Reviewing my Approval and Making Representations
Standards and Regulations
Once you have been approved, your Supervising Social Worker will work with you to support you in caring for children placed with you. Their role also includes monitoring and helping you in your development as a carer.
Your approval as a foster carer will be reviewed annually and also at other times when the Fostering Service consider it necessary (for example if there is a significant change in your family circumstances; if there are concerns about the care being provided; or if you or the Fostering Service want to change the terms of your approval).
See: What happens when an Allegation is made against me or my family.
At any point you may give notice in writing that you wish to resign as a foster carer. In this situation, your approval will be terminated automatically 28 calendar days after the resignation notice was received by the Fostering Service, even if you decide to withdraw your resignation.
If you resign and you wish to foster again, you would normally need to go through an assessment process again.
Your Supervising Social Worker is responsible for your review of approval which takes place within 12 months of your approval and at least once a year thereafter. The purpose of the review is to determine whether you are suitable to continue to be approved as a foster carer and, if so, whether your terms of approval will stay the same. If it is proposed to terminate your approval or change the terms of your approval (called a ‘qualifying determination’) you will be notified of this in writing. If you are in agreement with any proposal to change your terms of approval you can sign to agree that the change will take place immediately.
Your Supervising Social Worker will visit you and is responsible for writing an annual review report by drawing together all relevant information. To compile the report they will:
- Send you a copy of the review report template to allow you to prepare for the review and to give your views verbally or preferably in writing;
- Talk to all carers in the household, your own children, fostered child(ren) and other significant members of the household - to find out their views;
- Consult social workers who have placed children with you within the review period and their Independent Reviewing Officers and if possible, obtain direct views from children you have fostered;
- Consider any information in relation to complaints or allegations made against you or your family;
- Review the training you have completed, and identify any future training needs;
- Complete a health and safety checklist;
- Review your family’s Safer Caring Plan;
- Identify how you meet the Fostering Training, Support and Development Standards.
A meeting, chaired by a Fostering Independent Reviewing Officer, will be held between you and your Supervising Social Worker. The meeting will bring together all the information gathered, consider your views and make a recommendation on your suitability to continue as a foster carer including whether any changes to your terms of approval are proposed.
Your Supervising Social Worker will share the final report with you and will ask you to add your views and sign it.
If you are not happy with any of the areas in the report, then you should raise this with your Supervising Social Worker or the Fostering Independent Reviewing Officer. It is helpful for the review to have your views directly in writing.
Your Supervising Social Worker will also complete at least one unannounced visit each year. This means that they can come to your house for a visit without informing you.
A Disclosure and Barring (DBS) check will also be completed for you and any adult members of your family every three years, and health checks for approved foster carers will also be updated every three years.
If it is your first review, the review report must be presented to the Fostering Panel for a recommendation and then presented to the Agency Decision Maker for a final decision on your continued approval and terms of approval. The review report will also be presented to the Fostering Panel in certain other situations, such as where significant changes to your approval or the termination of your approval are being recommended. Attending fostering panel for your review will be similar to attending panel for your approval.
Whether presented to the Fostering Panel or not, the review report will be presented to an Agency Decision Maker for a final decision as to whether you remain suitable to foster and whether your current terms of approval remain suitable. Where your review report has been presented to the Fostering Panel, the Agency Decision Maker will take into account the Panel's recommendations.
Any recommendations for change in your approval will be highlighted in the review report.
The Fostering Panel or the Independent Reviewing Officer (following the review meeting if the review does not go to Panel) will recommend whether or not your current approval terms are still appropriate. Both the annual review reports and any Panel recommendation will be sent to the Agency Decision Maker for a final decision. Their decision will be sent to you in writing.
Following a decision about continued approval, you will be asked to sign a new Foster Carers Agreement if your terms of approval have changed.
If the Fostering Service proposes in a Qualifying Determination to terminate your approval or to change your terms of approval, but you do not agree with the proposals, you have two options.
- You can contact the Fostering Service Agency Decision Maker in writing to make representations about the decision within 28 calendar days. In this case, the Fostering Panel will be asked to consider your written representations alongside the Qualifying Determination and will make a recommendation to the Agency Decision Maker;
- Alternatively, you can apply to the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM)for a review of the qualifying determination – you must do this within 28 calendar days of the date of receipt of the QD letter. The IRM provides independent panels that review the suitability to adopt or foster and other decisions made by adoption and fostering providers.
You can apply to the IRM by post or email. You must include:
- Your name, address and contact details;
- The grounds (reasons) why you disagree with the Fostering Service's determination;
- The date of your QD letter;
- The contact details of your Fostering Service, including their telephone number.
The IRM will:
- Review any proposed changes to your terms of approval;
- Make a recommendation to the Fostering Service on your suitability.
The IRM will not:
- Make a final decision about your case; this is done by the Agency Decision Maker;
- Deal with complaints against the Fostering Service – these should be made through your Fostering Service complaints procedure.
Click here to see Prepare for a review panel: adopters and foster carers.
When a foster carer has submitted a written representation to either the Fostering Service or the IRM, the Agency Decision Maker for the Fostering Service must make a final decision taking into account any recommendation made by the Fostering Panel or any recommendation of the IRM. The final decision will be communicated to the foster carer as soon as possible and will confirm either:
- That the foster carer continues to be suitable, and that the terms of the approval continue to be appropriate;
- That the foster carer's approval is terminated from a specified date, and the reasons for the termination; or
- That the foster carer continues to be suitable with revised terms of the approval and the reasons for the revision.
The only circumstance where you are not able to ask for a review by the Independent Review Mechanism is if you are disqualified or have been cautioned for an offence.
Last Updated: October 31, 2022
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