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Category: Fostering Page

Fostering Options

Posted on by Angeline Westley

Many people consider fostering, but taking the plunge and committing comes with many worries and concerns. You are taking a leap of faith into the unknown, where children are placed in family homes at short notice with rare opportunities to get to know the child before they arrive at your front door.

At Progress, we can do things differently! Our focus is on ensuring children are in the most appropriate placement and we offer a wide range of services for children. We do not rely on traditional referrals which tend to be for same day, emergency placements. This means we can work with our Foster Carers to build relationships with children and young people before they are placed.

We can give Foster Carers an opportunity to be a part of a plan for child, we do this through dual-track planning for children.

The first of these opportunities are to work with our residential teams where children are looking to move into foster care. We identify a child that might be suitable and discuss their needs in depth and look at what it means to care for them. If the Carer thinks they might be able to offer a placement, we arrange for them to go and see the child, meet them and see how they get on, and observe the child in placement. If the Carer wishes to progress, we look at what training would be needed and they have an opportunity to go and work with the child in the home; to build on the relationship and ensure they feel confident that the placement would be successful.

The plans for each child are bespoke, so we take it slowly, plan with the Local Authority and ensure that everything is in place, the Carer is confident and that the child wants the move. This gives the greatest chance of success.

Once the child moves into the foster home, the staff from the residential service continue to provide support to the Carers, be that face to face, or phone support. This enables young people to maintain relationships and gives Carers unrivalled support from people with hands on practical experience of the child.

When placements are made in this way, there is a high chance of a long-term permanent placement being agreed by the Local Authority. This gives Carers the stability and reassurance of long-term financial support, reducing the risks to the stability of their home life and reducing the uncertainty that can come with short-term foster placements.

We also work with children and families through our short breaks service and our community based support service. Our Foster Carers can become part of the support network for a family, offering short breaks where a child might stay with the Foster Carers for a couple of nights per month or as a shared care arrangement; where a child might stay with you for a few days a week, on an on-going basis. This work is extremely rewarding and Carers get a real chance to help families keep it together and build supportive and trusting relationships with birth families.

To talk to one of our Social Workers about any of these options, please get in touch with our fostering team today.

You can call our head office on 01902 561066 between 9am-5pm Monday to Friday or if you would like someone to call you back you can send your details to us via the enquiry form below or by emailing info@progresscare.co.uk.

A Day in the Life of a Fostering Manager

Posted on by Angeline Westley

Here at Progress Children’s Services, we pride ourselves on our holistic approach to providing a seamless transition for children and young people in the stages between birth and independent living.

As a high-quality foster care provider, our team dedicate themselves to our vision of assisting individuals in achieving the best possible outcomes for their future, despite their past. Our mission is to give them positive experiences and ultimately; make progress. Tina Bhardwaj, our Fostering Manager, is no exception to this. We took the time to pick Tina’s brain to give an insight into a day in the life of a Fostering Manager.

What are your role responsibilities?

My overall responsibilities as Fostering Manager are to ensure the smooth running of the fostering service. I provide my team with ongoing training and support to operate to the best of their abilities and ensure that children and young people are kept safe within their foster placements. I also lead the recruitment of Foster Carers alongside our Business Development team, ensuring that we recruit robust applicants.

My team of Social Workers and I work hard to ensure that our campaigns are target driven and focused, and by working in-line with the fostering regulations, Ofsted governed standards and measuring up appropriate candidates, we match children and young people to suitable carers.

I like to work in a way that is transparent and open. I enjoy being visible, reachable and maintaining excellent working relationships with my Foster Carers. To achieve this, every month, I chair support groups. I see it as a priority that I attend all the meetings, as they provide the opportunity for face-to-face contact and they allow me to help answer any questions. I believe working in this way instils trust and confidence.

The role is not 9-5 meaning that sometimes I work weekends. My phone is always on. Some of our carers work at all hours. Therefore meetings and training can take place outside of traditional working hours.

 

What does your role mean to you?

I have been working in foster care for the last decade, and I have loved every minute of my job. The highlight of my role is going home knowing that the individuals are placed in safety away from the danger in which they came.

I strongly believe in focusing on the children and the things that matter. For example, having experiences, making progress and how we as an organisation can make a difference to a child’s life. The interaction we have with our Foster Carers and young people is at the forefront of everything we do at Progress, as we use this as a guide on how we are making a difference. This is only achieved with the right support and workers in place. For example how well carers are prepared and supported to promote progress young people make with their health, education, emotional and social wellbeing and children can only do this when they have a range of positive experiences.

I wanted to work for the organisation because I love the crossover opportunities available in our services. For example, our children can access our short breaks and activity groups. Foster Carers can work flexibly across the service while waiting for a child to be matched and placed with them. It is a pleasure to see the joy this brings both the children and our carers.

I like working for a small private organisation because there is less red tape, providing me with the opportunity to be creative and the ability to enhance myself through professional development. A smaller company allows me and my team to provide a personal touch, enabling us to tailor our support to the individual; whether that is the child, young people or Foster Carer. The relationships that we maintain with these individuals are embedded in our practice and values of caring, trust, respect and progress.

My job means a great deal to me; I firmly feel that you cannot do this role without passion and enthusiasm. I like to lead by example, and I am confident that I have a team that functions to a high standard in a happy working environment.

What are the rewards of your role?

For me, I take great satisfaction seeing the individuals of which we care for settle into well-suited placements. To know the children and young people are having positive experiences and making personal growth, makes the challenging days well worth it. We have excellent stability in our foster placements, which I feel is a reflection of the support provided to the carers and the agency’s recruitment selection as a result of the thorough assessment.

Our Foster Carers have the opportunity to work with the children in our residential homes, and we have made several successful matches, allowing young people to transition from our residential homes into foster homes. The sense of pride that this gives me is immense.

 

What are the challenges that you face in your role?

A hurdle we are facing is getting appropriate services for children, such as Children & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) help, life story work and children on the waiting list, not yet in permanent placements.

Our biggest challenge is recruiting Foster Carers. There are so many children in need of care, love and stability in contrast to the foster carers that are available to support them. The demand is thoroughly outweighing the supply.

 

What are your main current focus points within the organisation?

My team are important to me as they are the cogs in the machine that are vital to the great work we currently accomplish with Progress. It is crucial to not only ensure improvement opportunities for the individuals in our care but also to those making all our achievements possible.

What are your current goals, personally and for Progress Children’s Services?

I would love to personally develop the fostering service by expanding and growing the regions covered by participating in local authority projects.  It is heart-breaking knowing that there are vulnerable children and young people out there that we at Progress have the means to help. I want to be able to offer more children a foster home. To do that, we need more Foster Carers.

If you would like to find out more about our Fostering team call us today on 01902 561066, email fostering@progresscare.co.uk or fill in one of our quick enquires forms here.