Once approved as a foster carer, a child will be matched to your care. It can be an exciting time for foster carers but also a daunting one, particularly if this is a first time.
Focusing upon the needs of the child(ren) is key, and good communication with your fostering service is vital to help you establish how you can meet the needs of the child.
It may help to have spare toiletries/nappies/PJs or other essentials suitable for children in your age range ready, particularly if you are approved as an emergency/short term foster carer who could be approached during the night.
It may be helpful to have a list of questions to hand to try to find out as much information about the child(ren) as possible, to help make an informed decision with the fostering service about how you are able to meet the needs of the child(ren).
This could include:
This list is not exhaustive and in an emergency there may be limited information available. The matching should consider the needs of the child and the suitability of the foster carer(s) and the foster carer’s household, to meet those needs taking into account other children in the home and/or the foster carer's own children.
Foster carers should not feel pressurised, and need to understand how their fostering service will undertake matching children to fostering households.
The National Minimum Standards 2011 states:
“Each foster carer is aware of all the necessary information available to the fostering service about a child’s circumstances, including any significant recent events, to help the foster carer understand, predict and support the child’s needs and behaviours within their household. The fostering service follows up with the responsible authority if all such information has not been provided by the authority” (NMS 3.9).
In the case of a planned moved for a child in care, a planning meeting will take place before the child comes to live with you, involving social workers, foster carer and parents, to complete the Plan. In an emergency situation the meeting should take place within 5 working days. The Plan should include details of any delegated responsibility to the foster carer to make day to day decisions for the child.
It also addresses the purpose of fostering the child (e.g. if that is for a short or longer term), arrangements for education/training, the child’s personal/cultural history, their likes and dislikes, arrangements for health and any arrangements for consent, the expectations in regard to behaviour and behaviour management, contact/family time arrangements, frequency of social work visits, etc.
The Care plan should be completed before a first placement or within 10 working days of a child coming into care.
