As most MNs know I am a retired social worker and Fostering & Adoption team manager (30 years in all)
As all of you will know confidentiality is of great importance. However I have been coming on the fostering thread for some considerable time and I have never yet seen any foster carer break any rules of confidentiality. On the contrary they all make sure that they don't identify anyone by name or which LA they foster for. I have offered help and support for MNs who are often totally confused about what is going on as the social workers don't explain matters to f-cs.
I usually invite F-Cs to PM me if they need to give more details, and they do this, so that this confidential information is not in the public domain. I do always ask that when PMing they FCs don't disclose names of children involved.
I don't see any reason whatsoever why FCs shouldn't use this forum and I think the LA concerned are on some sort of witch-hunt! As someone has said how on earth would a sw know who was posting about what, as we use nicknames for the very purpose of anonymity.
Just in defence of social workers, there is a national shortage and since the budget cuts the vacant posts are "frozen" in the sense that the LA can't recruit to these posts because they can't afford to pay social workers. I blame the coalition for this. They are slashing the budgets of all public services and expecting improved performances - can't be done.
Of course there will be sws who vary ( some are highly competent, some average and some woefully inadequate and should be in a different job) but I think this is probably true for all sorts of occupations.
NO they LA can't do anything to FCs who post on here - there is freedom of speech in this country - it's called democracy. The only thing they could object to would be the identification of children and parents and details of a particular case, which on an open forum would constitute a serious breach of confidentiality.