Should we have been invited to these reviews?

[freddiefrog]

Our FC is currently half way through a custodial sentence in a secure unit.

At the time FC was sentenced, social services agreed to keep FC's placement here with us open, so we are still officially her foster carers.

We've become aware that there has been a number of meetings and reviews taking place over the past few weeks, with regard to FC's licence/release/etc, there was a LAC review and a PEP meeting but we haven't been invited to, or informed about any of them.

We've have a really good relationship with FC, visit her fairly frequently, write, my kids send pictures, she writes to us and calls us almost daily. We have a good relationship wih her actual assigned social worker and her YOT worker who regularly update us with what's going on, so it seems a bit odd that we have been completely left out of any of the meetings - especially the ones discussing her eventual release/license terms as we'll be the ones managing this.

I don't expect to be invited to everything, but surely we should attend the ones that directly affect us?

We had been informed of her last pre-release meeting which we had expected to attend, but have been told today we're not invited

[Gillian1980]

I would definitely expect Foster Carers to be invited to such important meetings. I would ask why you're not invited and if they fob you off then put in a complaint. How are you supposed to offer the appropriate support when the FC comes back to you if you've not been kept in the loop?

[fostermumtomany]

you most certainly should have been invited to the lac review, that's a bog standard review that all carers should be invited to.
you need to be talking to your ssw and finding out why you are being kept out of the loop. your ssw is supposed to make sure you are being included.
if nobody will give the answers you need then put in an official complaint!

[freddiefrog]

Thank you!

Our FC's social worker hasn't a clue why we haven't been invited. The first we knew about the meetings were when she emailed us the minutes from them. She thought it was a bit strange we hadn't attended, but assumed that as it was quite a distance, we had decided not to attend.

She's looking into it for us, but has added us to the invite list for the pre-release meeting next month

[Bluebell99]

Do you have a social worker from the fostering and adoption team yourselves and did she / he attend the meeting? Who arranged the meeting?

[freddiefrog]

Our SSW hadn't been told about any of the meetings either. He's trying to get to the bottom of it

It's unusual to have a LAC review when in custody, so we weren't expecting there to be one, so didn't think to question it. FC's SW assumed that we had been informed, as it's standard practice for us to attend, so didn't think to question whether we'd been invited.

FC's had appointments with her SW and YOT worker, which we'd been informed about, and FC, SW and YOT always call us and let her know what's happened and stuff

When FC was first placed with us she was in a different team in Childrens Services. This particular team were worse than useless and we (us, our SSW and^ the Reviewing Officer) put in official complaints. Our FC was then moved to the team she's in now

The Consultant Social Worker who was in charge of the old team is now in charge of FC's current team, so I'm suspicious