What happens now I am approved?

Congratulations, now you have been approved as a foster carer you will be allocated a Supervising Social Worker from the Fostering Service. They will have a handover from your assessing social worker and make sure you have all the information and support needed to offer the best possible home to children and young people.

Your approval as a foster carer will be regularly reviewed, see Reviewing my Approval and Making Representations.

You will be required to enter into a Foster Care Agreement with the fostering service.

• Providing a safe and caring family environment for the child/young person;
• Supporting and meeting the health needs of the child/young person;
• Ensuring a child/young person’s attendance at educational settings including nursery, school, college and any placement. Encouraging them to learn and help them with their homework;
• Contributing to life story work while a child is in placement with you;
• Supporting and, if appropriate, facilitating contact with a child’s birth family and significant others, including transporting them and providing emotional and practical support;
• Supporting and, if appropriate, facilitating the transition between a fostering placement and an adoptive/other placement;
• Establishing routine, clear boundaries and having an understanding of issues that impact the child/young person;
• Supporting and promoting the child’s development so they can achieve their full potential and have the best life chances, including helping them learn new skills;
• Consider the child’s history, identity and achievements;
• Working in an anti-discriminatory way, supporting the child if they are suffering any types of discrimination or bullying;
• Advocating for the child in line with their wishes and ensuring their voice is heard;
• Preparing the child/young person for independence.

You need to prepare to welcome a child to your home. During the assessment, you should have discussed your accommodation and the suitability of the child’s room with your assessing social worker, including undertaking a health and safety check. To prepare for a child coming to live with you, you should ensure you have made arrangements to:

• Obtain essential safety equipment such as stair gates, socket covers, and completed any outstanding actions from the health and safety check;
• Obtain appropriate equipment for the age range of child you are approved for, such as car seats, pushchairs/travel systems, beds/cots, and baby equipment;
• Ensure you have internet access and a computer/tablet to support a child/young person with education, leisure, and staying in touch.

When a child comes to live with you, they will appreciate:

• A welcome pack of toiletries (and sanitary products if appropriate)
• Towels and flannels
• A water bottle or similar that they can keep in their room
• A welcome toy or mascot
• A place where they can display or keep family photos or important mementos;
• Essential written information (as appropriate to age and understanding) about life in the first few days, such as mealtimes, house routines, and rules, what to do if they have questions, what to do if they are hungry, thirsty, in pain, need the toilet, are worried etc.

A social worker from the Fostering Service or a colleague from the Gateway to Resources team will contact you when looking for a placement for a child/young person in your approval category. When they do, you need to be sure that the child/young person will be best placed with you and your family.

It will be useful to prepare a list of questions that you may want to ask when they call. If you are unsure about how you can meet a child’s needs, you must discuss this with the Fostering Service.

You may want to ask:

1. The social worker's name, and how to contact them, including the Team Manager’s details and the Quadrant;
2. The child's name, age, how they identify in relation to gender, ethnic origin, religion;
3. What are the child's interests, talents, and strengths?
4. Does the child have any special dietary, cultural, or linguistic needs, allergies, and intolerances, including for babies, what formula they take;
5. The child's legal status;
6. A general picture of the family situation, including key people in their family, and why they need foster care at this time;
7. What are the contact/family time arrangements and what is the expectations of support from the foster carer?
8. How is the child’s health, do they have any allergies or medical problems, specific equipment or are they currently on medication, do they have any specific health care plan;
9. Are they at school, nursery, or alternative education provision.? Are there any known issues; what are the plans for them to get to school?
10. Does the child have any additional communication needs?
11. Any there any identified behavioural needs?
12. Are there any known risks from or to the child, e.g. aggressive or sexualised behaviour; has a safety plan or risk assessment been completed and how would any potential risks to the fostering household be managed?
13. Who will bring the child and with what clothes and belongings?
14. By what date will you have full information about the child?

You need as much information as possible about a child/young person before they come into your home so that you can care for the child safely and appropriately.

You should receive written information before the placement from the child’s social worker, including their care plan, referral document, and safety plan/risk assessment. Occasionally, for example in emergencies, there can be a delay, but this should be no longer than 5 days and you should discuss at the placement planning meeting if items are outstanding. You should also receive essential documents such as a passport, birth certificate, red book, or E-Redbook.

The child’s Care Plan provides information of the overall work that must be undertaken to meet the needs of the child/young person. It is the social worker of the child or children who holds responsibility for specific advice or support in relation to the child and their Care Plan and Placement Plan.

The Care Plan usually includes:

• The child's Placement Plan (setting out why the type of care was chosen and how the foster home will contribute to meeting the child's needs);
• The Permanence Plan (setting out the long-term plans for the child's upbringing including timescales);
• The Pathway Plan (where appropriate, for young people leaving care);
• The child’s health needs and actions from the Health Plan;
• The child’s health needs and actions from the Personal Education Plan;
• The contingency plan;
• The child’s legal status and key information about those with parental responsibility;
• The plans for contact/family time;
• The date of the child's first Looked After Review (within 20 working days);
• The name of the Independent Reviewing Officer.

The Supervising Social Worker, you, the child/young person, family members and the child’s social worker will put together the Placement Plan. This is completed either on the day or within five working days of the child coming to live with you.

The Placement Plan covers:

• Why the child has come to live with you;
• Any agreements about health or educational needs;
• The child’s personal history;
• The child’s likes/dislikes;
• The expectations of the child while they live with you, including house rules, and how the child will be supported to have positive behaviour and experiences;
• Agreements for contact and family time between the child/young person, family or relevant individuals;
• When social work visits to the child and you will happen and any review meetings;
• Any arrangements for delegated authority.

See Understanding Placement Plans and Looked After Reviews. 

Surrey User Voice provide online information for children who have become looked after. This information helps children and young people understand about foster care and provides information that may be important to them. It will tell them about their rights and how they can contact people such as their Independent Reviewing Officer, Children’s Commissioner, or Ofsted if they wish to raise a concern. It will also explain the information, which is kept on them and why, including who it might be shared with, and their right to access their case file.

You should go through the information with the child/young person in a way that they can understand.

If the child needs the information in another format such as in another language or Makaton the Fostering Service should provide it.