The end before we even started !!

[rainbowclouds]

We so wanted to be foster carers for several years and we thought are time had finally come.
Our two eldest children have both left school one leaving home in sep to live with his uncle which will be closer to his college.
Our two younger children are aged 7 & 10.We made a family descision to go ahead with the fostering process,we were very anxious about the process as two years ago we were involved with ss where we had to attend a cp meeting(the worst times of our life) nothing came of this and we were to return to normal life! however this wanted us even more to go down the fostering route giving us an insight of what its like to be on the otherside!!
We have been in contact with two fa and they have told us we would not be able to have 0-10year olds or sibling groups and only be offered teenage children which would be tagged,have complex behaviour problems,maybe pregnant always be in trouble with the law etc .They also told me my house is to small (we live in a large 5 bed victorian house) as of sep we have two spare rooms but at the moment have one spare room.
We were not keen on going with our La for various reasons.
Im so sad that its the end before it even started :(
Maybe we will try again in a few years x

Not sure why you have not tried your local LA

IFA usually only have teens and very hard to place children and t be hinest i am very surpised they have advised you to take on teen usually the advise is to foster children younger than your own

And as for you home being to small their are four of you and you have a five bed home

If i were you i would give your local LA a ring dont give up the IFA sound like their talking trype

You said you had reasons for not contacting your la but as Mrbojangles said you are much more likely to be accepted by the la as they have much more choice of placements. Do you live near any other la's which you could approach if not your own?

Yes i was just thinking that op you can go to ANY surrounding LA

All a bit odd,i posted on here today and then recieved a call from a local IFA asking if we were still intrested in becoming fc.I explained that we had already spoken to one of her colleagues and that we were told that we would only be offered troubled teenagers which we feel we would not be able to cater for, she said that they have been getting younger children and they also get teenagers without complex needs !
She has arranged to come out and meet us all in the next couple of weeks :)
Im very intrested that you can approach neighbouring LA and think this might be a better option but will wait and see what the sw from the ifa has to say.
Thank you for all you replies.

Rainbow;

A lot of people seem to have a problem with IFA's and people who work for them here for one reason or another.

I work for an IFA and have had no problems at all. Our house on a person to space ration is probably smaller than yours!

I would venture to suggest you haven't found the right fit for yourself yet; what's your reason for not going to the LA?

I was refused by the LA point blank as they thought I was 'too young' (at 31!) despite my experience working with CYP, so I went with an IFA and am finding them very good.

Our first placement is under five, and we are currently in the process of possibly becoming foster parents for another littlie; my SSW is always trying to place under 5's as a lot of the LA foster carers in our area only want children at school.

I often stay off these boards as the general feeling I get as an IFA foster carer is that people think I'm a money grabbing harridan only interested in the 'financial gain.'

My heart breaks as easily as anyone elses and I love just as much.

I would say you might get better support from an IFA, but comparing to my LA, the 'pay' isn't actually that much better.

However, if you would like to know which IFA I'm with, pm me.

Good luck!

Hi Fedupfc,
We checked out our la ofsted report and it was not much to write home about,we also live in quite a small area and two years ago our family were report to ss and we had the awful ordeal of going through a cp meeting although ss were brilliant and we had a glowing report from them there were a few people that made up a blatant lies.(we also have a complaint against one of these people) We are not sure how that would work ,working alongside people that could have lost us our children !! Probably a little too much information for here.
I hear what your saying about the money situation i think they are about the same as the la but with better support systems.
Two of our friends are foster carers and both are with ifa and have no complaints.
Fingers crossed our first meeting will go well with the sw :)

Hi fedupfostercarer,

I don't think it's the FCs with IFAs that people have an issue with, more the agencies themselves. I know a couple of carers with local IFAs and know they're in it for the same reasons as me but even they would admit that the owners of their agencies receive a hell of a lot of money that could be better spent on the children themselves.

OP, LAs vary greatly - i'd look at a few before deciding anything.

It seems you don't want to apply to your LA because of what happened in the past, but IFAs will check with your LA whether you are known to the Social Services (as part of the standard checks) so they will get to know, anI would have thought your LA would be best to approach as they know the truth about the whole matter.

The other thing is I'm not sure how much you know about IFAs. The are independent (or private) fostering agencies - they don't have any children to place, so if they recruit you and approve you, they have to "sell" you to the LA. They charge the LA a significant amount of money, because they paytheir carers more, cost in support for children and of course cream off a healthy profit for themselves.

Given that LAs have been under resourced for years but now because of the slashing of all public services budgets, they are really struggling to balance the books. IFA placements have only ever been used by LAs when they don't have any "home grown" foster families, and that's why IFAs can't really tell you much about the children that are being referred. Sounds like the first sw you spoke to was just trying to put you off, for whatever reason. I think what she said about teenagers is quite over the top. Many teenagers are in need of foster homes and most LAs run specialist teenage fostering schemes.

SO at the end of the day you need to decide whether you want to work for a LA to provide much needed placements, or help line the pockets of these entrepeneurs who are exceedingly wealthy as a result.

NanaNina,
Im not trying to hide my history at all and im fully aware that any IFC or La would need to check out our history with social services.
At the moment we are trying to find out if we are suitable to be fc,as you say the fist sw we spoke to from a ifc was trying to put us off but i do think this was because i had said we were only interested in being fc to children under the age of 10 and sibling groups.
The second ifc firstly said they mainly deal with complex teenagers but then i had a phonecall from a sw today saying they are getting younger children and teenagers without such complex needs.
I understand what your saying about lining the pockets of these people but they do seem to offer a much better support system than that of La and as we are going into this for the first time it would be great to know we are having the best support for us and the children in our care.
Its still very early days yet and i have yet to speak to la.
Many thanks.

Sorry rainbow for making an assumption about your past dealings with the LA. Yes you probably will get more support and so willthe children, but all being costed to the LA, which makes things worse and worse for LAs

Re children under 10- you say your own are 7 and 10. Most LAs like there to be a 2 year gap between birth children and foster children, though I do have to say that this is not always followed when backs are against walls so to speak. So you would really be thinking of 5 and under, and if you are prepared to take a sibling group, this could be a good offer. However LAs needs are for older children, sibling groups and children with disabilities,

You could talk this over with the IFA and if they agree you are looking at 5 and under, ask them how many children of 2/3 sibs under 5 have they placed
in the last 2 years.

The other thing is that there is pressure by LAs to get children from IFA placements back into LA foster homes as soon as a vacany becomes available, again because of the cost.

The problem for IFAs of course is they know they are only used when there is no LA placement available, which makes it difficult for them to say exactly what is coming their way, but I assume they keep records so it would be quite in order to ask them about nos of children placed. The other thing to bear in mind is with an IFA, a child/ren can be placed from anywhere in the country, miles away from home, just because that is the only placement available, which is very confusing and distressing for the child, whereas with the LA you will be getting a child from your area or a neighbouring authority.

Foster carers are like gold dust- there is an acute shortage on a national basis. So why not have a talk to your LA and as many IFAs as you can. There are usually many IFAs in one locality - they are mushrooming because there is big money to be made!

You certainly should NOT be turned away by the LA or any IFA and to be honest I woud be a bit suspicious of the IFA sw who tried to turn you away with dramatic stores of horrendous teenagers.

Best of luck whichever way you go.

Thank you NanaNina you have been really helpful :) we are not going to give up now and are going to ask around a few more IFA and a few LA that are close to us !
Thanks again.

Good - keep us posted.