Connected carer

[katrin174]

Hello all,
We've recently been contacted by a social worker regarding my husbands, sisters and her three children.To cut a long story short things aren't good in the household and the children may need to be removed from their home by social services. We received a call last week asking us if we would consider having the children as we are family members. She said we would be assessed by the fostering panel as connected carers rather than foster carers. I've not heard this term before, what is the difference? And will we be given support by the LA if the children do end up coming to live with us? I'm not sure we could afford it without help.

Thanks in advance.

Kat.

I’m a connected carer for my niece. This is simply the term used for a foster carer that is related to the child they are caring for.

Every local authority is different so I’ll tell you how it was for us but bear in mind your area may be different.

We were already heavily involved with the children and knew removal was coming long before it did. Once the removal order was granted we put ourselves forward as carers.

The first step was something called a viability assessment. This was a home visit where they looked around, discussed the process with us and made sure we knew what we were taking on. There was lots of questions asked and they had already done some background checks on us that they talked about and asked us to discuss. E.g. for me they knew that my child had medical needs and they asked us how we would manage that plus the responsibility of fostering etc.

Once that was complete we received same day approval and the child came to live with us. We then had 16 weeks to complete a full fostering assessment. This involved medical checks, police checks, social care checks, home checks. Lots and lots of questions, assessments and training. They will ask about EVERYTHING you can possibly think of and more. Be prepared that it is very invasive.

For us the child was removed by court order and that makes them legally ‘looked after’ this means they are entitled to the same level of input and support as any other looked after child. We have since been told this makes a big difference. If you voluntarily take a child on that hasn’t been legally removed the local authority don’t have the same duty of care.

The child has their own social worker and we were allocated our own social worker also. Both of these visit regularly announced and unannounced to check on the child and the home.

We are entitled to the same level of financial support as an unrelated foster carer providing they are officially looked after. For us that’s £152 a week. We also get a small extra allowance for birthdays and Christmas.

The first 6 weeks after the child comes to you is intense. Lots of meetings which you are expected to attend where the reasons for removal are discussed and the ongoing care plan agreed. Plus lots of appointments as all children entering care need medical, dental and opticians checks.

There is also a lot of paperwork to get used to. We have to write a daily log of what we have done that day. Write a report on all contact sessions. Document any incidents or medications given etc.

Be prepared for challenges. Even if you know the children well and they are angelic after removal they WILL be traumatised, they WILL struggle to manage their emotions, they WILL push all your buttons and test every boundary and they WONT thank you for what you are doing, particularly if they see you as one of the things keeping them away from home.

It’s a really difficult stage to go through but eventually everything starts to settle and your family life adapts to them. After 6 months the court order is reviewed. The aim is always to have the children return home where possible. If this isn’t then you will be asked about taking the child long term. Depending on the age of the child, their needs, the social workers thoughts etc. depends on if that long term plan is to stay as a looked after child, be adopted or be placed under a special guardianship order. For us the plan thankfully was long term foster with us as this means the financial support continues. If the option was special guardianship, which they often push for as it saves them money, we would have lost all financial support going forward. We couldn’t afford to do that and would have had to move her to a new carer which would have been traumatic for her so we were thankful for that outcome.

If you have any questions at all that I haven’t answered feel free to ask.

just to say 152 per week per child is not a "normal" foster care payment. A usual payment is over £50 per day per child. More if they have special needs. Additional payments for birthdays, xmas and summer holidays.

@f0stercarer It is in my LA. That the same rate that mainstream carers get also for a child under the age of 5. Payments increase with age and independent agencies pay much more.

This is 2017 rates so it’s less than what we currently get. I’ve never known any LA pay £50 per day. Are you with an independent agency?

yes I am with an IFA but some LA pay more than my agency as has been previously highlighted in other threads. A good indication of how low that 150 per week is the fact that HMRC give a minimum weekly tax deductible allowance of 200 per week per child (plus a flat 10K per year for a foatering couple or individual). Thus HMRC have an expectation that a carer is paid well over that. At 150 per week per child you are just being taken advantage of imo. If you said you were leaving they would immediately raise your payment significantly.

@f0stercarer I don’t think they would. That’s the standard rate for under 5’s in the area. I’ve also checked the next county over and it’s £164 weekly so very little difference. You can get up to £80 a week on top of that once certain training is completed but when we discussed moving to an IFA they told us they would move the child to another ‘in house’ carer so they’ve obviously got us over a barrel as we plan to keep this child. We have declined SGO due to the financial impact already.

You need to ask about the allowance for you. I agree that if they are only paying £152 you are getting taken advantage of.
I am with an agency,they have flat rates. Allowance for child and payment for you.
We need to do lots of training.
I was going to change to LA where the payments would have been more as I have done so much training and my fc has disabilities.
When I told the agency that I was looking to move they immediately upped my payments.
I’m sure you can look into changing to an agency and take the child with you. Tell them you are looking at doing this, I’m sure they will be open to talk to you.

Also if you already have the children it will not be in their best interest for them to be moved. So they would be looking at finances over the children’s emotional well-being.

The LAs are very good at putting people off changing to IFAs. The decision as to whether the child would stay with you if you chnaged would not be a LA decision. The IRO would have a very big say. Recruitment people at IFAs always report that the first thing LAs do when a LA fc says they are chnaging is to up payment. Similarly some fc chnage from IFAs to LA but retain their level of pay, The "official" rate does not apply to all. I know of one fc who chnaged from IFA to the LA where her placements came from at a rate higher than the IFA rate because it still saved the LA money as they didnt have to pay the agency rate. Things are much more fluid than you think. Deals are done all the time. You deserve to be paid more and almost all other f/c are being paid more than you. Have a blunt conversation with your LA.

Definitely something to consider. We will hold off for now as we are only temporary approved under regulation 24 right now and we are due for panel in Jan but after we’ve got full approval we will mention it.