EVERY Dorset child in care should have their own life plan by March next year.

The county’s interim executive director of children’s services says too many children are currently without what the service describes as a ‘permanency plan’.

The plans set out the objectives for the time the child is in the care of the local authority – whether it is to return, or stay, with birth parents; to live with a foster family or be adopted; or for older children in care what might happen when they leave care and step out into further education or training and where they might live, including the level of support they can expect to continue receiving from the council.

Theresa Leavy, who is heading the council’s Blueprint for Change exercise to reorganise children’s services, says social workers need to find the time, by March, to make sure every child has their own permanency plan.

“Permanency for every child is an objective, but not everyone has it. Our aim is to ensure that everyone has a permanency plan by March.

“All of our children in care will know by then what the plans are.”