Support and Supervision

As a foster carer you will be well supported to ensure that plans for children in your care remain in their best interests. You are an important part of the team around the child, who will also support you. You will be actively involved in planning for the children in your care, and your views are valued by the fostering service and the children’s social work team and will help to positively influence a child’s progress.

You will face many challenges when you become a foster carer and you will also feel very rewarded when you see a child in your care progress in a positive way. Once approved you will be allocated a Supervising Social Worker who will meet with you and your Assessing Social Worker to have a handover. The primary task of the Supervising Social Worker is to supervise and support you to enable you to carry out your role as a foster carer. The support you receive from your Supervising Social Worker is also designed to help you to cope with the additional demands of fostering on your family life.

You will receive regular and effective supervision that is focused on children’s experiences, needs, plans and feedback. The overall aim of supervision is to safeguard and promote the well-being of looked after children living with you in order that they can achieve their full potential.  Supervision is an important part of practice and as foster carers it is considered a key part of your training and development and an opportunity to reflect and learn from fostering experiences. Supervision also allows you time to consider complex dilemmas and give you space to think through and share strategies and ways of helping a child in your care with your Supervising Social Worker. It can also be supportive to other people in your household, such as your own children.

The Supervising Social Worker will ensure you have the necessary guidance including an understanding about working within the National Minimum Standards for Fostering and all the fostering service's policies, procedures and guidance.

The Supervising Social Worker will also work closely with the child's social worker.

There will also be a number of other places you can get support from including:

• The child's social worker;
• Other foster carers including the Surrey County Fostering Association;
• Foster Carers’ Support Groups, including targeted Support Groups arranged by the fostering service. Some activity may count towards Training Support and Development Standards evidence;
• An allocated buddy, who is an experienced foster carer;
• Other professionals;
• Out of Hours advice.

Details of support and resources are available on the Surrey Fostering Online Community SharePoint pages.

It is the social worker for the child/young person in the foster home who holds responsibility for specific advice or support for the child and their Care Plan and Placement Plan.

Frequency of supervision meetings will be agreed between you and your Supervising Social Worker and as appears necessary in the interest of the children placed with you. This will usually be at least every six weeks. Visits may be more or less frequent depending on your level of experience, the support you require and the stability of arrangements for the child in your care.  Your allocated Supervising Social Worker will agree times and dates. Each session will be documented and you should agree notes and receive a copy. Supervision is for all approved foster carers in the household, including those who may take a less active role in fostering tasks.

You will sign a supervision agreement that outlines your agreement, and this is stored on your electronic record. You should receive a hard-copy of this for your own records.

Supervision should be seen as a two-way process to:

• Ensure you are taking into account the child's wishes and feelings and promoting their welfare;
• Ensure you have the opportunity to discuss any issues you have;
• Help you to identify possible solutions to any issues or support you may need;
• Discuss the impact of fostering on your own children;
• Ensure you understand how you contribute to the council’s services for children;
• Give you feedback on your work to make sure you have the right skills and competencies;
• Ensure you are accessing relevant training and resources and are working towards achieving the Training, Support and Development Standards within a year of approval or undertaking mandatory and identified training in line with your Personal Development plan;
• Ensure you are working within the National Minimum Standards for fostering;
• Sort out any financial or practical issues and provide advice and strategies as appropriate;
• Keep you updated about new policies, procedures, training and good practice;
• Review progress against actions or issues discussed in previous supervisions or at annual reviews;
• Take an overview of how you are contributing to the child’s plan or actions identified for the child, for example in a child in care review, Education Health and Care Plan, Personal Education Plan review.

The supervision meetings will be an important part of collecting information for your annual review as a foster carer. The supervision session will be confidential; however, the Supervising Social Worker will agree with you any relevant information they will discuss with the child's social worker, or other professionals working with the child or family.

As a foster carer, you are seen as a valued and trusted colleague and treated as a professional, and both you and the Supervising Social Worker are expected to work within a framework of respect, honesty and trust.

Supervision helps you to evidence how you are developing, how you are meeting the National Minimum Standards and how you are providing an appropriate home and care for the child/young person.

If you are not happy in any way with the arrangement or content of supervision, speak in the first instance, to your Supervising Social Worker or a manager from the Fostering Service.

Your Supervising Social Worker (or in their absence a qualified duty worker) will do at least one unannounced visit per year. The main purpose of the unannounced visit will be to look at the home environment that a child is living in, and they will check:

• Who is in the home?
• Who is looking after the child?
• If the foster carer is not at home, what arrangements have been made for the care of the child.

If the foster carers are not at home, the supervising social worker should leave a note for the foster carers to say that s/he has visited. If the foster carers are not at home but the child is present and being looked after by someone else, the social worker should check the identity of that person but should not continue with the visit.

Unannounced visits should be recorded, and carers will receive a copy.

There should not ordinarily be a regular programme of unannounced visits without reason unless for example, a foster carer is being closely monitored. In such an event the reason for such will be explained to the foster carer.

Information about what support will be available from the Fostering Service outside office hours, including the contact details is held on the SharePoint site.

Your Supervising Social Worker should ensure the following tasks are done:

After Approval

1. Ensure you complete the induction programme and that your support, development, and training needs are assessed and jointly agreed in a Personal Development Plan. This will assist with planning how you will meet the standards and achieve the Training, Support and Development Standards certificate of completion by your first annual review, or soon after if extra support is required;
2. Give the Foster Care Agreement to you: 2 copies to be signed and one returned and placed on your file;
3. Give the Fostering Charter to you;
4. Confirm your Surrey County Fostering Association membership preference;
5. Ensure you have details about Fostering Network membership;
6. Arrange permission for you to access SharePoint, and confirm log-in details to the foster carers training platforms;
7. Ensure you are provided with a Surrey Council Foster Carer identity card;
8. Ensure you have provided a Family Profile document;
9.  Complete a supervision agreement with you.

Before a Child comes to live with you

10. Complete 
11. risk assessments surrounding bedroom sharing (each child over 3 has their own bedroom or, where this is not possible, the sharing of the bedroom has been agreed by the child’s social worker), mixing with other children in the home, etc.
12. Discuss and check equipment (especially in the child’s bedroom) and ensure it is appropriate to the age of the child to be placed;
13. Take part in discussions about potential children requiring foster care and planning meetings;
14. Ensure that the child's social worker gives you full information about children, including their history, including trauma, their needs, essential risk and safety information and the reason for the child needing care;
15. Discuss contact/family time with birth parents and family members;
16. Discuss how the child’s health needs are promoted and how children should be encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle;
17. Support you with any specialist issues for children with additional needs, for example, support in completing applications for relevant entitlements etc.
18. Help you in liaising with services such as health and education;
19. Help you with training needs for safer care practice, including skills to care for children who have been abused or training on issues affecting disabled children;
20. Discuss financial issues with you: allowances, pocket money, leisure activities, toiletries and travelling and the importance of your insurance policy;
21. Find out about holiday plans you have made, and whether the child is going with you? If not, the child’s social worker must be informed so alternative arrangements can be made;
22. Exchange contact numbers with all relevant members of the family, including out-of-hours support;
23. Ensure that arrangements are made for the provision of specialist equipment for children;
24. Set a date for a first visit after a child is placed with you.

Whilst a child is living with you

25. Check and follow up on all issues raised during the placement planning. Discuss any concerns with you and identify and ensure appropriate support is provided straight away rather than waiting for reviews;
26. On an ongoing basis, provide you with a safe space to talk about any issues or concerns you may be experiencing. If your Supervising Social Worker has any concerns, and  feels you would benefit extra support, they will not wait until supervision meetings or reviews but deal with any issues as they arise;
27. Be involved in interviews if allegations are made against you including taking part in any Strategy Meetings and Section 47 Enquiry relating to your foster family.  Identify and refer for support services to you as agreed;
28. Ensure you receive invitations to a child’s Looked After Reviews and Child Protection Conferences, and attend when appropriate;
29. Prepare for and attend your Annual Review meetings including ensuring you are prepared and have contributed to the process;
30. Ensure the training programme is updated and essential training accessed by you and your family (including completion of mandatory courses for all approved foster carers) and identified support provided to your children;
31. Visit regularly, including joint visits with the child’s social worker periodically;
32. Make unannounced visits as required;
33. Update Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks on members of your family every three years, including those reaching 18, and other persons who come to live at the home, who are 18 or over;
34. Update medical checks every 3 years or as necessary;
35. Record all contact with you;
36. Assess and review any health and safety issues within the fostering household including the addition of any new pets and the environment in which they are kept;
37. Assess and review safe caring policies in conjunction with the child’s social worker
38. Provide reports for panel as required under the relevant procedures;
39. Where appropriate contribute to Court Reports as agreed with the child's social worker;
40. Discuss how you can support young people into adulthood, if appropriate;
41. Organise and contribute to any placement stability meeting if required.

When a child leaves your care

42. Support your family in what can be a difficult time and support you with readjustment to a new life rhythm;
43. Discuss with you and your family all the issues that have led to any unplanned end to a child’s time with you and identify any reflective opportunities for the service and for your family;
44. Support you to complete an end of placement report;
45. Make arrangements with you for a child to receive their belongings if they were not able to take them all when they left your home;
46. Contribute to Placement Disruption Meetings as required.