What better way to find out about local authority fostering, and how the child is at the centre of everything, than by hearing from two of our fantastic foster carers!?
Catherine and Alan have been foster carers for years, but decided to transfer from an independent fostering agency to us, foster wales RCT. They foster a boy long term, meaning that the child has become a crucial member of their family, and will remain with them into adulthood.
This blog will focus on Catherine and Alan’s fostering experiences, covering the following topics:
- What was the process of transferring from an independent fostering agency, to local authority fostering like for you?
- Could you share a bit about the support you’ve received whilst fostering with RCT local authority?
- What it might be like for someone to foster with their local authority?
- What are your relationships with local authority staff like?
- What has life been like for the foster child in your care?
(If you’re short on time, we’d recommend reading the last point and coming back to read the rest!)
what was the process of transferring from an independent fostering agency, to local authority fostering like for you?
The transfer process was easy, even having to re-complete the form F*, most of the information was used with us just having to confirm things. The whole process didn’t take that long.
Everyone through the process was so nice and friendly which helped. Transferring was the best experience for us, the LA (local authority) and everyone we have had as our Supervising Social Worker even before transferring was so friendly and professional this made the decision to transfer an easy one!
With local authority fostering, the child is at the centre of everything, with an emphasis on ‘family’ and for us this is important. Due to the nature of our fostering journey, and the child we have with us, we’ve been given the space in the main part to be a ‘regular blended family’. We foster long-term and our child will be remain with us until adulthood and beyond. So the local authority help us to feel that he is very much ours, but we know that support is just a phone call away if we need it at any time.
Because we both work, online training is amazing for us, and we are allowed to do it this way without always having to attend face-to-face training.
*a Form F is a generic assessment tool where you’ll work with your assessing social worker to put together all the information for your assessment and approval – all fostering services have to adhere to this.
could you share a bit about the support you’ve received whilst fostering with RCT local authority?
We have amazing support from Children’s Social Worker (CSW), Supervising Social Worker (SSW), Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO).
We get invited to lots of events and it is respected if we are unable to attend due to work commitments. There isn’t any judgement for not attending.
There is a closed Facebook group and it’s great for carers to share ideas, support/help each other, and get updates from the fostering service.
what it might be like for someone to foster with their local authority?
Support has been amazing from everyone.
A major positive for us is that we work the birth family continuously and include them as part of our own family, we promote this as a blended family, and it works to help our child feel included and shows there is no divide with families working against each other.
We are allowed to make our own decisions regarding the care of our child as long as we can explain reasoning if needed. It is evident because of this that the child is centre to everything, and that money plays no factor with the local authority.
what are your relationships with local authority staff like?
We have been so lucky to have had brilliant support from both the CSW and our SSW. Although there have been a few, each one has made the effort to get to know my child and to find out what is important to him and include him as being like any other child. The IRO has been a constant for us, who again is brilliant.
what has life been like for the foster child in your care?
Our child has been with us for 10 years, since the age of 6.
He was pretty much written off by numerous schools and only accessed lessons in year 10 at the age of 14, so him doing any exams were only a dream. However, the school he finally settled in allowed him to take the lead with his learning. With the same routines and boundaries put in place at home, and a great relationship between our home and his final school, in just 2 years he was able to pass his GCSE’s with 1A, 3Bs, 1C and achieved a Head Teacher’s Award!
His words were “if only I knew it was going to be this easy, I would have tried harder sooner”. A typical response of his unique, sarcastic, lovable and rogue humour!
He couldn’t attend school prom, it would have been too much for him, so we did one in the garden and involved his birth family.
Our child will stay with us for ever, he is an integral part of our family and I can’t image life without him.
if you’ve been considering fostering, why not take the first step?
We have information sessions and pop-ups if you’d like to learn a little more, or you can contact us here.
If you reside outside of RCT, visit the foster wales website to find your local authority fostering service.
