Any Social Workers around? Advice re CIN Meeting

[taylordrake]

Must a parent of the child be present at a CIN Meeting?

If so can anyone point me in the direction of the law?

Thanks so much.

Depends what the meeting is for. I very rarely have meetings without the parents.

Yes, a parent should be present at a CIN conference- having said that, without any more info I can't comment further!

A parent might choose not to attend (for a variety of reasons) but the expectation is that they do if they have parental responsibility for that child.

Not sure if that helps?
If you can give more (safe) info I could expand?

I think really my question is:

Should a CIN meeting go ahead if the parent does not attend?

Should it instead be postponed?

Or is it legal for it to go ahead without a parent present?

So in summary is it legal for a CIN meeting to be held without a parent present??

A CIN meeting is in the interest of the child being discussed. Because of this, the meeting can still go ahead without a parent there.

Having said that, it does depends on what risk level the case is an what the concerns are. But yes, they can go ahead without parents there as other agencies will still have action plans/points to follow up on.

Meetings can be postponed but that depends on what I said above. So, yes, it's legal for them to go ahead as it's about the child's health and welfare.

Depends on the situation. I might go ahead and just get parents feedback prior to the meeting if it meant it might otherwise be delayed too much ( for the situation).

Thanks for the advice.

I know it is meant to be 35 working days between the start of a core assessment and when it is completed.

Of course I appreciate delays do occur but what would you consider to be 'very late' (in terms of working days) re the completion date?

Any time over a couple of days would be v late( here anyway). CAs come fairly high on the hierarchy of 'priorities'.

So 65 working days from start to completion would be very late?

Has there been any major developments? Have they given reasons?

Reason given: 'Unavailability of worker'

The Monro report is steering workers towards losing the timescales to assessment and working more intensively and holistically. Four LA's are currently piloting having no timescales. My LA is not one of them but they have also increased the timescales slightly off their own back.

Check with your local policy and whether your LA is one of the four without timescales.

Do you know what 4 LA's they are?

Final question! I promise. It's about the distribution of the CIN minutes - as far as I can see they are meant to be distributed within 10 days. Is that right? How rigid is that timescale?

Thanks!

Def Wetminster and Knowsley. Can't remember the other two.

Westminster rather...

Bath and North East Somerset are another of the pilot LA's.

Thanks everyone - nowhere near where I am.

Any advice re the distribution of the CIN minutes and timescales of the distribution?

It sticks in my mind that the minutes should be distributed at least three working days prior to the three monthly review. I am not at all certain on this though.

NB I am an MA social work student and am doing my dissertation on timescales for assessment.

Cumbria is part of the Munro project I think.

The minutes thing. I think the timescales are up to each dept. we don't have set timescales for them. Core timescales are a national thing.