---
title: Initial Placement Agreement
description: "**Initial Placement Agreement (IPA) – setting the foundation in the first week** The **Initial Placement Agreement (IPA)** is the blueprint for a child’s first weeks in your home. Completing it quickly—*and well*—helps everyone pull in the same direction, prevents misunderstandings…"
url: "https://handbook.co.uk/docs/initial-placement-agreement/"
updated: "2025-07-13"
category: Foster Carer Handbook
tags:
  - Initial Placement Agreement
---

# Initial Placement Agreement

**Initial Placement Agreement (IPA) – setting the foundation in the first week**

The **Initial Placement Agreement (IPA)** is the blueprint for a child’s first weeks in your home. Completing it quickly—*and well*—helps everyone pull in the same direction, prevents misunderstandings and reassures the child that the adults around them are organised and talking to each other.

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**1 | Timing and venue**

- The IPA is drafted at the **Placement Planning Meeting (PPM)**, held **in your home within seven calendar days** of a child’s arrival.
- Your Supervising Social Worker (SSW) chairs, with the child’s social worker, any birth-family representatives invited by the Local Authority, and—if age-appropriate—the child or young person themselves.

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**2 | What the IPA covers**

| **Area** | **Typical questions answered** |
| --- | --- |
| **Daily care & routines** | Bedtime, food preferences, allergies, cultural or faith needs, pocket-money rate. |
| **Health & medication** | Current prescriptions, delegated authority for GP visits, allergy management, Health Passport handover. |
| **Education** | School details, transport, homework expectations, upcoming PEP date. |
| **Contact / family time** | Who, where, how often, supervised or unsupervised, transport arrangements. |
| **Risk & safety** | Known behaviours, Safer Caring adjustments, internet rules, swimming permissions. |
| **Finance** | How accountable allowance will be used (savings account set-up, club fees). |
| **Review points** | Next statutory Looked-After Review date, how progress will be measured. |

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**3 | Principles of partnership**

- **One plan, one team.** Foster carers, SSW, child’s social worker and (where possible) the child and birth family co-create the IPA.
- **Voice of the child.** Even very young children can choose a night-light colour or pick an after-school snack; older children should speak for themselves on routines and hobbies.
- **Living document.** Agreements may be refined at the PPM as new information emerges or the child settles.

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**4 | After the meeting**

1. The SSW finalises the Positive Aspirations Group IPA template and circulates a signed digital copy to all attendees within **48 hours**.
2. You keep the IPA in the child’s file and refer to it when making day-to-day decisions.
3. Any proposed change (extra contact, new medication) should be flagged to the SSW and, if material, recorded as an IPA addendum.

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**5 | Your role as foster carer**

- **Prepare.** Note initial observations (sleep pattern, food likes, triggers) to inform the meeting.
- **Be specific.** Vague statements (“Sometimes anxious”) become clear strategies (“Reads for 10 minutes with dim lamp before lights-out”).
- **Speak up about resources.** If football boots or art classes will ignite the child’s *spark*, include the cost in accountable-allowance planning.
- **Follow the plan.** Compliance is not optional; deviations—however well-intentioned—need agreement from the SSW and child’s social worker.

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**6 | Need the template?**

Ask your SSW for the latest **Initial Placement Agreement template** or find it in the secure online portal under *Forms & Templates**► Placement Paperwork**► IPA*.

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**In essence:** the IPA is the child’s safety-net and roadmap for their early days with you. Treat it as a living agreement, update it when life shifts, and keep every signatory—especially the child—in the loop