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Children: Social Services

Volume 502: debated on Wednesday 9 December 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will amend the Integrated Children's System to enable a pre-birth plan to be changed after birth. (300304)

Statutory guidance contained in ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ sets out the processes for managing individual cases when there are concerns about the welfare of a child, including of an unborn child. It also sets out the minimum time periods for reviewing a plan. The local authority should record the plan electronically in its IT system, known as the Integrated Children's System, and update the plan as appropriate following a review. The same processes apply when there are concerns about an unborn child: any pre-birth plan will need to be reviewed following the baby's birth. When a new plan has been developed, the previous plan should be archived in order to provide an audit trail of the reasons for changes agreed at each stage of the decision making process.