Glossary of Terms

Adoption / Adoption Order	An adoption order transfers all legal responsibility and rights to the adoptive parents. Adoption is a lifelong commitment to the child or children who become a full member of the adoptive family.
CAFCASS	Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. Cafcass represents children in family court cases in England and independently advises the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests.
Care Order	A Care Order grants Parental Responsibility for the child to the local authority specified in the Order, to be shared with the parents. A Care Order lasts until the child is 18 unless discharged earlier. All children who are the subject of a Care Order come within the definition of Looked After and have to have a Care Plan. When making a Care Order, the Court must be satisfied that the Care Plan is suitable.
Care plan	Before a child is taken into care the local authority will produce a plan for the future care of the child. The parents and the child should be involved in developing the care plan. The plan should show how the child’s needs would be met in care, including their health, education and contact with family members.
Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)	Specialist services provided by the NHS for children and young people up to the age of 18 who are having emotional or behavioural problems. A young person can be referred by a GP or other health professional, or by school staff or a social worker.
Child Arrangement Order	A Child Arrangement Order is an order that regulates with whom a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact, and when a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact with any person. Each Child Arrangement Order is decided on the circumstances of the individual family and on what is in the best interests of that particular child.
Children in Care / Looked-After Children	A child who is being looked after by their local authority.
Children in Need	Under Section 17 (10) of the Children Act 1989, a child is a Child in Need if: • He/she is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him/her of services by a local authority; • His/her health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision for him/her of such services; or • He/she is disabled.
Child's needs assessment	An assessment that the council should carry out before a young person turns 18 if it is likely that they will need care and support from adult social care.
Child protection case conference	A child protection case conference is held if the child is at risk of significant harm, so that all of the relevant professionals can share information, identify risks and outline what needs to be done to protect the child.
Child protection register and plans	The child protection register is a confidential list of all children in the local area who have been identified as being at risk of significant harm. The register allows authorised individuals in social work, education, health, police and the voluntary sector to check if a child they are working with is known to be at risk.
Contact Centre	A supervised venue that exists to support and promote contact between parents, grandparents, 3 guardians and children that do not live together.
Contact Order	An order requiring the person with whom a child lives, or is to live, to allow the child to visit or stay with the person named in the order.
Corporate Parenting	As the corporate parent of looked after children, a local authority has a legal and moral duty to provide the kind of loyal support that any good parent would provide for their own children.
Early Help	Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child's life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years. Effective early help relies upon local agencies working together to: • Identify children and families who would benefit from early help; • Undertake an assessment of the need for early help; • Provide targeted early help services to address the needs of a child and their family.
Education, Health & Care Plan	EHCPs replaced Statements for children and young people with additional needs under the Children & Families Act 2014.
Independent Reviewing Officer	Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) conduct regular reviews of children in the care of the Local Authority. An IROs main duties are to monitor the Local Authority's performance, to participate in the child's review and to ensure that the child's wishes and feelings are fully considered.
Local Authority	Local government with responsibility for education and/or care.
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)	A designated officer (or sometimes a team of officers), who is involved in the management and oversight of allegations against people that work with children.
Ofsted	The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is a non-ministerial department of the UK government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, including state schools and some independent schools, in England.
Parental responsibility	This is a set of legal rights and responsibilities, including making sure a child is kept safe. Parental responsibility gives the right to make important decisions about a child’s life like: • who looks after them • where they live • how they are educated.
Pre-proceeding meetings	Pre-proceedings meeting takes place between the local authority, the parents and the parents’ lawyer to discuss how parents can change the way they look after their child and what support and help is needed from the local authority. If both sides agree, they will write a formal agreement that both the parents and the local authority have to follow. If parents don’t agree to the changes, or don’t follow the agreement, the local authority will probably ask the court to take the child into care.
Section 20 accommodation	Under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, children may be accommodated by the local authority if they have no parent or are lost or abandoned or where their parents are not able to provide them with suitable accommodation and agree to the child being accommodated.
Secure accommodation	Secure accommodation is a children’s home governed by The Department of Education for the purposes of restricting young people’s liberty. There are two main routes into secure accommodation. Young people may be placed in secure accommodation either because of criminal activity (referred to as; ‘the criminal route’) or on welfare grounds (referred to as; ‘the welfare route’).
SEN(D)	Special Education Needs (and/or Disability): Provision to support children with learning difficulties or disabilities.
Short break (respite)	Short breaks is the term used for a range of services provided for families to give carers of disabled children, and looked after children & young people, a break from caring, and for children to take part in fun activities and have new experiences that promote positive outcomes.
Special Guardianship Order / SGO	Special Guardianship is a new Order under the Children Act 1989 available from 30 December 2005. Special Guardians will have Parental Responsibility for the child. A Special Guardianship Order made in relation to a Looked After Child will replace the Care Order and the Local Authority will no longer have Parental Responsibility.