Five Rivers Fostering Responds to the State of the Nation’s Foster Care Report
The Fostering Network has launched it’s latest ‘State of the Nation’s Foster Care’ report based on a survey of more than 2,500 foster carers in the UK. It is the largest report of its kind, and identifies three key areas for the sector to address:
1. Improving communication and support from fostering services
2. Treating foster carers more as professionals
3. Better financial support
These three demands are central to our understanding of what our foster carers need from us to do a really great job and we constantly endeavour to improve our support for our compassionate and hardworking foster families:
Five Rivers foster carers benefit from very high levels of investment in;
Support and consultation available from specialists (e.g. educational support workers, clinical support, therapeutic practitioners and family support workers)
One to one support; our Supervising Social Workers typically have lower workloads than a Local Authority and many other IFA’s which means we can offer more responsive and bespoke support
Monthly supervision and direction from an allocated Supervising Social Worker
Out of hours Social Workers available 365 days a year
In 2016 we focused on improving:
We surveyed foster carers views on our service (see inset above for 2016 result) and identified areas of improvement. As a result we have started:
Celebrating the achievements of our foster families and young people through our website, social media, newsletter and Make a Difference Awards Ceremonies
Quarterly Foster Carer Forums where representative foster carers speak directly to our Senior Management Team.
These events are well attended and our foster carers tell us how valuable they are in terms of networking.
Professional training
We already do treat our foster families as part of our professional team; we continue to invest heavily in an enhanced training and development programme for our carers: from day one they are given opportunities to gain practitioner skills in therapeutic interventions. We pride ourselves on being an education provider and a life-long learning organisation for our staff our carers and our young people: We can offer QCF Level 2 & 3 in Emergency Placements; Therapeutic Parenting, Enhanced Safeguarding and also BILD approved SHADES Behaviour Management Training, to ensure our foster carers feel well prepared, supported and have a high level of resilience to care for the diverse needs of young people, as well as for all our carers, they can access and be supported to undertake a Foundation Degree and finally, ASDAN Qualifications for care leavers.
Financial support
We provide a very competitive weekly allowance and paid holiday entitlement to all of our foster carers, which vary depending on placements types. Their advancing levels of professionalism are rewarded by a tiered approach to payment which recognises and rewards the most skilled and experienced.
We are delighted that our investment choices put us ahead of the curve when it comes to meeting the needs of foster carers, and their positive feedback gives us the confidence to state this publicly.
References:
https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/policy-practice/policies/state-nations-foster-care-2016