FtSE New Member News: Kasper Fostering proud Members of Fostering Through Social Enterprise5/11/2014
 Kasper Fostering is delighted to announce that we are now proud members of the Fostering through Social Enterprise consortium. As one of 14 charitable and not-for-profit fostering agencies in the UK, Kasper is thrilled to be part of a group that promotes good practice, shares ethical values and puts excellent child care before profit.
What is Fostering through Social Enterprise (FtSE)? The Fostering through Social Enterprise consortium was established in 2007. The group represents the views, perspectives and experience of 14 charitable and non-profit fostering agencies whose members provide high quality foster care over 2,000 children in care of all ages across the UK. FtSE’s aim and role FtSE’s main goal is to promote the elimination of discrimination against children in care. The consortium has a lobbying function that aims to advocate for children in respect of regulation as well as representing its membership at central government level. FtSE Charter To promote the elimination of discrimination against children in care, we will:
Source: http://www.kasperfostering.org/news/proud-members-of-fostering-through-social-enterprise/  Break is in the process of developing a new marketing strategy and as part of this have commissioned a survey from local company Zing Insights.
The survey will help Break understand why people give to charity, how they give, when they give and how they like to be contacted by the charity. Filling in the survey will only take a few minutes and will give Break valuable information to continue to maintain and develop our services to change young lives. Once completed there is an opportunity to enter a draw to win an Ipad Mini. Please click on the link to complete the survey http://bit.ly/1gdCL0W Thankyou! - See more at: http://break-charity.org/news/news-stories/how-do-you-give-to-charity/#sthash.mlZg4cAA.dpuf Source: http://break-charity.org/news/news-stories/how-do-you-give-to-charity/  Fostering and Adoption Charity TACT (The Adolescent and Children’s Trust) welcomes today’s launch of new good practice guidance on ‘Staying Put’ – a scheme which enables young people to continue living with their foster carer until the age of 21.
The new duty on local authorities to support and monitor staying put arrangements was introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014, after a concerted campaign by children’s social care charities including TACT. Local authorities now have a duty to support such arrangements, including providing social work support and financial support to the carer. TACT Interim CEO David Bradley said; ‘Many young people leaving care are particularly vulnerable as a consequence of the abuse or trauma that led to them coming into care. The consequences of this are clear in the outcomes for care leavers. It is well evidenced that care leavers are more likely to be NEET, to become young parents, to experience homeless and mental health problems, and to have contact with the criminal justice system. Staying Put offers young people a much smoother and more natural transition to adulthood and independence. It offers the kind of support and safety net that any reasonable parent would provide for their children. This guide provides welcome advice and guidance to local authorities and independent fostering agencies on how to ensure that staying put is implemented effectively. We particularly welcome the inclusion of the principle that entering into a staying put arrangement should be the norm, not the exception, and no young person should miss the opportunity to participate in staying put because the carer cannot afford to do so. We also welcome the recognition of the important role independent agencies like TACT have to play in the implementation of Staying Put, and look forward to working constructively with local authorities to ensure that every young person who wants to ‘stay put’ is able to do so, and that every carer is fully supported in their important role helping young people navigate the transition to adulthood and independence.’ Diana, young person in a TACT staying put arrangement, said; ‘I am now part of the Staying Put agenda and that has enabled me to stay put with my foster carers that I was living with before I was eighteen. This has helped me to stay on at college and to continue to reach my goals. My carers are really supportive of what I want to do. Being able to stay put has meant pretty much everything to me. If I had gone independent at eighteen I wouldn’t have lasted and would have had to go back to my parents which wouldn’t have worked out. I wouldn’t have progressed as a person and I would have had different prospects.’ Notes to Editors TACT is the UK’s largest charity and voluntary agency providing fostering and adoption services. For more information, please contact 020 8695 8142. Production of the guide has been led by The Children’s Partnership, the voluntary and community sector strategic partner to the Department for Education led by the National Children’s Bureau and 4Children, working with the support of the Fostering Network. A full list of organisations involved in developing the guidance, including TACT, can be found in the guidance. Source: http://tactcare.org.uk/news/tact-welcomes-staying-put-good-practice-guidance/  Fostering through Social Enterprise (FtSE) members meet on a quarterly basis to discuss a variety of issues relating to the welfare of children in care in the UK.
At the meeting on Monday 28 April 2014, FtSE members met with a representative from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) to discuss guidelines on recruiting foster carers who smoke. A particularly interesting conversation took place with regards to the use of electronic cigarettes. There is already some research evidence relating to the impact of e-cigarettes on health and their efficacy as a smoking cessation aid, although inevitably at this early stage the findings are inconclusive. FtSE will be listening to the debate closely and intend to be involved in the ongoing discussions to ensure the welfare of children is fully considered. Eleven children’s charities, including Fostering Through Social Enterprise, have joined together to urge Iain Duncan Smith, the minister implementing the so-called bedroom tax, and chancellor George Osborne to reconsider the decision not to exempt foster carers from under-occupancy penalties.
From April, under the Welfare Reform Act, fostered children will not be counted when assessing the number of occupants in a social housing property. This means foster carers’ properties will be deemed under-occupied, and they will have their housing benefit reduced. Although foster carers can apply to their local housing service’s Discretionary Housing Fund to make up the difference, this fund is not ring-fenced and it is now clear that this solution is extremely unlikely to work well. In an open letter to the ministers, the charities have highlighted alarming stories from foster carers around the UK, including some who have been told that they will not have access to this fund, and others who will receive only a contribution to the loss of housing benefit, rather than covering the full amount. Foster carers have also reported receiving visits and letters from the housing department saying they will have to move into smaller properties. Some foster carers have been told they will have access to the discretionary fund, but will have to reapply every four to six weeks, even though they may have children placed with them on a long-term or permanent basis. In the letter the charities said: “There is already a recruitment crisis in foster care with 9,000 new foster carers needed across the UK and the Government acknowledges and supports the urgent need to find more foster carers. These new rules will make it even more difficult for people in social housing to become foster carers at a time when we urgently need more to come forward. “The Government proposed these changes to address residential under occupancy and to provide incentives for employment. Neither of these rationales is relevant to foster carers who are required to have a spare room in order to provide homes for vulnerable children. “The Government has already made a commitment to review the situation for disabled people and we believe the applicability to foster families should also be reviewed. We urge you to look again at the rules and exempt foster carers from the new size criteria.” Following the Government’s commitment to review the situation for disabled people, the charities welcome the suggestion from Steve Webb MP in the Parliamentary debate on 27 February that a similar review could happen for foster carers. The letter was signed by:
FtSE Member, The Foster Care Co-operative, discusses their 'Fostering Young People’s Learning Project'
This five week project took place in Worcestershire in May 2012 with nine Foster Care Co-operative foster carers – eight female and one male and two trainers. Although the material was originally designed for carers with young people aged from eleven years upwards, the carers who participated in the project had children in the age range of 5 -16 years. The material was therefore amended slightly to allow for this and some information included from the previous course delivered. The project was designed to help carers support the education of children and young people in their care and to explore how they can enable them to become more confident and effective learners. It covered a range of educational issues including:
Weekly feedback from the foster carers was very positive. They enjoyed the group discussions, sharing ideas and experiences with each other and learning from others’ experiences. The targeting praise session proved to be very beneficial in building self-confidence for all age groups. Carers’ feedback regarding the paired reading showed that the technique was more successful with younger children and less fluent readers. This was borne out by our reading assessments which took place pre-project and post project, as there were some very successful results with the younger children involved, showing an increase in reading ages of up to 2.1 years and comprehension ages of up to 3.4 yrs in a seven month period. Carers with younger children reported increased interest and confidence with reading in the children they worked with and one ten year old boy won the Head Teacher’s Reading Prize at his school. What is paired reading? Paired reading is when you read with a child, with both of you reading at same time/ pace. Benefits Of Paired Reading
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