Assessing nominated support carers within fostering
Online seminar focusing on assessing nominated support carers within fostering
Foster carers have access to social work and other professional support to enable them to provide consistent support to children, but the reality is that every family benefits from the informal support opportunities often available through family members and friends' involvement in “family life”. This support provides a rest and a short break from caring for a child that most families need and rely on, and can also provide children with different experiences of being cared for by others who are important to the family, showing more of a holistic, inclusive experience of being part of a family.
NAFP are pleased to offer a seminar on “assessing nominated support carers”. It has become evident that there are many differing approaches to the process of considering the suitability of support networks. This is likely to be because there is no regulatory guidance on what this should look like, and it is left to the fostering service to determine its own approach to this. A fostering assessment requires there to be evidence of the type of support available to foster carers. Ecomaps are a helpful visual to highlight the differing types of support being offered, emotionally and practically.
Having access to a support network as a foster carer is crucial to ensure that there is informal support, someone to help out or “be there” when needed. This could be a friendly ear, or something more formal that involves spending time with children without foster carers being present. This is usually from extended family or close friends, and people who are usually identified in the assessment process should be considered in the matching and “placement planning” and through ongoing review.
However, due to the vulnerability of children being cared for and the expectations of caring for someone else’s children, it is essential that fostering agencies are satisfied with who the support network is, and the informal and more formal support that can be offered. Fostering services should be clear on the checks and assessments they will undertake to enable nominated support carers to have unsupervised contact and possibly short-term care of children.
Some of the areas we will consider together in this interactive seminar will include:
- Definition of nominated support networks
- Having clear policies and processes in relation to support networks
- Undertaking checks and assessment within differing stages/offers of support
- The expectations of the foster carers
- The expectations of support networks who care for children in the absence of foster carers - sharing of information, training, etc.
- The role and responsibilities of the fostering service during any care being offered by the support network
This event will be hosted on Zoom - accessibility; delegates will be emailed details of how to join a few days beforehand
