Moving on and clothes

[thehedge]

I am currently looking after a primary school aged child who I have had in placement for a year. I'm packing up her things to go to an adoptive forever family. I was going to send all clothes she came to me with. However she has grown out of her winter clothes I brought her. Can I keep these for future placements or should I send them with her?? She has lots and lots of clothes and toys etc

Can you ask her adoptive parents if they want them or not?
I would pack them up, and ask if they want them or would they prefer you kept them?

My local LA now have a policy that any clothes which no longer fit (that were bought with the child's allowance, not by birth parents) can be kept by FC and used for new placements. Rather strangely (!) this coincided with their decision to no longer pay even the meagre clothing allowance we used to be able to fight tooth and nail for entitled to.

However... I've recently had several children move to me from other carers, who've come with very worn, even holey clothes that I wouldn't have ever sent on with a child. Yet when first moving in the only clothes the children wanted to wear were the old, too small clothes. It's opened my eyes a bit and definitely proved how important those very familiar items are and I no longer buy new things just as a child is leaving.

We've now applied to keep our 2 foster children long term, but when it looked like they were going to move on I thought about the clothes situation. Anything too small I was going to keep in case it fitted another child who might have come along. I would have sent them with a few changes of clothes, but not with everything I've bought for them. I would have thought an adoptive family would enjoy buying some new clothes anyway?