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Home chevron_right Children, families, and safeguarding chevron_right Children in care chevron_right Your review chevron_right Your Independent Reviewing Officer

Your Independent Reviewing Officer

Your Independent Reviewing Officer is someone who works for us (the council), but isn't involved in your care. That means they can look at everything in a fair and balanced way. That's why we call them 'independent'. You might hear Independent Reviewing Officers being called IROs, so we'll call them IROs here too.

Before your review

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You'll meet your IRO before your first review, so they have time to get to know you. It's your IRO's job to listen really carefully when you talk about how you feel about your care plan.

If there's something in your care plan that you don't like or you think is wrong, you can tell your IRO why. It's okay to tell them the truth, no matter what that is. We want you to be happy, so telling us what the problem is can help us fix or change things.

If you don't want to go to your review, your IRO will help you to write down how you feel. Then they'll read it out at the review so people can hear.

Your IRO also has to make sure that the people in your life are sticking to what your care plan says. So if anyone hasn't been following your plan (whether it was an accident or on purpose), you can tell your IRO.

During your review

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Your Independent Reviewing Officer is in charge of your review. You might hear it called 'chairing' the review, which is just another way of saying they're in charge.

Your IRO will make sure the review is fair and everyone gets a chance to speak. They'll be especially careful to make sure that you get to speak, and that people listen to you. If you don't want to go to your review, or you don't want to speak, your IRO will read out what you've written.

Sometimes, people might have different ideas about how to look after you or help you. Your IRO will listen to them all and then decide what is best for you. They'll also make sure that it's written down in your care plan.

It's your IRO's job to make sure that everyone sticks to talking about the important stuff. They might have a list of everything which needs to be talked about. So they'll make sure everything is ticked off the list before your review is over.

After your review

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Your IRO will come to see you again after your review so you can talk about what happened.

If you didn't go to your review, they'll tell you what was said and if any changes are being made to your care plan.

Contact us

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You can get in touch with us by calling 01642 354450.