Foster family and babysitters, Confused??

[DerbyshireNanny]

Hi
I could really do some advice from you lovely people.
I work as a nanny and babysitter, and babysit for a lot of families near me. A while ago I was approached by a foster family and asked to babysit. They sent my details to the foster agency who they are with.
The foster agency have been really awkward though.
I am trained, qualified, experienced, crb checked, first aid trained, safeguarding training aswell as other training.

They first said that they needed a new CRB check to use me, so that was done Aswell as LEA checks. They have then decided, even though all my checks are clean, that foster families on there books can not 'out source' babysitters, and that the family are not allowed to use myself or any other babysitter, the other reason they gave the family was because the children dont know me, the children are around 7 and 11, they have met me a couple of times and was really happy.

The families with this agency are not happy and wont to move agency as everything is being made hard for them.
I am trying to find info on the internet to send to the agency to try and make a case, does anyone know where I can look, got any experience on this etc

Sorry its long but would really appreciate some help Thanks

I think each local authority will have it's own procedure. HampshireCC - look for Looked After Children - Babysitting.

I would suggest trying to locate a similar document on the county councils website for the area in which the family lives. Then contact any people mentioned in the document and the Looked After Children team to see if they can confirm that what the document says would still be applicable when the foster arrangement is via a fostering agency.

Also try contacting the individual social workers involved in each looked after child's case - to make them aware of the situation and to see if they have any objections to the foster parents leaving looked after children with a babysitter.