niece, or be her special guardian? You would go to a different panel according to which one it was.

If you're going to foster her, then you would have to go to the fostering panel, who would recommend whether you be approved as a foster carer or not. The final say about whether you can foster or not lies with the the local authority (though you can ask for an independent review if the fostering panel turns you down).

If you're going to be special guardians, then there is no legal requirement to go to a panel for approval, but a lot of local authorities do have some sort of a permanency panel that considers SGO applicants. This panel often makes or recommends a decision about whether the local authority will financially support a SG placement. As it has no formal part in the process, even if this panel doesn't agree that you should be special guardians, that doesn't prevent you from putting in an application.

However, best to cross that bridge when you come to it - if all goes well you won't need to think about what you do if the panel doesn't approve you, but please do come to FRG for advice about how to proceed if it doesn't go well.

[happyaunt]

thankyou that is a great help we are going for foster care of her for a permanent placement till she is 18yrs old

[Aunty kerry]

Hi I'm also and aunty just gone threw my panel and got approved to care for my nephew but just wondered what happens next and when does he can placed with me ..!!