Children and Young People's Services
Children’s Placements Service
Fostering for Bexley
London Borough of Bexley Social Care staff make every effort to help families
look after their own children. In a small number of cases though it becomes
necessary for a child to live away from their parents, on either a temporary,
or permanent basis.
All work carried out by the Children's Placements Service in Bexley
is in accordance with the Children Act 1989. The Act makes it clear that
the welfare of children is paramount and that where possible social services
should help parents to bring up their children in their own homes.
Bexley Children’s Placements Service looks after the interests
of children and young people who need to spend a period of time living
away from home.
The Children's Placements service is managed by a Unit manager and Practice
manager.
There are 2 senior social workers, 3 full-time social workers, 4 part-time
social workers and 2 social work assistants who are responsible for the recruitment,
assessment, training and support of foster carers.
Bexley’s Children’s Placements Service also has a dedicated duty
team which compromises of a senior social worker and 2 full-time social workers.
The duty team responds on a daily basis to the Free phone fostering enquiries
and identifies suitable placements for children coming in to care.
Children and young people who need to spend time away from home, need a
loving and caring place to go. Bexley Children’s Placements Service
is trying to increase the number of carers in Bexley to enable them to place
children and young people with carers who live where they can keep going
to the same school, see their friends and relatives, and offer them security.
Why does Bexley need Foster Carers?
On any one day, more than 45,000 children and young people are living with
foster families in the UK. Many more move in and out of foster homes during
the year.
In order to provide these children with the highest standards of care, each
one should be able to live with a foster carer carefully chosen to meet their
specific needs.
This applies in Bexley and in other boroughs up and down the country. To
achieve this Bexley needs a pool of highly-skilled and well-trained foster
carers from a wide range of backgrounds.
As a parent or single person, you’ll be amazed how qualified
you already are to become a first class foster
carer.
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What is Foster Care and how does it differ from Adoption?
Fostering for Bexley is a way of offering local children and young people
a home while their own parents are unable to look after them. This is often
a temporary arrangement and many fostered children return to their own families.
With adoption, the adopters become the legal parents of the child.
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Why do children need Fostering?
Foster Carers look after children so that their families have a chance to
sort out their problems. These can range from short-term illness to depression
or drug or alcohol abuse. Some children may have been abused or neglected.
Our social workers work with families to help them sort out problems and
make their homes a safe place for a child – with the aim that the children
and their parents can be reunited.
The children live locally and come from many walks of life and from many
diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. They are often brothers
and sisters who we always strive to keep together.
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Who can become a Foster Carer?
Anyone can become a foster carer as long as they have what it takes to care
for children who are separated from their own families.
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Are there different types of fostering?
Types of foster care include:
- Emergency – where children
need somewhere safe to stay for a few nights
- Short-term – where
carers look after children for a few weeks or months, while plans are
made for the child’s future
- Short-breaks – where
disabled children or children with special needs or behavioural difficulties
enjoy a short stay on a pre-planned, regular basis with a new family, and
their parents or usual foster carers have a short break themselves
- Remand fostering – where
young people in England or Wales are ‘remanded’ by the court
to the care of specially trained foster carers.
- Long-term - not all children
who cannot return to their own families want to be adopted, especially
older children or those who continue to have regular contact with relatives.
These children live with long-term foster carers until they reach adulthood
and are ready to live independently
- "Family and friends" or "kinship" fostering -
where children who are looked after by a local authority are cared for
by people they already know. This can be very beneficial for children,
and is called "family and friends" or "kinship" fostering.
If they are not looked after by the local authority, children can live with
their aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters or grandparents without outside involvement
- Private fostering - where the parents
make an arrangement for the child to stay with someone else who is not
a close relative and has no parental responsibilities, and the child stays
with that person (the private foster carer) for more than 27 days.
Although this is a private arrangement there are special rules about how
the child is looked after. The local authority must be told about the arrangements
and visit to check on the child's welfare.
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What do foster carers do?
The foster carer's role is to provide high quality care for the child.
All children in foster care will be looked after by a local authority and
the foster carers will work in partnership with the local authority to provide
this.
The foster carers may also work with other professionals such as therapists,
teachers or doctors to help the child to deal with emotional traumas
or physical or learning disabilities.
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What kind of people become foster carers?
It is best for children to live with foster carers who reflect and understand
the child's heritage, ethnic origin, culture and language, and fostering
agencies need carers from all types of backgrounds.
People do not need
to be married to become a foster family - they can also be single, divorced
or cohabiting. Gay men and lesbians can become foster carers.
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How are foster carers recruited?
Bexley often recruits new carers through publicity
campaigns  (707KB, pdf file) or
newspaper or radio advertisements.
If you are interested in becoming a foster carer please contact
us at adoptionandfostering@bexley.gov.uk
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What preparation and training do foster carers get?
People who want to become foster carers need to go through thorough preparation
and assessment.
They attend groups where they learn about the needs of children coming
into foster care.
Alongside this, they receive visits from a social worker.
The social worker will then prepare a report that is presented to Bexley
Council’s Fostering Panel. This compromises of independent members,
social workers and elected members. The Panel recommends whether
this person/family can become foster carers.
Training does not stop when a person becomes a foster carer. All
carers have an annual review and any training that's needed to
ensure they are suitable to continue fostering.
Some carers also take a national qualification such as an NVQ
level 3 Caring for Children and Young People (or an SVQ in Scotland).
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Are foster carers paid?
Allowances
All foster carers receive an allowance to cover the cost
of caring for a child in their home. In Bexley, this is a generous allowance
and above the national minimum allowance.
For foster carers working on behalf of an agency, this is set by
the individual fostering agency, and is usually dependent on the
age of the looked after child.
Fees
Increasingly, fostering is being seen as a "professional" role
and many local authorities, voluntary and independent fostering
agencies run schemes, which pay foster carers a fee. This may be linked to
the child's particular needs but is often a reflection of the skills, abilities,
length of experience or professional expertise the foster carer has.
Tax relief
The introduction of tax relief in 2003 means that foster carers
in the UK do not pay tax on their income from fostering, up to
a maximum of £10,000
plus allowances.
National Insurance contributions
Since April 2003, foster carers have also been entitled to
Home Responsibility Protection - a way to make sure that you
do not get less Basic Retirement Pension just because you have
stayed at home to look after a child.
I
don't want to be a foster carer, is there any other way I can help? (33KB, pdf file)
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