Statutory reviews

​​​​​​​​There’s a requirement for CiC to have statutory reviews​​ of their care within 28 days of entering care and every 6 months, unless there are changes to their care plans.

Statutory reviews are chaired by independent reviewing officers (IROs) with schools usually invited to take part and complete a report for the review. 

The Virtual School Handbook is intended to be helpful to any local authority officers, in particular Directors of Children’s Services (DCS), Virtual School Heads (VSH), social workers, school admission officers, special educational needs departments, independent reviewing officers (IRO) and Lead Members. It’s also hoped that schools, and specifically headteachers and​ designated teachers for looked-after children will find it helpful in understanding the role of the VSH and the needs of CiC.

There are also 3 useful documents to aid your understanding. The Legal Framework​ details the different legal statuses afforded children and together with the Frequently Asked Questions​​ provides a simple overview. A brief guide to special guardianship order support (SGO).

For more information on CiC visit GOV.UK’s Looked-after Children and Children in Care section.

Independent reviewing officer (IRO) service

The IRO service in Essex has been working closely with members of the Children in Care Council to refresh the approach to reviews for CiC.

The following changes have been made to the way the review process is carried out and this may affect your participation:

1. To make review meetings more engaging and purposeful for CiC, we ask children who they’d like at their meetings and what they want to talk about.

This might mean that fewer people are invited to meetings and IROs may need to meet or speak with you separately, or ask for a written report.

Children have asked to keep meetings short (about 40 minutes) so we all will to prepare well and share information in advance.

2. IROs will be using a ‘strengths-based approach’ in review meetings as well as in the forms used to gather information from families and professionals.

Participants will be asked to tell us the following:

• ​What is going well?
• What is going less well?
• What needs to happen?

3. There’ll be a new recording tool to help capture key information and, wherever possible, IROs and participants will encourage and support young people to chair their reviews.

Help us make reviews more engaging and purposeful by doing the following:

• being focused and respectful in meetings
• remembering reviews are focused upon young people, how well the plan reflects their needs, and how well they’re being cared for and supported
• submitting reports in advance
• recognising that many issues should be dealt with outside of the review process