Foster carer breaking social distancing rules

[Bubble20]

A foster carer I know has been continuously not adhering to social distancing rules throughout lockdown, several times she has taken the children to other people's houses and had people round her own house, she has mixed with at least 3 other families so this isn't a support bubble. I don't feel this is a good decision on her part as she is putting the children at risk and I feel as a foster carer she is being irresponsible and that social services should be made aware. Am I overreacting or should something be said?

Yeah email social services immediately then they can tell them off and possibly place the children elsewhere

I think you should just leave it tbh.

Mind your own business op

As a Foster carer there may be a hundred reasons why it is not possible for her to distance 2m such as facilitating contact between children and their parents or needing to support and adoption handover etc. At this stage the risks are very minimal and I think you should steer clear and just make decisions for yourself and your own family

Absolutely. Social services and the children immediately removed from their home seems the only recourse......

@LoisLittsLover

As a Foster carer there may be a hundred reasons why it is not possible for her to distance 2m such as facilitating contact between children and their parents or needing to support and adoption handover etc. At this stage the risks are very minimal and I think you should steer clear and just make decisions for yourself and your own family

The occasions that have been posted in social media have been her meeting up with her friends for bbq, drinks etc

Are you stalking her?

@user12699422578

Are you stalking her?

Haha! No, it comes up as we are friends on social media, other people have mentioned it too

Get a grip.

Yes tell the local authority; the children she cares for are not her children to make decisions about, she isn’t their parent. If she has a good reason for it then social services would know anyway so it’s no harm done and if she doesn’t then it should be made clear to her that she has no right to do this

@user1493413286

Yes tell the local authority; the children she cares for are not her children to make decisions about, she isn’t their parent. If she has a good reason for it then social services would know anyway so it’s no harm done and if she doesn’t then it should be made clear to her that she has no right to do this

Thank you, this thought too, if a child from my family was in the care of a foster carer I would expect them to be looked after responsibly

But 6 people can meet outside, leave her alone

I would be a bit irritated by this but I wouldn't do anything. The increased risk to the children is miniscule and may arguably be outweighed by the fun of the social events. At a society level, this kind of socialising is risky, as if we all to it cases will probably rise. However at an individual level the chance the children will catch coronavirus is miniscule and if they do they will probably be fine anyway. Plus she is allowed to meet families outdoors and in a week's time will be able to go inside their houses. I think you would be causing a lot of hassle over very little.

As an aside, people need to stop putting things on social media! An acquaintance is a senior teacher in a secondary s school and wasn't too happy about schools returning. She posted photos of having her parents round for dinner inside. I'm sure lots of people are doing that but don't post it as evidence!

Foster children are already emotionally vulnerable being isolated wont have helped this at all

Anyway no one cares anymore its almost over

The impact of children being moved on to another placement, potentially at very short notice and separated again from the people they care about and who care about them, will be more damaging than a slight increased risk of COVID (which is incredibly low risk for children - yes they can be carriers but if your concerned about the risk to children, it’s more risky for her to drive them round in her car).

There’s hardly any foster carers as it is, leave her to it.

So these kids will have possibly come to her from less than ideal situations and you want them put back into the system rather than staying with the foster carer because she hasnt been social distancing

What axe do you have to grind here OP, did she foster your kids and you want some sort of payback?

Realistically the children will not be move based on this; if the children are settled it’s not in their best interests and there are not enough placements to move children without good reason. However the point is that she doesn’t get decide what rules she does and doesn’t follow with children who aren’t hers

Can you imagine being the social worker having to deal with petty shit like this though? “I saw photos on Facebook of a foster carer at a BBQ”. I mean ffs

SandieCheeks can you imagine your children being removed from you and you’re told that it’s because you can’t keep them safe and then their foster carer who is supposed to keep them safe does things that potentially puts them at risk and thinks that the restrictions the government put into place don’t apply to them? I would say I’ve dealt with far less significant things that seem petty but when (as a foster carer) you’re looking after someone else’s children there are higher standards. Foster carers are accountable for everything they do and if one of those children got ill it would be the local authority criticised for not knowing what foster carers are doing with children.
Looking at it differently if you were looking after a friends chidren would you think it was ok to do that and not ask the friend or potentially even tell them first? It also opens up a load of other questions about whether the children were told not to tell their social worker etc and if something happened on one of these occasions would it be shared with the social worker