help...school pick up

[maiT]

hello everyone.
i have a 10yr old foster placement we have had since june 2010. previously we had no transport problems as my son wasnt in full time nursery. now my son is full time and FD (foster daughter) school is other side of town i cant be in 2 places at once. i asked my agency for help as after schl club is full, thy have only managed to give 2days. my agency support wrkr was not helpful and literally said sort out ur own prob. i spoke to the child's social wrker n she put in a volunteer driver request but demand for thm is high so long wait. so what am i to do in the mean time?

We had to get friend (ie your sons parents)( to stay with ours or) to walk them home. until we could get back

can you ask your la if their are carers who could help

i myself am baysitting for another carer next week

I am always amazed and saddened by how unhelpful sws are these days. I was in sw for 30 years, specialising in fostering and adoption and we would never have left someone to cope with this kind of thing. Your link worker sounds horrendous and she is supposed to be supporting you - I get to the stage when I think LAs don't deserve foster carers!

Practically, can you get anyone (another parent who lives nearby) to pick up FC and you collect from her, and tell SSs that they have to meet this cost. Of course she would have to be CRB checked and god knows what. Or would you be prepared for someone to pick up your son (childminder maybe who has kids at the same school) and you pick him up from there, but again telling SS they need to meet this cost. If they refuse I would be tempted to say that you can no longer manage the placement, and you might see a change in attitude!