Care of Children and Young People

What does the term ‘Looked After’ mean?

This term was once known as ‘Children in care’ and it later changed to looked after children by the Northern Ireland Children Order in 1995 and this refers to those who are subject to care orders and those who are voluntarily accommodated. The children order address a wide range of situations and the main one under this order is to protect children against abuse.

Where do Looked After Children (LAC) live?

Most young people who are being looked after are cared for by foster carers, two thirds live with foster parents and on average they could be with the foster parents for a short period of 9 months but in some cases the child has been with the foster carers for a number of years. There are alternative ways for the child to be looked after and these could be in children’s homes where 12% of looked after children live. There are also specialised children’s homes for children who have disabilities. Some of the other ways that a child can be looked after are with someone from their family and that person will be known as the child’s kinship carer. An example of a kinship carer would be a brother or sister. The child could also be looked after by someone from their extended family or by a friend and that person will be known as the child’s network carer. An example of a network carer would be an aunt or uncle.

Who is involved in the process of taking children and young people in to care?

When a child is being taken into care there is a range of different people who are involved for many of different reasons. Some of the people that are involved are social workers, police, doctors, teachers, health visitor and parents. A social worker would be the main person who is involved in the process and this is because they are the person with the care order and this means that they can go in with the police and remove the child if they are in danger. The main reason that the police would be involved would be if the child is being abused. The doctor would be involved in the process because if the child has been neglected within the family then the doctor will do a range of different tests on the child and the doctor will also check the child’s health. The teacher could be involved as they would first hand see what is happening to the child. If a child is in care and still attending school then there will be an allocated teacher within the school who keeps an eye on all of the children who are in care within the school. The health visitor would mainly be involved with younger children as they will visit the parents to assess how the child is developing. If they sense that the child is not developing how other children their age are then this will be reported to the social workers who will then take action. The parents could be involved if they voluntary put their child in care, this could be if the parent knows that their child isn’t safe within the home or it could be if a parent has a child with disabilities who needs rest bite.