Fostering assessment

[vickchick]

Hello all,

I am new to Mumsnet and I thought some of you might be able to offer me some advice and support as my husband and I are due to attend panel soon (hopefully). We are hoping to foster through a charity and are based in Scotland. We have completed the Skills to Foster training and have met with our assessor on a number of occasions, and she is now drafting our form F for submission.

We are able to offer three spare bedrooms and we live alone so are keen to take on a sibling group or multiple placements. Our only concern about presenting to panel is my health. We have addressed this in writing as part of our portfolio of evidence and our assessor has covered this as part of her report.

Does anyone have any advice to offer on how to deal with this when dealing with the panel? Many thanks for taking the time to respond to us.

Hi it really depends on your health and what's the issue

If the panel feel its a issue they will give you a chance to explain

Hi vickchick & welcome to mumsnet - and particularly this fostering forum.

Firstly, well done on getting so far... I once heard that only 10% of applicants make it through to panel.

I guess in relation to your health issues, without wanting to pry (me, not panel) , its whether they will affect your ability to provide a stable environment for the children. Also, if your assessing SW is happy to proceed and take you to panel, then she/he must think that these health issues are workable.

Fostering can be incredibly stressful and busy and if any of these factors could adversely affect the illness, then I think everyone should have cause for concern.

Panel in my experience wasn't out to find fault, quite the opposite, and many questions that we thought they'd pick up on they didn't - as our SSW had done such a thorough job in her report we suspect - but obviously health issues can be a huge factor... the last thing anyone would want is to have to move children because of your health....

I'd be prepared to answer why you think you can manage - and lets be honest - sibling groups or multiple placements - will probably be exceptionally hard - and if your health does deteriorate, what contingency plans you have in place... I guess your support network will be crucial to this working too...

Maybe they'd be happy to start you with maybe just 1 child and see how you go...

Maybe they'll want an indepth report from your GP which hopefully has been already covered and what your GP's opinion of your health and fostering... they sometimes send these in advance to their own inhouse medical advisor to prevent any issues at panel... (they did with mine)

I can only say again, that a SSW taking it forward to panel with a recommendation to approve is normally a very good sign!!

The very best of luck and please come back to update us!! x

Did you have to take a medical as part of your assessment? If so and they continued with the assessment then I really wouldn't worry. Where I work we only continue post-medical if there are no concerns that would affect the ability to care for a child. If we had serious doubts, we just wouldn't get as far as panel as it is too big an investment of time and money.

I would just be as honest as possible about it and emphasise that your health won't affect your caring abilities.

Well done on getting this far and best of luck at panel. And don't be too nervous - they are always friendly in my experience. They're not looking to trip you up or catch you out, they are just verifying the information presented to them.

Hi Vickchik - don't think I can add very much to BtheD's excellent post (nice to "see" you B the D) - I can endorse everything Bthe D says, especially about sliblings groups and multiple placements. You really need to start slowly and see how it goes - it will be probably be more difficult than you think!

The other thing is that your health issue will have been covered, when you have your medical with your GP he/she sends it to the LA and then the LA send it to the Medical Advisor for the LA and she/he then decides about your suitability to foster based on your health issues, and advises the LA on this. I can only assume that clearance has been given by the Medical Advisor, otherwise you would not be going to panel. There is a health representative on the panel as it is multi disciplinary, so the health rep might just ask about how you manage your condition, or something else but as you say your sw has covered this in the report, there should not be any need to ask anything very much.

I am saying what happened in the LA that I worked for and have worked as a freelance sw for other LAs and the same system as outlined above was what happened. If you want to be certain, you could check with your sw whether the medical advisor has given clearance on your health issue.

Yes that's right BtheD, approx 10% of first acceptors (who phone in after they have seen an ad, or just want to foster) end up as approved carers. This is because many people who contact the LA are just totally unsuitable and you have to rule them out at "base camp" and others drop out at some stage themselves. I always like to think of fostering as a 2 way street, but the LA does have the power of veto if applicants are found to be unsuitable and this can happen at any stage in the process. I can give you a few examples - sorry if I've said this before. I started a Teenage Placement Project in the mid 80s (recruiting and preparing applicants to care for troubled teenages, rather than them being in children's homes) The first call came from an 86 year old woman who lived in a one bedroomed flat!! Her son thought it would be a good idea! I then visited someone and could hear noises behind a sort of room divider and asked who it was (politely) and she said "yes it's my husband but I don't want him to know what I'm doing, as he doesn't want kids here!" So I made a hasty exit!

Sometimes things come to light later on. I remember a woman who I had recruited who said she was a widow and lived alone and she seemed ok, but I noticed that she was always picked up after the prep course by a man in a car and I asked if this was a relative and she looked very shifty and sort of passed it off. I visited her the following day and she admitted she had a husband but hadn't included him because he wouldn't have passed a police check - so again had to rule her out. I don't know what his offences were (because we did approve carers who had offences in the past so long as they were nothing to do with violence or children) but her dishonesty really ruled her out.

I could go on but think I've said enough and these people never get to panel.

Well done vickchick. We too are with a charity in Scotland....wonder if it's the same one?

I agree with B the D and Nana, although i your case the GP would have done a report and your worker should have coivered this during your assessment and be clear about it's potential impact on any FC in her report.

If your SSW had any doubts about you passing panel she wouldn't be putting you forward, so do please try not to worry.

At our panel, it seems that our SSW at that time forgot to get a police check for my husband from his home country. They couldn't rubber stamp it but we organised it and got the rubber stamp the following month. So even when there are glitches, the can be ironed out.

Good luck :)

Thank you all very much for your input- it's been really helpful.

I have spoken to my assessing SW this morning and it has been agreed that we will still be presented at the panel so we are ploughing on with getting all of the paperwork ready. My GP has completed a report and the in-house medical assessor has also looked at my circumstances, and I have also had an opportunity to address any concerns. I have to say I'm partly really excited but still a bit terrified- hopefully, that's normal. Hopefully, we'll get to panel soon and I'll be able to update you on a positive outcome.

Thanks again!

Hi

I agree with everything said by the other posters.

I have a chronic condition which I thought would possibly stop me from being approved but in actual fact it was the opposite and it was dealt with in a very positive manner by our assessing sw. He talked with me at length about my support networks and strategies and was of the opinion that my ability to cope with my illness was a very positive thing. As I recall it was not even discussed at our panel as the assessing sw had submitted all the relevant information in his report.

Good luck, and by the way it's completely normal to be both excited and a bit terrified, I think we all were :)

I cannot imagine they will be overly stringent as parenting generally tends to be far from perfect, and after all, without foster parents the alternative is having no parents at all. If it is the case that only a small minority are approved it is no wonder that foster parenting is in such great demand. Mind you, there would perhaps be little point in fostering out to those that are less than likely to do as good a job as the institution. It can be an experiment at best for couples do of course cover each other`s backs, this whilst family and friends all tend to fall in line. The risk for the children is likely high regardless of the precautions which the agency attempt. Less so adopting for it is not paid work.

I have experience with late teens as I housed them in my own home over a period of two years, and despite that Im now sixty four my best friend is just nineteen. Many young people would wish to reject me as a friend on the basis of my years alone and those are the ones which Id find the toughest to adopt. There is abundantly more respect to be gleamed when alongside friendship but only by those that are disparity of years hospitable. I would not wish to house any young person that could not number be among their friends!

I consider that both youth and wisdom together make for the best parenting experience. I might be sixty four years but at least I am still putting together, even if only managed unofficially, physical world records, and this alone tends to gaining their respect.