Moving house to a new area.

[kellykateneedsaholiday]

Hi,

We would like to foster in a few years time when our own children are older and I have a couple of questions that I would be really grateful if someone could answer for me.

What happens if after you have been fostering for 5 or 6 years you move house to a different area about 200 miles away, same country though.

How would that work with being a foster carer (im thinking we would go with the LA rather than with an ifa). Am i right in thinking that we would need to go through the whole process again, I realise that we wouldnt be able to take any foster children we may have with us to a new area.

Also what happens if you dont know anyone in the area, would that be looked on as having no support network. (we have 3 children and oldest 2 would be about 20/21 when/ if we moved and hopefully would come with us)

im just trying to figure it out to see if it is going to be possible as we would love to become foster carers but also love to live in a different area.

Thanks

IMO, if you know that a huge move will be part of your furture then the most responsible thing to do would be to be respite/emergency carers. Even short term placements can last for 3, 4 years.

It would be extremely unfair/irresponsible and damaging to the child for you to care for them, earning their trust, allowing them to buld an attachment to you, knowing that at some point you are going to choose to give that child up because you always wanted to move................I don't think the LA would be happy with that if you are upfront about it when applying.

Regards reassessment etc I'm not too sure, but I'm sure Nananina will be along soon and she has lots of experience in this field and always gives great advice.

Good luck with your assessment, if you do decide to go ahead.

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense, I hadnt thought of short term placements being as long and wouldnt want to hurt a child like that.

I think that is a bit extreme gettinghappy to think if Kelly was fostering she should only do respite/emergency just in case she moves in 6 yrs time. Anything can happen in that time and also at every child care review the foster carer should be asked if they are ok with the placement continuing. Sounds like there would be plenty of time to plan carefully and yes, ok, in the last yr or so maybe respite/emerg might be the best. Don't forget her ssw will also be aware of her plans and place children accordingly.

I believe you are right Kelly and will need to go through the whole process again when you move but on the plus side if your children move with you they will definately be counted as very good support esp as they will be very experienced in fostering by then.

Best of luck

Sorry if it sounded extreme, but I was ust thinking of the child. If a child is placed on a short term placement, which turns longer term with the potential of the placement becoming permanent (and this does happen fairly regularly), then I think it would be really unfair on the child for the carer to then move out of authority, rewsulting in another move for the child.

If 8kelly8 is completely upfront about her plans, which I would hope she would be, then of course SS should take this into account when matching children to her for placement. xx

Yes but I guess if you think about it you have to go to panel to change from short term to long term carer and so you just wouldn't do this if you were thinking of moving. Depends on the LA you are in as well. Some, my own included, like to keep their short term fc's and use long term fc's when possible iykwim. The long term fc's are introduced to the children like adoptive parents although this is not set in stone.

I totally get where you are coming from bonnieslilsister in relation to current systems. However, I do think the system is wrong and not that great for the children. I suppose that's where I am coming from.

I believe that if a child is placed and it becomes clear that the placement will become long term then they should stay with the family they have bonded with.

I also think if you sign up to be foster carer you should be signing up to provide a loving home to the child/children for as long as they need it, be it 6 weeks or 15 years.........but that's just me. And yip I am a foster carer. :)

I see what you mean too and in fact we are in the process of being assessed for a fc who has been with us for 2 yrs so fc can stay with us but I have no expectations of other foster carers to do likewise especially as they signed up to do short term fostering and maybe for whatever reason don't want to or are unable to continue in the long term. I know it does make a lot of sense if all parties are in agreement but sometimes they are not. Glad you love fostering so do I but another thing is it is easy to get burnt out if you are not careful and then if you have pressure on you to keep the child (who might be difficult) it is a recipe for disaster xx

Yip, burnout is a huge problem. However agencies and LA's if they provide the right support and respite if necessary shouild be abe to do a bit more than they already do in order to try and preserve placements and support the carers rather move the children so easily.

When we were approved, we were approved for respite, short term, long term and permanent all at the one time so we wouldn't ever have to go back to have our approval changed.

We said that we wouldn't do emergency ( due to our own son's disabilities).

Really gh? That is so sensible to be approved for everything. Have you had mainly short term?

We are in the process of being matched with our 1st ( and hopefully last) placement. It is a permanent placement which is fab for us ( and him :)). We can't wait to meet him. He sounds like such a fantastic little person.

Our little boy has disabilities and we were very specific about the age of child and also said we would be happy to care for a child with additional needs. The LO who is ( hopefully - still going through the system and hopefully matching panel in the next few weeks) only 3 does have additional needs and is tube fed. Our specific criteria is what has delayed our getting a placement.

Because of our son's difficulties we did agree to everything except emergency, which we thought would have been too disruptive for him.

The agency we are with often approve FCs for all types of fostering, for the very reason that folks then don't need to go back to panel if a short term placement becomes permanent. It is fairly sensible. I didn't realise that other agencies/LAs didn't do this.........

How lovely I hope all goes well and your little boy likes the new company when he arrives x