Fostering News: Useful fostering resources to help social workers

Our fostering survey this week has revealed foster carers want more support from, and communication with, children's social workers, while social workers would like more time to build positive relationships with foster parents and young people in foster care. It highlighted the complexities of managing professional relationships when everyone is under pressure.

If you're a children's social worker, or a fostering social worker supervising foster carers, you might find the following tips and resources helpful.

Tips from foster carers: Five things social workers can do to help carers:

• Give foster carers as much information about the child as possible at the beginning of a placement

• Provide carers with consultation documents for reviews ahead of time so an agenda can be set that reflects the child's current needs

• Ensure foster carers' views about permanency for the child are listened to and respected

• When foster carers tell their social worker they are planning to go on holiday abroad, please do not leave passport applications for the fostered child until the last minute. The same is true for respite requests

• Make it a priority, or even a team policy, to respond to carers' phone calls and emails within 48 hours

And here are some guides from our sister site Inform, on everything from legal changes to foster carers wishing to make the transition to adoption.

• Guide to the recruitment and retention of foster carers 
• Guide to foster Care Placements
• Guide to the April 2011 changes to fostering regulation and activity 
• Guide to April 2011 reforms to care planning and placements
• Guide to foster carers wishing to make the transition to adoption 
• Guide to when family and friendship carers have the right to be paid as foster carers (Picture: Rex)

Source: www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/childrens-services-blog/2012/07/top-fostering-tips-and-resources-for-social-workers.html