Help...

[shortbread37]

We are just about at the end of our fostering application and need to send in my portfolio to the SW for her to finish her report for the panel in August.

I was just wondering if anyone could give me a few ideas of what is good to have in the portfolio....Have photos, a piece from a friend on our suitability to foster,a piece I did on attachment and its impact on foster children, stuff about fostering standards and how it has helped me evaluate my views etc on fostering, some stuff on my experience as a counsellor and as a mentor in a college and how I worked and used my skills to overcome challenging behaviour or emotional issues with students and how they are transferable skills with regards to fostering.

Any advice would be greatly received as I am getting a wee bit worried now as I need to take it to our Social Worker tomorrow morning....

Anyone.....???

Hi-that sounds good. To be honest our sw put it all together for us, we just answered the questions and we put together an "all about our family" portfolio with info about our family, house, area etc.

Sorry if this isn't much help, I am sure someone with a lot more experience will be along shortly...

Hi there Three....Thanks for that. Sounds like your SW did good....how big was the info portfolio you put together ? I need to add a bit about all that...so wondering what I need to put in and how much?

Much appreciated

We did a 'powerpoint' presentation and it was about 12 pages long and it was played on a laptop at the panel meeting (SW also printed out a hard copy).

We did lots of photos, us, the animals, the house - bit of history about 'us', why we wanted to foster, our family...

We felt pictures spoke more than pages of writing, so kept the 'reading' bit to a minimum, especially after reading the report of the SW we wanted something snazzy and to the point..

We started it with the title "The story so far", one slide was called 'Our journey into fostering, with dates for courses etc' and we ended it with a slide "And hopefully the story continues".

I really would keep it short - don't bore them to death with demonstrating your knowledge, just a snapshop of you, your family, your home and why you want to foster.

Hope it helps and don't worry!! - trust me, this is the easy bit!!

OMG - What a lot of work. Think we had it really easy. We haven't had to do a portfolio at all.

Am planning on making a 'Welcome' booklet when we get back from hols and really start looking at matches................xxx

Thank you all for your comments....but we have been told by the Social worker what we need to include...she wants the pictures but only about 4 and the bit about our family but also told me to fill it up with attachment theory and how it will affect us and a foster child, stuff on policies, stuff on how foster caring will impact on our lives. a few case studies on my skills from being a counsellor and mentor and stuff from any websites Ive seen etc....

I guess its all different where you are...we are based in Leeds so the LA all do it differently eh?

everthing different!!! That's why we are all so mad & confused

That sounds a lot more work than we had to do...

Out section about us as was about 5 pages long but made up mostly if photos and sectioned off into ;our house, where we lives, who lives here, what we like to do etc!

Opps, should read where we live

gosh sounds like we got off lightly

we had to do some stuff on support networks, and a we are the "SquidgyBrain" family but this was done during our assessment, but was included in the portfolio for panel

good luck when it comes to going to panel :)

We got off lightly too, I think.

Had a few statements, family tree, welcome booklet, but then some health and safety bits as well, like fire plans.