Records & plans
What is a referral?
A referral is a placing authority asking a home to consider a child. It is the point at which a home decides whether it can meet that child's needs, and the decision is a safeguarding one.
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<figure>
<img src="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/referral/diagram.svg" alt="referral — diagram from CareOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/referral">What is a referral?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk">CareOptix</a>
</figcaption>
</figure>Accepting a child the home cannot meet the needs of harms that child and often the children already there. The statement of purpose exists to make that decision principled rather than commercial.
Information at referral is frequently incomplete, and asking for what is missing is part of the process rather than an obstacle to it. A decision made on a partial picture is a decision made badly.
The impact on the existing group is the consideration most often skipped, and it is the one that most often explains a placement breaking down weeks later.
What goes wrong in practice
- Accepted on the information offered rather than the information needed.
- Impact on the children already living in the home not assessed.
- Occupancy pressure driving a decision the statement of purpose does not support.