Advice on rushed SGO - Help

[Fosterquestion]

Hi all,

My husband and I recently passed the fostering panel to be kinship carers for our nieces and nephews. Transitions are starting but we are already being put forward to move from foster carers to a SGO. From reading up, I’m not sure this is the right for us all at the minute as the children have some complex needs and it just feels a bit like we are being signed off to tick the box.

we have said previously that we do want an SGO but didn’t think it would this soon and doing more research, I think it might be a bad idea as we could defo do with some support and it sounds like SS just basically cut and run 😕

any advice would be much appreciated :)

As foster caters you would be paid, under an SGO I don't think you would be.
And as you say as foster carers, you would have an allocated SW as would the children.
I'm guessing they are trying to save money?
You are doing a good thing by fostering but you shouldn't be pressured into SGO if that's not what you want as it implies a long term placement

Yeah we wondered that too, PoshUn but trying to give them the benefit of the doubt 🙁 Obvs that is a consideration as well as the support we need. It just feels bad saying no as they propose it as “being a family” or being able to treat them as you would your own. Btw, the children can’t go back to parents so we want them with us forever so that bit us a positive of the SGO x

fosterwiki.com/wiki/?_wiki_search=sgo

cut n paste above. There can be a huge incentive for the LA to "get rid of the problem" and get things off their books by granting an sgo. Resources available to you will be far less and you have correctly identified this. Similarly financial support will plummet unless you negotiate hard BEFORE it is granted.

Join the union, as they will be a great source of information and could potentially act for you in negotiations. www.nupfc.com

Put the brakes on. Resist their pressure and gain knowl4edge from people who have been the process (and often regretted it).

Recommend get really clear on what you need in terms of support, financial or otherwise. Ask to speak to the LA SGO support team (if they have one - some are very good).

And remember it’s a negotiation.

We run support groups - familysupport.group