Fostering Medical

[marybobbins]

Hello, my husband and myself are due to go before the panel next month, our assessing social worker has finished all of her visits and is happy to recommend us to the panel but our worry is that we are both overweight. Will this go against us?
we have seen our doctor for our medicals and our blood pressure and everything else is fine, we don't smoke, drink and neither of us our on any medication for anything. We have children of our own who aren't overweight and have never had any health problems, also we have recently signed up with weight watchers and we do go hiking every weekend as a family and get lots of walking exercise.
I don't know if I am just panicking because everything seems to have gone so well so far and to be turned down now would be so disappointing.

I think if they had any serious issues with you weight they wouldn't have let you get this far.

It may get mentioned at panel but it seems you are healthy and are trying to do something about it. So I wouldn't worry.

Good luck

Hi,

Dh husband and I are both overweight-not hugely-it doesn't affect us and we walk all the time-just like to stop for a nice cream tea at the end of a ramble!!.

Seriously though-our weight and height measurements were checked at our medical and as long as you are relatively healthy I am sure that it won't be a problem at all-it wasn't for us.:)

Good luck.

Mary,

I am overweight (size 22) , and have a couple of health conditions that make weight loss difficult (diabetes and PCOS) and I have fibromyalgia, They did my medical right at the start of the process so we knew if it would be a problem or not. The medical adviser on the Panel we attended has a huge issue with over weight people, but my weight wasn't even mentioned. The report was hard to read, but I knew it all already (but who wants to read about the risk of heart problems still is never nice)

The main thing is like you all our children are normal weight and they saw when they were doing our visits that yes the children got to eat biscuits but they only got 1 or 2 and then were offered fruit if they still claimed to be hungry.

All you have to do is be honest and tell them what you have mentioned above and I am sure you will be fine.

They have more of an issue with weight when you are applying to adopt or are going for permanency I believe.

Good luck with the panel

Thank you all, especially you SquidgyBrain! I feel a bit better now, its just that everything has gone so well so far and as the panel date gets nearer we are getting more and more nervous. Our social worker has said she has no worries at all about recommending us and that the only thing that might come up at panel is our weight.
Well all we can do is wait until panel now (although we are both doing well at WW and should have lost some more weight by the time we go to panel)
I just need to stop getting carried away, we have already bought a new pushchair and cot bed that we saw in the sales as well as quite a few other bits!!

Maryb, glad I could be of some help. Your weight might not even come up if your social worker has it written in your assessment that you are taking positive steps towards loosing weight.

The panel will only ask questions (other than general - why do you want to foster and what are your strengths and weaknesses if they either need clarification or it hasn't been covered in enough depth in your assessment.

The very fact your medical was not done early, and that your assessment has gone smoothly, is all good signs.

Just remember that rarely there are perfect families that go to panel, there usually is something that might not be exactly how things would be in an ideal world. The panel are not there to stop you from being a foster carer, they want to approve people!

So enjoy your shopping and remember to come back and let us know how it all goes, you can even share my couch on the sidelines while you wait for your first placement - I should warn you I am a fidget as I am getting impatient now ;)

Thank you Squidgy after count down to panel I shall definatley be joining you on the couch! our LA sadly is very busy so we shouldn't have too much of a wait.
I feel another shopping trip calling!
Can't wait to hear how you get on Squidgy!!!

Just a quick comment - I too am classed as 'overweight' - and this was something that concerned me - and didn't want them to use this against us.

I too go to weight watchers - we had our medicals done early due to other reasons too - and panel was so low key - I really wouldn't worry - and you do have time to prepare your answers before going infront of them - a willingness to accept and do something about issues is what they are looking for.

The very best of luck - I lost loads of weight due to having the runs for a week before panel (nerves..) so every bit helps!!! :o

Since receiving our little munchkins - I haven't had much time to eat - so even better!!

Also - our social services providing & paying for everything we need - cot beds, high chairs, stair gate, car seats, double buggy - are u sure you should be buying, or do you know you'll get the money back??

They have been 110% brilliant - top quality stuff too..

Best of luck and keep us posted...

:o

Hi p99gmb,

Thank you for the good luck wishes! I think I will have lost a fair bit of weight by the time our panel date comes round just due to nerves too!!
our LA give you a set amount of money to get everything you need but when we started listing everything we would need to get we realised that money wouldn't go far.
The pushchair we have just bought would have taken up almost half (we got a really sturdy fancy one which converts from pushchair to pram and can spin round to face both directions). Also there was a local baby shop by us having a huge relocation sale, couldn't resist!
I think we can apply for them to supply us with anything extra we really need but I know our SS have just had huge budget cuts and if we have the money spare and our own kids aren't missing out we don't mind getting things ourselves.
Even the grandparents are really excited and keep getting little bits for the room.
I am glad I found this site its lovely to read everyones experiences and hopefully I will be able to add my own soon.