The Role and Expectations of the Independent Reviewing Officers

If a Local Authority is looking after a child/young person, it must appoint an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) for that child's/young person’s case. The name of the IRO and his/her contact details must be recorded on the child's/young person’s case record.

The designated Team Manager will allocate an IRO within 48 hours of notification that a child becomes Looked After, 'Looked After Child'). The IRO will take responsibility in ensuring that an introductory letter is sent to all children/young people over the age of 4 within 48 hours. The IRO will make contact with the allocated social worker in order to gather more information and ensure that a date is identified for the first review which will take place within 20 working days.

Sibling groups, whether or not placed together, will have the same IRO, except where conflict of interest between siblings makes this inappropriate or the size of the sibling group makes this unmanageable.

The child/young person will be given notification of his/her IRO, along with details about how to make contact with him/her. This could be by email or text. If the child/person is only informed verbally, then the date that s/he was given this information must be placed on the case record.

The IRO should make contact with the child/young person before the first Review.

The changes to the statutory framework are intended to enable the IRO to have a more effective and independent oversight of a child's/young person’s case.

The statutory duties of the IRO are to Section 25B(1), 1989 Act:

• Monitor the performance by the local authority of their functions in relation to the child's/young person’s case;
• Participate in any review of the child's/young person’s case;
• Ensure that any ascertained wishes and feelings of the child/young person concerning the case are given due consideration by the appropriate authority; and
• Perform any other function which is prescribed in regulations.

For further information on the responsibilities of the IRO and the LAC Review, please refer to The Review of the Child's Plan for Children in Care Procedure.

An integral part of the IRO role is to establish a professional relationship with the child/young person which would enable the child or young person to feel comfortable about approaching them to discuss any issues or concerns. It is important that the IRO has a clear understanding of the extent and limitations of the role and does not seek to undermine the role of the social worker.

With this in mind it would be expected that the IRO is able to communicate within a child centred way in order to build trust and ascertain the wishes and feelings of the child/young person.

Where a child is under the age of four years, communication with them may prove more difficult, however meeting, alongside observations with the child, would be considered an important method of ensuring that the IRO has some personal knowledge of the child and can make a judgement on their communication skills and understanding. This will assist in creating strong foundations for a longer term relationship.

Where a child/young person has a disability which impacts on their ability to communicate verbally it would be expected that the IRO has a discussion with other professionals or carers who will be able to assist in providing information as to how effective communication might be achieved to ensure the views of the child/young person are captured. Please refer to Section 3.1, Children with Additional Communication Needs for further guidance.

There will be various key points when the IRO will be required to ascertain some level of communication with the child/young person in respect of their Care Plans, these can be summarised as follows:

• On allocation: it is expected the IRO will have contact with the child prior to the day of the first review;
• Midway between reviews the IRO will review the progress of the care plan;  
• The IRO should visit the children in their home annually at a minimum.  All visits/communication will be recorded on the IRO Activity records;
• Prior to the review the IRO will ensure they are aware of where the child would like the review to be held, and whom they would like to attend. The IRO will also address with the child/young person any issues which they would like to be addressed in order to facilitate their participation in the meeting. This responsibility can be delegated to any other individual with whom the child/young person has established a trusting relationship. It will be the responsibility of the IRO to ensure they are provided with sufficient feedback to ensure the review meeting meets the needs and wishes of the child;
• The IRO will ensure that they are aware and record what a good care plan looks like from the child's perspective.

As a matter of course the IRO will ensure the child/young person is aware of:

• The extent of the IRO sharing information with others, (children and young people should not believe that their discussions with the IRO are confidential but that the information provided will be acted upon in order to secure the best interests of the child);
• How they can contact the IRO if required. This will include being given all contact details;
• Aware of and contributes to the frequency of meetings;
• In the absence of IRO being available what actions the child/young person might take in order to discuss any pressing issues;
• His/her rights to Advocacy services and entitlements;
• How to make a complaint in respect of any aspect of care which they have received including raising issues in respect of the IRO;
• The child/ young person's rights to legal representation if this is required and details of how this can be accessed;
• The views of the young person have been sought in respect of all aspects of the plan; (where the young person is in dispute with the plan that the IRO has been clear as to what action can be taken and what supports can be offered either directly by the IRO or through an Advocate if necessary).

An important role of the IRO is ensuring that children and young people who are looked after by the Local Authority have all their needs met. This will require that any information received from the child/young person will need to be shared in a sensitive manner with others in order to ensure the best interests of the child/young person are secured.

The IRO will need to be able to evidence their interactions with both the child/young person and all others involved in the life of a child/young person. To this end there should be a clear 'foot print' of the IRO on the file outlining their actions and interventions. The IRO will ensure that they provide factual details of all these events including the following:

• All direct communications with the child/young person including visits, phone calls and texts;
• Evidence that consideration has been given to the child's/young person’s stated wishes and feelings in respect of the review process. (Where this has been delegated to another person there should be a clear record of the IRO receiving this feedback.);
• All communications directly with the parents, this will include details as to why they may not have been invited to the review meeting;
• All communications with other members of the child/young person family or origin who continue to be involved with the child;
• All communications with members of the birth family who remain involved;
• All communications with professionals who are involved with the child/young person;
• Any positive challenges/formal escalations which may have been raised regarding the child/young person;
• Consideration to calling early/re-arranging reviews.

At all times the IRO will remember that the record is the child/young person's record and that this should be reflected in quality of the recordings. This should remain a succinct factual summary of what is discussed and any analysis in terms of care planning which might follow from this.

IRO's will receive formal supervision at least bi-monthly in order to provide support for staff, to encourage reflective practice, and facilitate workers remaining highly focused on the best interests of children/young people. A distinction is made between professional supervision which relates to the needs and development of the worker and case supervision which relates to the matter specific to the child/young person. It is accepted and acknowledged that the high case level of case load of IRO is such that it is not possible to deal with every case in each supervision session.

Prior to the supervision the IRO will identify  cases that are newly allocated or are causing concern or subject to both informal/formal disputes within the auspices of:

• Drift and delay;
• Children's/young people’s views not reflected in the plan;
• Lack of effectiveness of LA support;
• Lack of evidence of contingency planning;
• Compliance within the legal framework including the Human Rights Act.

In order to ensure that the supervisory time can be spent effectively the IRO will ensure that they attend supervision fully prepared on all cases that they wish to discuss and those new cases allocated to them which have had a review since their last supervision. The method of supervision prep will be agreed between the IRO Manager and the IRO.  The IRO will notify the Team Manager of the cases to be discussed 5 working days prior to supervision.

The supervisor will identify any other cases which will be based on the following criteria:

• Any case not having been reviewed within a year;
• Any cases deemed to require management oversight;
• Any cases deemed necessary from a thematic audits;

The supervisor will offer challenge in order to facilitate reflection and discussion in respect of the following areas:

• Whether child/young person participation in conference and review process can be further enhanced;
• Ensuring that the views of the child/young person are appropriately captured;
• Evidence of holistic care planning which appropriately addresses the needs of the child;
• Quality and timeliness of recommendations;
• Evidence of appropriate consultation with the operational teams and Cafcass and other professionals;
• Reviewing the issue of delay and how this might be minimised;
• Ensure that there is a clear 'footprint' of the Independent Chair IRO on the child's/young person’s file;
• Evidence of how improved outcomes might be achieved for each child/young person;
• Evidence of preparation planning and recording;
• Evidence of defensible decision making;
• Evidence of legal compliance.  

The supervisor will take responsibility for ensuring that all decisions made in supervision in respect of the child/young person are clearly recorded on the child's electronic file. This will ensure that there is clear evidence of robust management oversight and support of the worker thereby facilitating improved outcomes for children and young people.