Supervision
Supervision is another important aspect of the relationship between you and your allocated supervising social worker and is a new and much encouraged component of the Code of Practice in Foster Care. This helps formalise the home visits that you have with your social worker and will ensure that relevant information in respect of you, your household and young people in placement will be covered and recorded. your social worker will visit every three weeks (in the early stages of placement visits will be weekly). In addition, telephone contact will take place on a weekly basis. In accordance with the regulations, your supervising social worker will also conduct at least one unanounced visit to all carers each year.
Support groups
These are not optional and are for every carer's benefit. Carers are expected to attend at least 80% of the group meetings. The aim of the group is as follows:
• Mutual support and a good working relationship between foster carers/staff.
• To continue to develop the fostering service to provide the best possible service to young people, foster carers and local authorities
• To provide training opportunities and to identify future training needs.
• To share problems and to try to identify solutions.
• To provide opportunities to share and obtain information.
• To provide opportunities to get to know other carers and form supportive relationships
Thinking About Fostering | The Application Process |Being an FP2 Carer | FAQ
Being an FP2 carer
So what happens once you're approved? Becoming a foster carer means being involved in many aspects of caring for a child; it also means being provided with the help and support you need.
What support will you receive?
In return for foster carers' commitment, reliability, persistence and imaginative response to problems, carers will receive a generous allowance, be treated with respect and be included as a full member of the team providing support to the child. The package provided includes:
• Fees and expenses that reflect the nature and task of fostering
• Weekly allowace for child 0-8 yrs, £364. For a child onver 9 yrs £412.
• Annual holiday allowance.
• Additional travel expenses.
• Regular individual supervision/support sessions
• Monthly support group meetings.
• Monthly telephone conferences.
• Ongoing programme of training and self-development for carers.
• Access to 24 hour support.
• Membership of the Fostering Network.
• Employers' liability insurance.
• Access to a range of expert advice and input as necessary.
You will be included in the regular planning meetings held for the child or young person, thus ensuring a common understanding regarding progress, behavioural management and required actions.
As you will see, FP2 take their commitment towards providing support, advice and information to you very seriously. We also recognise that the most effective way to retain our carers is to try to meet your needs directly, or to enable you to identify it elsewhere, i.e. via vocational NVQ training.