Social Work and Foster Care. Helen Cosis Brown
People
Unlike Wales (All Wales Child Protection Procedures Review Group, 2011), England does not currently have Department of Education Guidance on working with separated children. However, we do have the House of Lords, House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights’ first report of the 2013–2014 session (2013). This report addresses the human rights of unaccompanied migrant children and young people in the UK, and is therefore pertinent for foster carers and social workers working with separated children.
Sufficiency Statutory Guidance on Securing Sufficient Accommodation for Looked after Children
The Department for Children, Schools and Families published this Guidance in 2010 (Department for Children Schools and Families, 2010b) with the intention of making sure that local authorities had enough placements in their locality to meet the needs of children they looked after. This has remained an area of difficulty, hence the Department of Education returning to the thorny issue of commissioning foster placements in their improving foster care agenda in 2013.
Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care
The Department of Education published Guidance in 2012 about the TSDS for ‘general’ foster carers (Department of Education, 2012b), family and friends foster carers (Department of Education, 2012c), short breaks foster carers (Department of Education, 2012d) and support foster carers (Department of Education, 2012e). These Standards complement the NMS (Department of Education, 2011a) but are specific to training, support and development of foster carers. There are seven Standards that foster carers have to meet within the first year of their approval.
Additional Relevant Guidance
All Guidance associated with children who are looked after will also be relevant to foster carers and their SSWs. Such Guidance includes: Promoting the Educational Achievement of Looked After Children (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2010c); Promoting the Health and Well-Being of Looked After Children (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2009); Guidance for Independent Reviewing Officers and Local Authorities on Their Functions in Relation to Case Management and Review (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2010d) and Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter-agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children (HM Government, 2013b).
The Foster Carers' Charter
I end this chapter with the Foster Carers’ Charter (Department of Education, 2011c), which is neither Guidance nor Regulation, but is included here as an important document devised by a number of organisations, and published by the Department of Education to signal the Government's goal to raise the status of foster carers, and foster care, and thus the life chances of fostered children. Tim Loughton, the Children's Minister at the time of the Charter's publication, in the Charter's foreword notes the interrelatedness of the role of foster carers and the outcomes for foster children when he writes:
It is essential therefore that foster carers are at the heart of arrangements for looked after children and must be fully engaged, supported and consulted at every stage. Without understanding how important the role of a foster carer is and what they can expect from others, it is so much harder to do the best for these children and young people. At the same time everyone needs to be focused on what is best for the most important people of all – the children in their care.
(Department of Education, 2011c, foreword)
Fostering services, responsible for the supervision and support of foster carers, have a key role in helping foster carers be equipped to care for foster children in such a way that helps contribute to them having happy enough childhoods and potentially fulfilled lives.
Chapter Summary
England's legal framework for foster care establishes the minimum requirements below which social work and foster care practice cannot fall. The UKNSFC (UK Joint Working Party on Foster Care, 1999a) still offers a best practice framework which, although dated and not legally binding, complements the existing policy, Standards, Regulations and Guidance.
Legal frameworks have to be understood and adhered to, but should be treated as the bare minimum, not the inspirational goal of practice. Best practice involves abiding by the letter of the law, but also developing practice that more than meets the basic legal requirements.
As well as abiding by primary and secondary legislation and policy directives we need to learn from the relevant findings of childcare inquiries, involving foster carers, to make sure we take note of their findings and recommendations to improve social work and foster care practice (Chapter 3).
Further Reading
Lawson D (2011a). Fostering Regulations, Guidance and NMS 2011 (England). London: The Fostering Network.
Lawson D (2011b). A Foster Care Handbook for Supervising Social Workers (England). London: The Fostering Network.
Lawson D (2011c). Family and Friends Foster Care: Information for Foster Carers (England). London: The Fostering Network.
Together these three publications provide a comprehensive basis for understanding the legal framework for foster care up to 2011, and the role of the SSW.
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