Do we coordinate well with others when we change a child’s placement?

Many respondents to our Charter Champions survey believe that we coordinate well while others have observed that we do it seldom or not at all.  Perhaps ‘well’ means different things to different respondents?  Should it involve former or future carers, the child’s worker, teachers, psychologist?  Our free text survey produced all of these suggestions and more.  Many agreed that the earlier, more complete, more inclusive and more comprehensive the planning, the better.

There have been a number of placement changes I’ve been involved in where there has been an opportunity to discuss the child’s needs at length and a plan has been implemented to make the transition as smooth as possible on the young person. The plan may be a gradual change where the child visits the placement several time before moving in, or sometimes we’ve moved forward quickly because the child is likely to become highly anxious over the change and was likely to become violent if given too much time to process the information. These considered approaches have involved a great input from case managers, supervisors, youth workers, therapists, and whoever knows the child best. In some cases we’ve been able to maintain schooling, peer groups, community involvement etc. and the placement change has been successful. – Supervisor

Please leave your comments.  Just allow us a brief period for moderation.

More about this issue on our Twitter feed.

link to twitter

(c) 2021 Guardian for Children and Young People. Terms & Privacy Policy.

We acknowledge and respect Aboriginal People as the traditional owners
and custodians of the land we live and work on, their living culture and their unique role in the life of South Australia.