Returning tamariki and rangatahi safely home

Returning a tamaiti or rangatahi home is a significant decision, and a particularly vulnerable time for them. The decision needs to be based on robust understanding about the oranga and safety needs for te tamaiti or rangatahi and their whānau or family's situation. We use our models, tools and resources to provide the structure for this mahi. We articulate our understanding in an assessment report.

Our practice approach tools and resources

Involving te tamaiti or rangatahi, their whānau or family, and professionals is critical. Compare our understanding and analysis of the current situation with what we have understood, analysed and recorded previously, and ask yourself:

• Have the risks changed? If so, how are we addressing any new risks?
• Have the danger/harm factors been addressed? If not, how does the plan for te tamaiti or rangatahi ensure their ongoing safety and wellbeing at home?
• Are there more strengths and protective factors?
• Is there now evidence of safety proven over time?
• If te tamaiti or rangatahi has been engaged in offending, do their parents and wider whānau or family have the ability to support te tamaiti or rangatahi to make better choices and change their behaviour?
• When whānau or family have been the victim of offending by te tamaiti or rangatahi, do they still harbour anger or resentment towards te tamaiti or rangatahi? How will this be dealt with so that te tamaiti or rangatahi feels welcome when they return home and is given a fair opportunity to prove they have made changes?
• Do the parents or whānau or family support the offending behaviour by te tamaiti or rangatahi or collude with te tamaiti or rangatahi to protect them from having to face consequences?
• Have the underlying causes of offending (that relate to the whānau or family and environment) been addressed?
• Are older siblings in the home able to be good role models to te tamaiti or rangatahi?
• How will younger siblings manage having te tamaiti or rangatahi back at home if they have become accustomed to the home environment without te tamaiti or rangatahi?

Use the child/young person consult tool

Use the child/young person consult tool to guide your decision-making and aid your analysis of the following for te tamaiti or rangatahi:

• strengths and needs
• areas of vulnerability
• grey areas and complicating factors
• whānau or family's strengths and needs.

Observe interactions with the whānau or family

Spend time in the family home observing interactions and dynamics between te tamaiti or rangatahi, their parents and other household and whānau or family members. This will help you to be better prepared and more knowledgeable about the types of supports te tamaiti or rangatahi and their whānau or family need for a successful return home.

Vulnerabilities of different tamariki and rangatahi

Older rangatahi (e.g. 14 years and older) may be more able to protect themselves than younger tamariki, but they still need adults around them to make sure they are safe and give them encouragement, positive reinforcement, clear boundaries, guidance, age-appropriate responsibility and stability.

Particular attention needs to be paid to the vulnerabilities of tamariki and rangatahi who:

• are disabled
• are at risk of suicide
• have been the victim of sexual abuse
• have mental health issues.

Parental substance abuse and mental illness

Parental substance abuse and untreated parental mental illness need to be addressed before te tamaiti or rangatahi returns home. Tamariki and rangatahi are vulnerable to the impact of this adult behaviour.

Talk with te tamaiti or rangatahi about the impact these things can have on their physical safety and emotional wellbeing. Tamariki and rangatahi may appear resilient when, in fact, they have simply developed coping mechanisms and masking behaviour to deal with their worries and keep their true feelings secret.

Involve te tamaiti or rangatahi

It is important that you talk with te tamaiti or rangatahi and involve them in decisions and actions that relate to them. This means planning the next steps with them and checking in with them at various points to see how they feel.

Tamariki and rangatahi require well-defined arrangements and consistent relationships to help them express their hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties. They need to know what is happening, feel comfortable enough to ask questions and know who to go to with their questions, and know that someone is listening to them.

Work with te tamaiti or rangatahi to help them understand what returning home means. Discuss with them why they had to leave home as this helps them understand what has happened and what is happening now.

Use the Three Houses engagement tool to engage with the child or young person and help them articulate their feelings, fears and worries. Talk to them in a place where they feel comfortable — perhaps away from the office or their placement.

Three Houses engagement tool

Once the decision has been made to return a tamaiti or rangatahi home, planning is the key to a successful transition.

A return home meeting will be held with te tamaiti or rangatahi, their whānau or family and involved professionals before te tamaiti or rangatahi can safely return home. This ensures that:

• the required supports are in place
• everyone knows what their role is in supporting the child or young person
• there continues to be a collaborative response that meets everyone's needs.

Purpose of the return home meeting

Involving te tamaiti or rangatahi and their whānau or family gives them the opportunity to take an active role in the plan as they have a vested interest in its success. Getting everyone together allows each party to hear others' information and to place it in a context of what is happening for te tamaiti or rangatahi.

The more people that are committed to the successful return home of te tamaiti or rangatahi, the more likely there will be a positive outcome. Remember, the supports need to endure long after Oranga Tamariki has left the life of the whānau or family.

Things that you will need to consider, discuss and plan for with te tamaiti or rangatahi, whānau or family and professionals include:

• What will the transition home look like and how will it address the identified needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi who is returning home and those who are already living in the home?
• Does the whānau or family have adequate housing to accommodate everyone safely?
• Does the whānau or family have sufficient financial means to meet the needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi? Are they receiving all their entitlements through Work and Income, Working for Families and Family Tax credits?
• Who are the key support people for te tamaiti or rangatahi and whānau or family and do they clearly understand the responsibilities of their support role?
• How will day-to-day activities be managed, e.g. transporting te tamaiti or rangatahi to school?
• If safety concerns emerge once te tamaiti or rangatahi is home, how will these be addressed quickly?
• How will parents and te tamaiti or rangatahi be supported to have a regular break?
• How will everyone ensure that appropriate focus and consideration is given to younger tamariki in the sibling group?
• What types of support are in place to deal with high stress times, e.g. school holidays?
• Are key health and education services in place for te tamaiti or rangatahi, e.g. a regular GP?
• What monitoring is required from the social worker and how often will they visit?
• Who will visit the home and how often? Are there people who should not be visiting because they pose a risk to te tamaiti or rangatahi?

Remember, one plan does not fit all — we need to work with te tamaiti or rangatahi and their whānau or family to make sure the plan fits well for everyone.

Research by Malet, Mcsherry, Karkin, Kelly, Robinson and Schubotz (2010) about returning tamariki and rangatahi home to their parents highlights the need for social workers to go beyond simply checking the child or young person is safe, and to provide support in areas including respite care, parenting advice, housing and financial assistance, and practical help.

Protect and support the development of tamariki and rangatahi within healthy whānau and families

When the plan is to return a tamaiti or rangatahi home, we should arrange regular and frequent contact between them and their whānau or family while te tamaiti or rangatahi is living away from home. This will help to maintain attachments and reduce the sense of loss or abandonment which tamariki and rangatahi often experience.

As the return home date approaches, contact between te tamaiti or rangatahi and parents needs to increase in frequency and duration and include unsupervised day long, overnight and weekend visits. Structure visits around different routines such as school, recreational activities and regular appointments so that parents become familiar with the routine of te tamaiti or rangatahi.

Increased contact also serves to test the return home decision: What are the most stressful times and how well are these managed? How well are the parents responding to the needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi?

Keep checking in with te tamaiti or rangatahi, the caregiver, parents, wider whānau or family, and support people to make sure you know how things are going.

Managing family dynamics

Returning home after time with a whānau or family caregiver can be more or less complicated depending on the whānau or family dynamics. Some whānau or family maintain strong, positive and supportive relationships throughout the placement while others, for a variety of reasons, have less positive relationships.

When whānau or family are working well together, the transition from a whānau or family member's home back to the parent can occur smoothly, be more in tune with the needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi, and be led and owned by the whānau or family. Talk to the whānau or family caregiver about giving te tamaiti or rangatahi positive messages about going back to their parent, and about how they will manage the change in role from being the parental figure to being a supportive whānau or family member.

Difficult whānau or family dynamics can make the transition emotionally distressing for te tamaiti or rangatahi and challenging for all the people involved. It is important that everyone, including te tamaiti or rangatahi, feels they have had an opportunity to be heard and contribute to the plan. Difficult emotions can impact on the willingness of te tamaiti or rangatahi to talk with people if things are not going well.

Keeping in touch with te tamaiti or rangatahi is extra important during this time. Consider who else is around that they can talk to — they may need your help to identify someone outside the whānau or family circle who they can go to if the home environment becomes too hard, e.g. a trusted teacher, sports coach or family friend.

Managing the changing roles of caregivers

Planned transitions home should, wherever possible, include a ‘goodbye' celebration. Encourage the caregiver and te tamaiti or rangatahi to think creatively about who they would like to say goodbye to. Taking photos to remember the occasion may be appropriate. A book with photos and notes of their time with the caregivers can help tamariki and rangatahi contextualise the changes in their life and help them to move emotionally as well as physically.

If possible, include the whānau or family of te tamaiti or rangatahi in the celebration. This provides te tamaiti or rangatahi with an opportunity to see both their whānau or family and caregiver together to celebrate them. Tamariki and rangatahi also need to know that it is okay to miss their caregivers and that their caregivers want them to do well when they return home.

Often it's not goodbye, but rather a change in role for the caregiver. The caregiver and te tamaiti or rangatahi may have developed a significant bond. It is therefore natural that te tamaiti or rangatahi and their caregiver will want to have an ongoing relationship. If this is the case, discuss how this could occur for the mutual benefit of all involved. It may be that the caregiver takes up the role of an honorary aunt or uncle and contact may be by informal regular visits or phone calls. It may be appropriate for the caregiver to become a babysitter for te tamaiti or rangatahi and offer regular overnight stays.

It's normal to expect a 'honeymoon period' when tamariki and rangatahi first return home. You need to ensure that supports do not drop off too soon and that the parents and te tamaiti or rangatahi are provided with consistent, reliable, enduring and practical support while they all adjust to living as a whānau or family again.

Make sure you:

• visit often. The frequency of your visiting should be based on the assessed needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi recorded in their All About Me plan. Consider at least a weekly visit for the first four weeks so you develop a good understanding of how things are going and can understand and address any issues early. Regular engagement with te tamaiti or rangatahi will also help you maintain a relationship in which they feel safe to talk about any worries or concerns they may have. A mixture of planned and unplanned visits in and out of the home will help you get a real picture of what is happening with the whānau or family
• talk to each member of the whānau or family so you understand their views
• bring te tamaiti or rangatahi, parents, other whānau or family and the involved professionals together to review progress, celebrate successes and quickly address any concerns that may require attention. Remember to hold this meeting within four weeks of te tamaiti or rangatahi returning home, and then regularly from this point to review the All About Me plan for te tamaiti or rangatahi. If you believe you need to hold a meeting sooner than planned, do this. It is better to meet at an earlier point when there are a few signs that things aren't going well, rather than meeting when the situation is in crisis
• talk with te tamaiti or rangatahi and their whānau or family about the supports that are in place, including the frequency of visiting, check that these are still having the desired impact, and adjust them if needed
• pay particular attention to younger tamariki who have returned home — spend time with them, observe them with their whānau or family and talk to those who care for them
• spend time with older tamariki both in and away from their home, and make sure they have the opportunity to talk to you in a place where they feel safe to speak openly about how things are going
• take opportunities to provide parents with advice, ideas and new skills that support them to parent safely
• use the Three Houses engagement tool to engage with the whānau or family and to review how things have progressed over time, celebrate what has been achieved and identify what will be useful for the future.

Three Houses engagement tool

Support for parents of older tamariki and rangatahi

For older tamariki and rangatahi, it's natural at their developmental stage to push the limits and boundaries set for them by their parents. The plan for te tamaiti or rangatahi needs to include support for parents through testing times so that they don't give up.

Work with the parents to identify people in their wider whānau or family, peer group and community who can:

• help distinguish between normal and concerning behaviours
• give advice about ways to avoid problems and negotiate difficult issues
• offer lots of practical ideas and support for dealing with issues as they arise
• take te tamaiti or rangatahi or parent away from the home to allow some breathing space when needed
• be contacted if they want advice or information.

It will also be important to have some options available should issues arise (e.g. te tamaiti or rangatahi feels unsafe, or the parent feels unable to keep their tamaiti or rangatahi safe). Ideally, one of the options will be a whānau or family member taking responsibility to act immediately to ensure the safety of te tamaiti or rangatahi. Make sure everyone, especially te tamaiti or rangatahi, knows about the available options and who to contact if the plan breaks down.

Ensuring support into the future

Before ending involvement with a whānau or family, it's important that we ensure there are enduring systems of support set up, and people who will continue to look out for the future safety and wellbeing of te tamaiti or rangatahi.

When tamariki and rangatahi are safely living in the care of their parents, and the whānau or family is well supported, it is usually appropriate for custody orders to be discharged. Discuss this at your formal review meetings and keep the lawyer for te tamaiti or rangatahi actively engaged.

Consider where and when other orders, such as a support or services order, could be used to meet any needs that cannot be met by the whānau or family and community support system. Remember, you don't have to wait for a formal court review date to begin the process of discharging an order if this is the most appropriate thing to do.

Support orders

Malet, F.M., Mcsherry, D., Larkin, E., Kelly, G., Robinson, C. & Schubotz, D. (2010). Young children returning home from care: The birth parents' perspective. Child & Family Social Work, 15(1), pp. 77-86.