Working with Families and other Professionals

As a professional you have an important part to play in the lives of children and families that you may work with.

Some children who are in your care will go home, so it is important for them to keep their relationships with parents and other family members.

Parents or other relatives may visit a child in your home, or the child’s social worker may feel these meetings should take place somewhere else. Family time will be set out in the child’s Placement Plan and Care Plan.

See: Family Time Between the Child, their Family and Others.

It is important that you develop an open and honest relationship with the parents and ensure they know at all times that the child/young person  is the most important person and their well-being is being looked after by you.

This will be difficult for parents, so you need to ensure you work sensitively with them. The child/young person  will continue to love their parents; you should never speak about parents in a negative way. Showing positive working relationships will bring down any barriers to communication and prevent any potential of secrecy.

During your time as a foster carer, you will also work alongside many other professionals including your fostering social worker as part of a care team around the child/young person that makes sure the child/young person’s needs are met and developed and they are safe from harm.

Professionals will include amongst others.

Each child or young person placed in foster care will have a social worker.

Social workers work with the whole family, not just the child/ren, and although their primary concern is for the child's welfare they do have to balance this with the wishes and needs of the parents. They should keep you informed about the progress of the plan for the child and any changes of plan or direction.

Their role is to:

• Assess the needs of a child/young person;
• Develop a relationship with the child/young person;
• Plan for the child and regularly review that plan;
• Work with you, the child and the child/young person’s family;
• Share information with you;
• Identify and obtain resources so that the child’s needs are met;
• Visit the child/young person at the foster home within one week of the placement and then at least every six weeks for the first year or visit in line with the Care Plan. Thereafter, where the placement has been approved as their permanent home and the child/young person  has been there for 12 months after this decision has been made visits will be  at intervals of not more than three months, and in any other case, at intervals of not more than six weeks.

If as a foster care you or the child/young person in placement are having some difficulties contacting the social worker it is important to let your fostering social worker know so that they can work to try and resolve this.

Each child or young person placed in your care will have an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO). Wherever it is possible, the IRO will meet the child/young person  before the first Children Looked After Review and prior to each subsequent review.

Brothers and sisters, whether they are  placed together or not, should usually have the same IRO who will be allocated for the duration that the child is in your care (unless this is causing conflicts of interest).

The IRO has two roles within care planning review process: chairing a child’s Looked After Review and monitoring a child’s case on an on-going basis to ensure there is no drift or delay in care planning. They can be a good source of support to you if needed when plans for a child are not going how it should, although it is the child’s social worker you should try to speak to first. The IRO can raise a professional challenge or ‘Resolution Process’ on behalf of the child/young person. Speak to the IRO for further understanding of this process.

The IRO has a role to review the local authority’s role as a Corporate Parent and report any challenges, success and themes.

A Guardian is appointed by the court from CAFCASS (Children And Family Court And Support Service) when they want an independent view of what has been happening and what should happen in the child's life. They may also be involved in adoption proceedings.

You should support the child to share their views particularly about their future and ensure they are supported to spend time with the Guardian appointed, so that the Guardian can tell the child’s story in court, where the child is not able to do this themselves. Once care proceedings conclude, the Guardian will write to the IRO with a formal handover to ensure the IRO can continue offer that intendent to care planning scrutiny and review.

The Local Authority caring for a child has a duty to appoint a person to be the child's Independent Visitor where it appears to them that it would be in the child's best interests to do so. The Independent Visitor will have a duty to make regular visits to the child and maintain other contact, by telephone and letter as appropriate.

Independent Visitors are particularly important where children have no family time with any member of their family.

The main purpose of the visits and contacts will be to befriend the child and give advice and assistance as appropriate.

This is a person appointed to speak on behalf of another person and/or to support them. All children who are cared for by you should be given information about how to access an Advocate. The child's Independent Reviewing Officers should also make sure that this information is available to the child and assist the child to identify and appoint a suitable Advocate as appropriate. You can support the child to make a referral and you can make a referral on their behalf.  Durham offer an opt-out approach for those children aged 11 and over who are under a child protection plan. This means  that unless the child opts out a referral will be made for an advocate to become involved with them to share views at Child Protection Conferences. This referral should be made by the social worker.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) take referrals for children in our care. Some of these children, due to their experiences, may have higher levels of behavioural, emotional and mental health problems due to their lived experiences and previous trauma. Your role will be to highlight any issues of concern about a child/young person that may result in the need to refer to this service. The referral will be made by the child’s social worker. If the service is needed, you should make sure appointments are kept and work with professionals from the service.

Durham also has a service specifically for children in our care called Full Circle and as well as working with the children and young people, they offer consultation, support, advice and training to Durham foster carers.

You will work alongside the Looked After Children Nurse and other health professionals to make sure the health needs of  the child/young person in your care are met. It must be noted that children do not wish to be know as ‘LAC’ and therefore this professional’s title must not be abbreviated to (LAC). Therefore we must continue to call this practitioner by their full name Looked After Children Nurse.

The EDT service is open at night and at weekends. They operate an on-call service and will respond to you as soon as possible. If no one is available when you ring, leave a message. You must contact the police first if you feel you, your family or foster child are in any danger and do not wait for EDT. They will offer support out of normal working hours and will access or put you in contact with any support services you may need during this time.

The Adoption Team is responsible for finding adoptive families for children who cannot remain with their birth families. They will look at the child’s background, health and any special needs and find the right adoptive family. When the adoptive family is linked with a child, they have a period of introductions before the child goes to live with them. You will play an important role in supporting the child through this time and introductions. It is important that the child sees you working alongside the adoptive parents. You can also give valuable advice and support to the adoptive parents who will be feeling anxious about getting it right. Your fostering social worker will guide you through this and should be contacted if you have any concerns.

This list is not exhaustive, during your role as a foster carer you may work with other agencies and individuals to ensure the child/young person receives the support and advice they and you need. Your fostering  social worker will discuss this with you.