is anyone with an IFA ?

[angel31dust]

Just intested to know if the age group you asked for is the age group you get? We only want under 8 year old, Which IFA said would be fine but I have heard they dont get them that young? anyone help?

yes i think you have to go back to panel if you change age range i have stated i want 0 to 18s and had 2 placements now all 4 children under 5 so there is plenty of children under age 8

can i ask which one your with as i asked my sw today about age restrictions and she thinks i will probably really struggle. i have asked her not to proceed any further and will now go with my local LA

im with capstone a private agency , i think you have more choice as our children come from all over country

We are now with IFA (because we filed a massive complaint about LA when we were fostering with them due to THEIR abuse of a child we had in placement).

Our age range is 3-12 years. Within a few days of being approved with IFA a little one (aged 5) was placed with us. He is absolutely delightful.

On the flip side my friend, who is LA foster carer (whom I met when fostering for LA) is approved for ages 0-8. She now has a 13 year old (with ADHD and RAD). She is pulling her hair out as LA are so unsupportive.

Really that's awful. I think it must work both ways then. It's impossible to choose between them.

Just to throw something else into your decision, something that we were told and have seen evidence of, is that the LA's are doing massive recruitment drives to get more 'in house' carers onboard - purely for money saving reasons - this made us consider our (hopefully) long term career as carers as certainly some of the smaller IFA's may disappear...

Good luck anyway...

i second that i am with an LA we do under 6 and i simply will not take any older as we have bio children and if they dont like it we will move simples, but we haven't had any issues yet on that note.

most LA including our own are having a recruiting drive because they simply cannot afford to out source.

i think our LA has an even spead of carers in babies and tenn i think they stuggle with middle age children say 6-11 i would just find out as much as you can before you decide

we are with a LA and have had an empty room for 8 months and 2 empty rooms for 2 months. our age group is 0-11. think we might have chosen wrong LA! We were with IFA first, but placements was very slow there aswell.