A Child For Christmas

No, this isn’t an idea for a new fostering recruitment campaign, but it is something we hear a lot especially around December time.

We receive well meaning calls from people who feel they have a spare place at their table and in their hearts for Christmas, and call to invite one of the children in our care to join them for the festive period.

To slightly adapt a well known slogan from an awareness campaign “a child is for life, not just for Christmas”.

Why not I hear you cry? Well for a moment put yourself in the shoes of the child, the chances are they have had a difficult life so far, they may have limited or no contact with their birth family, they may be in residential care or maybe they have been moved from one foster care home to another and then to another and then to another (and so on). Then the nights draw in, the TV is dominated with adverts for Christmas gifts and the windows of all the houses they pass on the way to school, display well decorated trees and twinkling lights… and then they receive a call asking if they would like to join a family of strangers for the day. Yes it does sound like a lovely and well meaning invite, but a child or young person who has had disruption and major challenges in their life may be able to understand the good intentions and wonder why they can’t stay the rest of the year and why they can only go for a day.

If you still think this is a good idea and you think we’re being party poopers, try and imagine how the day will pan out. The house is busy with preparations for Christmas lunch taking place; someone will be in the kitchen ploughing through vegetable peeling duties and watching the Turkey in the oven. Any children in the house will be over excited with the occasion; playing with their toys, eating more chocolate than they are usually allowed and are probably tired having got up early to see if Santa’s been yet. The noise levels at Christmas always seem to be higher than usual; the television is on, computer games being played and Christmas Carols in the background.... and then the relatives arrive, bringing with them more noise, chaos and presents for the household. As the day continues, being on best behaviours, tiredness and over indulging at the Christmas table can all take its toll and tempers may be a little frayed; debates over who’s doing the washing up, too much mulled wine has been drunk and the children are squabbling.. all of this may seem normal to you and your family but it can be difficult situation for a child or young person who has never met you before.. and even if they have wonderful time, joined in with all the festivities, played nicely with your children and were polite to your Auntie Ethel, what then? They get picked up at end of the day, returned to their residential home.. and back to their reality.

A bit harsh I know but if you genuinely are interested in giving a child a place at your Christmas table, why not also for the other 364 days of the year?

Supporting the Foster Carers

We don’t just place a child with a foster carer and then leave them to it; we provide ongoing support and help before, after and during placements.

Each foster care household is allocated a Supervising Social Worker from Park Foster Care and they will regular visit you at your home at least every two weeks to check how things are going, discuss any concerns you may have and be your main link to the agency for information and specialist support that you or the child or young person may need.

Support is also available out of hours; we operate a rota system where our Supervising Social Workers are on duty evenings and weekends to ensure that there is always just on the end of the phone, no matter what time of day.

We pride ourselves on the training courses we provide for our foster carers.  The mix of training available is designed to be both theory based and practical.  Some carers ask if they can study NVQ qualifications or other specific training, we encourage this and will support financially and practically during the course.

We hold a number of parenting forums and monthly support groups within different geographic areas of our region, this allows the carers the opportunity to speak with other carers, support each other and build friendships with people in similar situations to themselves.  

Reflective practice sessions are available for carers after a significant event has taken place e.g. when a placement finishes.  Even if this has been a planned move rather than a break down we recognise that the foster carers do need the opportunity to speak with our specialist parenting consultant who can help them understand and handle their thoughts, feelings and how to learn from their experiences. 

At Park Foster Care we recognise that occasionally you need time to yourself or with your family, and we provide as standard up to 18 days per year as paid leave.  The child or young person in your care will be placed with another household as respite care.

Additionally, we have a team of support workers based around our region who can help out by taking the child or young person out to do a specific activity of interest and age relevant i.e. a trip to the zoo, a cycle in the park, watch a film at the cinema etc.  This can be timed for when you are attending a meeting, a training course, spending time with your family or just taking a well earned rest.

Recruitment Process

Foster caring isn't just a job; it’s essentially a lifestyle choice and affects all aspects of your life and the life of your family.

In our experience, becoming a foster carer doesn’t just happen overnight and people don’t just see an advert and think ‘that’s what I’ll do’.  The majority of enquires we receive are from people who have been giving it a great deal of thought and consideration for a while – sometimes  it may have only been a matter of months, other times it has been years.  Most enquirers tell us that they have spoken at length with their families and friends about their intentions and so by the time they actually make contact with us, they are clear that this is what they want to do.

Often people considering fostering have a list of questions, concerns and worries - even if it’s just in their mind rather than written down.  Initially we find that they may be a little cautious about speaking to us, in case we have them signed up and have delivered a child to them by tea time!  Our approach is that we welcome all enquiries and will strive to answer any questions they may have.  We recently introduced Information Evenings across our region which have all been well attended and give people the opportunity to find out more about fostering and our agency in an informal and possibly in their opinion a slightly less pressured environment.  We clearly go through the stages of the recruitment process and what the approx timescales can be for the necessary checks, training courses and assessments involved in becoming a foster carer.

The initial visit in a potential carer’s home is one of the first stages, this is conducted by one of our Senior Supervising Social Workers and they spend time with the applicant(s) answering their questions, understanding their concerns and finding out about their life(s), families, work and interests.

The next stage is for an application form to be completed and then for a social worker to be allocated to the carer for assessment.  It’s during this stage that checks are done including CRB’s and medical assessments.

Successful applicants at this point are invited to the Skills to Foster training course and then finally it’s taken to panel for approval.

Not everyone who applies to become a foster parent will go through to approval, the decision not to proceed can be taken by either party at any stage and can be for a variety of reasons e.g. the applicants may decide on reflection that fostering isn’t for them, they may have had a life changing event which means they want to put it on hold for a while i.e. a death in the family or the arrival of a new baby, a house move or job offer.  Occasionally the decision has been made by the agency and again could be for a number of reasons e.g. checks may have identified something that means they are not suitable or that it is felt they don’t have the relevant skills or lifestyle that would be suitable for fostering. As an agency we make it our policy to communicate fully with our applicants and explain these reasons as early and clearly as possible to minimise any effect this could have on the people involved.

Where We Work

Park Foster Care’s office is just outside Nantwich, almost next to Sainsbury’s which is handy to stock up in your lunch hour or if we run out of supplies in the office. Biscuits are great for a treat and with our mid morning coffee, but we do try and encourage Healthy Eating with our foster carers and children so there is always a bowl of seasonal fruit on offer.

We have a team of support staff who are based in the office the majority of the time answering the telephones and handling the administration, finance and operational activities. Our team of Supervising Social Workers are often out and about in the ‘field’, many work remotely in the area’s where they live supporting their foster carer households in their vicinity with visits, support groups, training courses and meetings with other professionals involved with the care of the child or young person being looked after.

We have a daily duty officer handling any enquiries for placements from local authorities and being a point of call for our foster carer households who may not be able to reach their Supervising Social Worker (they may be in a meeting or on holiday).  Out of hours Duty is also covered on a rota basis by our Supervising Social Workers so we literally cover 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

Geographically we focus on the North West, West and East Midlands, Staffordshire and parts of Leicestershire.  If you look at a map of the UK, you could almost draw a large circle with Nantwich in the centre which depicts quite neatly the radius we cover. We have foster carers within most of parts of our region and we are continually recruiting new households.

The office in Nantwich has two conference rooms (one large, the other more cosy) which we use for hosting training courses and meetings.  We also use these rooms for the Panel meeting which are usually held monthly.  Training and support groups are also held in other parts of the region on a monthly basis including Warrington, Walsall and Coventry.

Why Local Authorities Use Independent Foster Care Agencies?

When a local authority cannot place a child or young person with one of their own in-house carers they look externally to the Independent foster care agencies in their area. 

It’s important that a child or young person requiring a placement is matched with a suitable foster home.  It isn’t just about providing bed and board, it’s about giving them the support they need and ensuring the environment is as safe and suitable as possible.

A few considerations the Independent Fostering Agency and the Local Authority will look at when choosing a placement for a child or young person are:

·        The needs of the child or young person – do they require additional care for their emotional or physical needs?

·         The age of children already in the household – we need to judge the impact of all people involved in a fostering placement.  The ages and needs of the birth or foster children already with the family need to be taken into consideration to ensure there is as little disruption as possible.   At Park Foster Care we work hard with our carers and families to reduce placement breakdowns which can have a detrimental effect for all but especially for the looked after child or young person.

·         Location – in many situations it’s important that the child or young person can maintain the routines and relationships in their life i.e. staying at the same school, being able to meet up with their friends and having contact with a birth relative.  We therefore need to ensure that they are in a placement in the local area.  There are other cases though where the placement needs to be made outside of the local area because of the circumstances of the individual case, and it's on these occasions where a local authority may need to use an independent foster care agency to assist.

Most of the Local Authorities have ‘approved supplier lists’ of Independent Foster Care Agencies they work with, these lists will have been compiled after stringent processes and checks with each Independent Fostering Agency.  At Park Foster Care we are proud of our track record of being on these ‘lists’ with the majority of the Local Authorities in the regions we cover and also with the relationships we have built up with the commissioning and placement teams and the Local Authority Social Workers.