Your views on fostering

[maypole1]

Ladies please take a moment to read t his and please email with your views.

We all know how frustrating fostering can be and the seeming needs of the parents mostly outweighing the needs of the child this is your chance to have your say.

The Department is currently working to develop a charter for foster care. The foster carer, local authority and fostering service all play a vital part in helping children and young people have a happy and safe childhood with the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

We want the charter to unite foster carers, local authorities and fostering services around a shared understanding. We hope that the charter will help keep existing foster carers and attract new ones.

The aim is that local authorities, foster carers and fostering services will 'sign up' to the spirit of the charter and build on it locally

by talking about where things are working well and not so well
by sharing experiences and good practice.
Please tell us what matters to you and what you feel should be in the charter. We welcome your views on the draft charter until the end of January 2011. Please send comments on the charter to Rachel Taylor.

A copy of the draft charter and a letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families Tim Loughton MP about the charter are available to download from this page.

Contact details

Rachel Taylor
Email: [email protected]

That should have read Risk to own child and/or children already in placement.

i have to admit im with ftnc on this one.

my mum and dad stipulated they would not take sexually abused children as they have a young daughter (9 at the time) and didnt want her subjecting to all that goes with a sexually abused placement.
now ss contact mum and asked if they could accomodate a 7 year old boy.
they were given a full history plus all paperwork at the start of the placement.
NOWHERE did is say he had been sexually abused.
he started bahving inappropraitely towards my sister and the placement had to end. it was only then that ss admitted that they had known he had done this before in a previous placement.

they very often hold things back in order to place a child.

it happened a few times to my mum and dad.

She took the first baby as he had been relinquished at birth and so six weeks placement was needed before adoption.

The second baby was a child she had from birth til 3 months who went back to live with parents. She came back into care and LA asked if she would take her as the baby had already formed an attachment as she was her primary carer. Again this was to be a very short term placement as sw assured her the adoption wheels were in motion and a Guardian appointed. She was also assured that the first baby was due to move very shortly. As it turned out none of it was true.

If the LA wants the placement they can return to panel at very short notice to have the approval status extended to suit.

I have to be honest I am amazed that posters (well one in particular) who have, by their own admission, been fostering for a relatively short time dispute that LA's do not get it wrong.

I am a foster carer. I have a friend who is a foster carer. She had a call in the middle of the night to ask if she could place a child (10) who had just been removed from home. Friend informed placement officer that the only spare bed she had available was a bunk bed in her own daughters room. For all that are not aware LAC children must have their own bedroom.

Anyways SW said she did not mind as it was an emergency placement and the child needed to be placed tonight (well 4am to be exact).

During the following placement meeting (three months later would you believe?) it was agreed that the LAC child could share a room with friends own daughter as the two girls seemed to be getting on very well.

To cut a long story short the LAC child was as happy as larry in the by now 4 year placement and the two girls became inseperable. The LAC child formed a strong attachment to her foster carer and friend asked if the child could be placed long term. This was agreed by Social Services. All was fine and dandy.

Enter new link worker. She was horrified that the two girls were sharing a room as "this is against the rules. If anything untoward happens my head will be on the chopping block".

The child was removed, kicking and screaming, from her secure placement the following day. My friend was left bereft and her daughter needed therapy to make sense of the loss of her "sister".

Needless to say my friend gave up fostering as she could not believe how little children's happiness and security means to Social Services.

The LAC child has moved placement 5 times since. She has received no therapy or councelling whatsoever! How do I know this? I know all the foster carers she has been placed with through our foster carer support group. In other words foster carer coffee mornings. I did not want to falsely allow people to think LA foster carers and support should be used in the same sentence. In our LA foster carers support each other as there is no support whatsoever from the higher archy. They are not concerned about the welfare of the child. All they seem to spout is lack of funds. Yet do not turn down their yearly wage increases and bonuses, despite talking foster carers into receiving less fees "So we can put the money towards Children's Services".

As far as posters stating IFA carers receive three times as much as LA carers. This is duff information. LA's pay a lot for IFA services but the foster carer recieves more or less the same allowances as LA carers. I have looked into this and have contacted three different IFA's. The support they offer is very tempting and as soon as my placement leaves I will be off to pastures new.

Nananina - I love your balanced responses, and from a retired SW they are worth their weight in gold.

It is difficult to define a difficult to place child, or maybe not. If LA foster carers were offered a package of support to include respite care, child behaviour therapists and counselling (from day 1) then perhaps they would be "easier to place children" and save LA's £2000 per week. Money well spent - and spent on the children not adding to the profits of IFA's.

Or perhaps LA FC's could be compenstated for taking one placement rather then 2 or 3. If it costs an extra £2000 to place privately then better to spend that money inhouse perhaps?

Dorie.

That is a sad story, but a true reflection of the rules that SW's work to. I also have similar stories to tell - but refuse to on a public forum.

In my (23 years) experience I have found that some SW's wish for the children we care for to be treated as we would tret our own children. Others wish LAC to live an artificial life that bears no resemblence to real life - mainly because as a SW they do not wish their proffessional career to be (somewhat) compromised.

I had a 9 year old child moved becasue I allowed them to play out (in a fenced in, secure) the garden with my own 7 year old. Our supervising SW stated she could not allow the 9 year old to play outdoors as she did not want the newspaper headlines to cite her as allowing the child to play outdoors in case anything untoward happened, because she may lose her job. We live in a very small Welsh village, consisting of 2 streets of 20 houses - where everyone knows everybody else.

As a foster carer how on earth could I allow my own 7 year old to play in the garden but not a 9 year old??

The SW for the child, however, stated that the child should be allowed to play out the garden. As did the Court Guardian.

Nevertheless we were cited as being "Unable to work with the LA" - whether we allowed her out to play in the garden, or not.

Thank God for fostering Agencies I say. At least there we get some sense!

fishtankneeds cleans-

i do understand that you have been lied to but good practice is that your own child should always be the oldest child in the house by as least to years i was told this by foster carers 20 years plus and this is very commonly known with in fostering and people say that so your own child is safe guarded against older children sexual abuse or no sexual abuse,
its to guard against bullying and all sorts

i do feel those who foster children older and sometimes by some years than their own child are playing with fire

i know i will get shot down but its my view

i know my la do not allow this and for good reason

It may be good practice in your la maypole1 for lac to be older than birth children but in my la it doesn't seem to matter.

What is important is meeting the needs of all the children in the house and keeping them all safe.

I have fostered children older than my birth children very succesfully. I have a lac older than my ds now. she is long term and doing very well.

I have been fostering 20 years, my ds is 7 so he was born into a fostering family.

when he came along I had two school aged lac, should I have moved them out when my ds was born? They had been with me 2 years by then.

Going by your rules I would have had to give up fostering for a few years.

I am very experienced and skilled at what I do and take on the most challenging children from my la, I am quite capable of ensuring all the children's needs are met including my ds.

Maypole thats great but from reading the posts on here it seems that LA's are not up front when they are placing children. Maybe you may encounter this in the future?

I know my neighbour has taken children when LA have called pleading with her to take children above her approval status. As someone else has said it is easy for LA to approve people to look after children above their approval when it suits LA's.

My neighbours youngest is 2 years old. Her approval is 0-5. She has in placement at the moment a 7 year old.

It seems not all LA's work in the same way.

I have also looked after children older than my birth children. This has worked well as my youngest likes to be the baby of the family.

Although our LA say they prefer LAC to be younger than birth children this is not set in stone.

Is it possible for one LA to use FC's from another LA? Is this done already and how does it pan out financially for the LA's?

Fostering

Yes I moved LA's because I had a major falling out with the first LA. Despite being awarded Adoption of a child by the Court, that first LA opposed - because they did not want me to adopt the child as it would have removed a bed available for another foster child - I found that the second LA used the term "unable to work with LA" whenever I disagreed with decisions made by newly qualified and inexperienced social workers.

They always cited that I was unable to work with decisions made by first LA. Of course this is when it suited them.

Given that the child was placed with us at birth and adopted by us at age 6 I wonder what they actually proposed should have happened to the child.

We were not prepared for the child to be passed around the care system. If that makes us wrong then so be it. I would not change our decision for the world.

we are now fostering with IFA who went through our LA files with a fine tooth comb and agreed with us (and the Judge) that LA were totally out of order.

Your message does not surprise me in the least. I most definitely am unable to work with LA!!

But you have had to move to an IFA which is a shame. Do the LA you had difficulties with use you to foster?

I'd like to know if a carer is registered with a LA and have an empty place, could another LA use you?

Hi Fostering.

You can only foster for one LA at a time as you are registered to them and them only. I know this because I had a bit of a problem with complying with a SW decision and asked a neighbouring LA if i could help them out with any placements even though I was registered with another authority. I thought it may be a quick way in the door without having to go through the assessment process again to be honest.

The answer was no. I had to give 28 days notice of my intention to quit with first LA and then go through assessment again with second LA. I did not want to do this as I already had a child in placement from first LA and did not want to disrupt the placement.

I just think it's a little backwards an LA paying for a child to be placed with an IFA but they can't place with a carer from another LA at what I presume would be a mmuch reduced cost?

The LA you are registered with won't allow other LA's to place with you because they need your spare bed for their own placements.

I was fostering for one LA and moved to another LA. The child I had in placement moved with me. I had to remain as foster carer with the original LA as the child placed with me was "One of their children" and I was not allowed to approach the LA I was living in, unless I resigned with original LA. The child that had been placed with me for 4 years, at that time, would have had to move.

The mad part is the child's baby sibling was living within the LA I moved to and my foster child had lots of contact with her. The baby had to move placements BUT they would not place with me, and sibling, because the LA had to place with carers registered with them.

Mad innit?

I may be getting confused but I'm sure my LA uses other nearby LA when they need to - and takes children from the surrounding area too (I'm in the North West). In fact, only a couple of months ago my LA was trying to place a large family (8 children) and had to split them between us and the next borough.

I have also had placements with siblings being cared for by a neighburing LA. Neither LA would allow the children to be placed out of their respective authoritys. My LO's siblings foster carer had a spare bed which she suggested my LO could use so they could be raised together. Reqquest was refused.

I cant make head nor tail of social services.

I can't make head nor tail of it either.
I've recently had an app to an IFA stopped as I am a childminder. I became a childminder to care for my friend's children so she could return to work. I have my own dd, and was told that childminding and being a foster carer don't gel well.
This is sad as we have room in our home and lives for children other than our own.

jaffacake My friend has been a childminder for years. She was approved to foster. Within 6 months LA were asking her to give up childminding as they thought childminding and fostering did not go well together.

Friend chose childminding and gave up fostering. Less hassle she said

Thanks Dorie, it's just frustrating! I have a job that means I'm available all day every day to my minded children and my own child. I dedicate every hour I'm awake to caring for my own or others children. We have a lovely home and family and could give so much. Yet it's not suitable.
They actually said as well that because our dd is eight and I want her to remain as the oldest child in the household that they'd find it hard to progress our app' as our availability would be too limited (any child under 8). Yet, from what I've read on here and other places it is the norm to foster children younger than your own.
shrugs it is what it is.

I don't know how true this is but I suspect the social services would be concerned because you never know what problems a foster child will bring with them. If it's YOUR child who will be subject to those problems then that's fair enough as you've agreed to foster. If it's someone else's child - who will not even be entitled to know what those problems are - then that's a different kettle of fish.

Just my own thoughts.

All FC's are approved for children 0-18, and for up to 3 placse in our LA but their file will state age preferences as agreed with their supporting social worker.

I feel I just have to respond to some of the posts! I worked for the LA for many years and felt concerned about what happened to some children in the care system. 7yrs ago I made a choice to give up my secure job with a final salary pension to be a Foster Carer! Fostering is 24/7 work. Last night I was discussing with my 17 yr old Female Placement why she could not stay out all night. We finished the discussion at about midnight, tonight she has gone to the Cinema with her friends and either me or my Partner will be picking her up at 11.30pm. By the way last night I was a Fxxxxxx Fat Bitch who lived in the 1800s, tonight she loves me! I foster because I CARE!!! 2 yrs ago my partners Father died we had to wait until the Funeral before we could get respite, the Children in our care always have to take priority whatever is happening in our own lives. The young Man I foster is hoping to go to Uni in September, he passed his Theory today, I am paying for his lessons! The thing is some F/Carers are not the best, but my experience has shown that those who do it for finacial gain do not finish the course.

Just read this all the way through....it is all so sad. Thanks Chattergran for your lovely post. You are right, we foster because we care! xxx