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LAC Meetings Explained

If you are attending a LAC meeting then your child will already have a court order or voluntary plan in place, which means that your child is 'looked after" by the state.

 I think it is best to reiterate this is a meeting.

 In Child Protection Case conference meeting - I tried to explain that it was my own misguided expectations that really made the process more difficult for me.

 Just like before this is a meeting. 
Any meeting will have a very specific purpose that will have been set out ahead of the meeting.

It is important to understand that there is already a goal in mind before you even attend the meeting. The meeting is not the time to make changes. A meeting is to inform, not gather data.

The chair of the meeting has a vital role in having already spoken to all the parties involved in advance of the meeting. No chair would go into a meeting unsure about what all parties are going to say, because it is the chair's role to orchestrate and guide the meeting through all the stages to its conclusion. The chair will want everyone at the meeting to work together to bring about the set conclusion.

In a business meeting, it is really important that information is gathered ahead of the meeting. This prevents unnecessary complications and, in order to plan for the sessions ahead, the meeting needs, to a degree, to have a goal in mind ahead of time.

This is good business. It allows for solid, constructive communication to be partaken to create a plan going forward.

In a LAC meeting this is also true. 

The chair of the meeting should meet with you ahead of the meeting. It is vital, seriously it is absolutely vital, that ahead of the meeting you participate as fully as you are able such that your voice and your contributions can be thrown into the melting pot of voices that will guide and develop not just the goal of the meeting but the plan going forward.

Your social worker will be a key figure. The social worker will write up a LAC report. You need to work with the social worker to build that report. Call the social worker, meet with the social worker, work with the social worker. 

I know that sounds like simple, almost ridiculous advice. But engage. Engage even when it feels like you are drowning. Engage when it hurts to breath, engage when you think you have never felt so mad in all your life.

All the important discussions will take place before the LAC meeting. If you want something discussed or changed, you need to begin raising in before the LAC meeting. The LAC Meeting will already have a plan drawn up for going forward. The meeting will be to discuss the plan, and while contributions can be discussed, they must have a place in the plan ahead of time. 

 Your first LAC Child meeting should be within 6 weeks since the first day a child became "Looked After". Then they should occur regularly. With the next being within 12 weeks after the first. Then 3-6 monthly.

A Looked After Child includes those :

 • At home, subject to a Compulsory Supervision Order
 • In Formal Kinship placements
 • In foster care
 • In residential care or awaiting adoption

The LAC meeting will possibly have a wider range of professionals requested to attend, but the meeting is unlikely to be more populated than a child protection case conference meeting. At this meeting the Chair will go around the table and look for what is working and what is not.

This meeting is all about how to best meet the needs of the child, and ensure that children in care have their care plan regularly reviewed. 

Some of the things that parents will be asked will be questions like:

Do you feel you child is being well looked after? What is working well?

This is a very difficult question for a parent who is child is living apart from them. It might be worth trying to consider this question in advance of the meeting.

For a parent, it feels like a slap in the face that the first thing they want to know is what compliments you have for the local authority and possibly the foster carer.

 While it comes across this way, I genuinely think this is a communication hiccup. The trouble is most of these people have never been on your side of the table. I believe the goal was to start the meeting off on the right foot, on an upbeat note.

 For many parents, from the many voices which I have heard, this feels like an exercise in look how much better off your child is doing without you. When all the meetings feel like there is no recognition about anything good you do, only negative, it can feel very frustrating.

 Breath, and try not to take this personally. 

Stick to the simpliest things if you are struggling. Because this is an exercise in cooperation.

For example: I was pleased to see my son had new shoes, or he always comes dressed in clean clothes, or he said he has a special relationship with the carer's dog.

 You may find it difficult to say something positive, if your child is always late to contact, her comfort item is taken away from her, and she is frequently suffering from bruises and a large burn. 

 I know I did. But I needed to work with these people. I had never envisioned that I would have to co-parent, and co-parenting with a meeting room full of people is the hardest thing I have ever done. 

 Find something, even just one thing positive. Grit your teeth and say that.


What are your concerns, what do you feel is not working?

This too is a difficult question and it may be worth considering this ahead of time, and what appropriate and applicable solutions you might want to be seeking. 

 Remember what I said in Child Protection Case Conference Meetings.

 Don't compete.

 This is not a match. 

 Nobody is taking score.

 Yes, it sucks. Yes, your heart is broken. Yes, it is so unfair.

 Don't compete.

 It would be therapeutic, for a minute to make a list of their faults. Write it out in detail, at least twice the length of the one they have for you.

 For a minute. But this isn't a competition. 

 And it isn't productive.

 It isn't helpful to give a list of problems. It is likely that nothing will be achieved. Instead consider what you feel would be a good solution that might be acceptable to all parties.

Essentially, pick your battles, what is one thing you specifically want to see changed for your child.

 For your child.

 Everything is for your child.

 At our first LAC meeting, the point raised was that I wanted to take contact out of the contact centre. Go to a park, a swimming pool, a cafe.

 The meeting agreed.

 It was a really good change. 

 It made a big positive difference to my child. And to me. 

 Pick one achievable goal. 

 Pick one and prove that you can do it. Part of this process of building a relationship and a history of engagement is picking achievable changes and succeeding. Don't ask for something you can not uphold. Don't ask for something so complicated or so far out of the boundaries of the necessary safeguarding that you force the meeting to say no.

If you feel this would in no way begin to address your concerns, put them in writing. Come prepared with your own ideas of how these things could be addressed, and what you want to see happening.

 And remember this is a meeting.

 If you want those things to be genuinely considered and given a real discussion, you must work on them, speak about them, begin acting on them ahead of the meeting. 

 Another way to look at it is meeting are not speculative. They don't consider all the possibilities, just the ones for which they already have an understanding. 

 This is all about safeguarding, and safety requires a solid understanding of the situation. If you want them to make changes, they need a solid understanding, a firm confidence in the situation that will be created by the changes.

You will also hear from the child's carer, or their social worker, and you will have updates on how everyone feels the child is progressing. 


The Local Authority has a range of statutory duties to children looked after by them. They must :

 • safeguard and promote the child's welfare, taking the welfare of the child as their paramount concern

 • make use of services that would be available for children were they cared for by their parents

 • take steps to promote regular and direct contact between a child who is looked after and any person with parental responsibilities, so far as is practicable, appropriate and consistent with the duty to safeguard the child's welfare

 • provide advice and assistance with a view to the time when the child is no longer looked after

 • find out and have regard to the views of the child, his parents and any other relevant person, so far as is practicable when making decisions about a child whom they look after

 • take account so far as is practicable of the child's religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background.

Authorities may deviate from these duties only when it is necessary to protect members of the public from serious harm, and then only to the extent required to achieve such protection for the public.
At all times, the Local Authority, and any agency acting on their behalf, must act transparently and be accountable for their decisions and actions, remembering:

 • The child is at the centre and is an individual in their own right

 • It is a child’s right to have a family life and to enjoy family life

 • All adults, involved in making decisions which affect a child, have a duty to find out and take account of the child’s views and wishes

 • Parents are legally responsible for their children, and all agencies should work in partnership with them unless this responsibility has been legally removed from them.

 • We must support parents to change in order that they can meet their child’s needs

 • All children need permanence

 • We have a duty to minimise the need for compulsory measures by supporting a child’s needs to be met at home by their family or by replacing the compulsory measures by a more secure permanent legal order.

As you can see from the council's published material on LAC meeting, this is meant to be a meeting which is completely focused on meeting a child's needs, and planning for their future. 

 I do not think it can be understated just how must benefit there is to be had by bringing an advocate. You can meet with your advocate ahead of the meeting, and they can not only calm your nerves, but help you consider what questions to ask that you may have over looked, and also to consider what ideas you may want to contribute, but had not had the confidence to share. 

From the LAC meeting, you should come away feeling that there is a plan for how to address the LA's concerns. There should be a clear idea of what the difficulties are, and how those can be addressed, and what strengths need to be supported and encouraged. 

It is worth noting, from our own experience, that reports written by social work was a topic which we attempted to engage upon. Technically, social work should provide a copy of their report in advance of the  meeting, and give you time to discuss any concerns/ inaccuracies/ or to clarify what they mean.
If this is not happening, you are entirely able to raise this concern during this meeting, and request this to be one of the changes made in order that you can properly support your child. 

Theoretically, this is meant to be a cooperative meeting where the local authority work towards making sure the child is well cared for and their needs and future goals are being met, or on target to being met. 

If you have concerns, and I am sure you will here is some legislation that might be useful. 

Relevant Legislation

Policies which are useful and Related

Recommendation for Compulsion  - Scottish Government website

Relevant Forms

Child's Plan Review (PDF)

Having Your Say

Risk Assessment Framework

Risk Assessment Forms


(All the information in this post is quoted and reference to Moray Council. It is not easy to find councils in Scotland who willingly offer children and families services information to the public, and fewer who actually publish specific information online.)

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