I am absolutely appalled at the way you foster carers are being treated - the LA just don't deserve carers if this is how you are going to be treated. I am 7 years out of LA fostering, and I worked for a shire county. Contact was almost always done by a contact supervisor who collected the child/ren and returned them home at the end of it. They also observed contact and made notes about what happened, which would give the sw some idea of the r/ship between the child and the birth parents.
Auntie Bubble - I think you absolutely must not put up with this. It is totally unreasonable for anyone to think that you should be dashing around like a blue arsed fly. If you were promised transport help when you took on the placement, then the LA are not keeping to the arrangement between you. To add insult to injury they leave it until almost the day before school begins to tell you. I think I know what is happening here - Snr managers are refusing funding for this that and the other (because of the cuts made by this damn government) and middle managers instead of arguing the toss with Snr Mgrs are simply telling social workers "oh we can't afford that because of the budget restrictions" - it is not on. If they had the child fostered with an IFA they would be paying about 4 times as much for the placement, so maybe tell them if that's what they want to do, then so be it. I think you will find they change their mind pretty quickly about forking out for transport costs.
I know it will be hard for you to stand firm as you are new to fostering, but you must be assertive about this. I suggest you telephone the child's sw on Monday and insist that they keep to the promise that they made about transport, and if she re-iterates that they can't afford it, ask to speak to her Tm Mgr (she'll be in a meeting of course!) but don't let them fob you off. You say in your post that there is a lot more that you can't put in a post so it sounds like they are really walking all over you. If all your endeavours for some reasonable discussion fall on stoney ground, then you will have to say that sadly you cannot continue with the placement. You will need to put this in writing. When faced with sws who are unwilling to discuss things reasonably it's a good idea to ask in a polite voice "could I have a copy of the complaints procedure please" and this is sometimes enough for them to see sense. Having said all that I do feel for sws who have managers who won't stand up to senior managers because it leaves the sw in a helpless position.
Scarlet5 - agree with what you say - don't let them walk over you.
Bonnie - can't believe the charade that you had to go through and not surprised at you had to insist that the 2 brothers were moved.
I don't really want to get political but these viscous cuts in all public services are at the behest of this coalition govt, and they have no alternative but to make the cuts. This is putting Social Service Depts, Hopsitals, teachers, firefighters, police and and all other public servants having to cut down on staff, when they are already hugely under resourced. I really do worry about what the next 5 years hold, as this is just the tip of the ice berg. But back to foster carers, it looks like there will be very few LA foster carers left if they continue to be treated in this way. Makes me very sad when I think of how well a service used to be run, where foster carers were valued for the immensely difficult job they did in caring for some of the most damaged children and young people in our society. NOT big society!!