Welcome to Placements Northwest website

Placements Northwest is a regional children`s service project which assists the 22 local authorities in the Northwest making out of authority placements. These placements cover four board areas: Education, Fostering, Leaving Care and Residential sectors. 
All future projects and actions of Placements Northwest are governed by the steering group. Other members of the group include strategic leads from Local Authority Children Services Departments, Partnership North West (SEN) and the Strategic Health Authority.

Consultation and Communication

Consultation will be achieved through the Joint Working Purchaser/Provider Groups representing all the NW authorities, agencies and specialists involved in making Out of Authority Placements. The current groupings are:

• Residential Care Providers
• Independent Foster Agencies
• Education Providers
• Leaving Care Providers

The representatives on these groups will be responsible for wider consultation and dissemination of information within their own networks. There will be an annual regional Provider Forum which will provide topical information across the region. Everyone involved in the project and these groups, whether strategic or operational, will be fully involved to ensure that appropriate information is cascaded to all relevant stakeholders. Regular updates on progress will be provided via the website to assist with the consultation and information sharing process.

Main day to day Activities

• Maintaining day to day running of PIMS including monitoring providers across the northwest
• Monitoring the fostering framework contract
• Benchmarking costs & performance for all local authorities within Placements Northwest
• A support service of local authorities in commissioning services

Current Projects

• Leaving Care minimum standards
• Supporting regional/ sub regional contract framework for residential and leaving care tenders