My Placement may be Breaking Down

Placements ending in an unplanned way nearly always leave all concerned feeling bad. Your Supervising Social Worker will want to work with you to make sure that everything is done to support you with children and young people living with you and to manage difficulties. When you are struggling, use your support mechanisms to help you to find a way forward.

If you do, you should ask your Supervising Social Worker to arrange a fostering support meeting.

This should be used for all foster placements including Regulation 24 and Connected Person.

The meeting will look at the child's Care Plan and Statutory Review documents. You will be invited to attend the meeting.

The meeting will be chaired by the Fostering Team Manager or Principal Practitioner or Supervising Social Worker and a record made of what will be said and sent to all those that attend.

Your Supervising Social Worker will speak to you before the meeting to identify the difficulties and will make notes which will help the meeting.

If your Supervising Social Worker has any concerns about your care of the child/ren, then they will talk to you about this before the meeting, so that nothing is a surprise.

You will be provided with any information and what the Supervising Social Worker is proposing for the meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is to:

• Talk about your concerns and anyone else's;
• Consider any assessments;
• Assess if child's needs in the Care Plan are being met and what if anything is still outstanding;
• Identify what additional support is required and who will provide the support;
• Consider extra visits by your Supervising Social Worker or the child's Social Worker;
• Consider support groups or mentor foster carers;
• Financial and practical support may be needed. The Local Authority will work towards meeting requests in a fair and consistent way. If you are not happy it will go firstly to the Service Manager and then the Complaints procedure may be used particularly where there is no final agreement on financial support.

A fostering support plan should be drawn up detailing actions to be taken with clear responsibilities and timescales identified

The meeting may recommend a further assessment being carried out. The fostering support meeting should meet again following the reassessment.

The Fostering Support Plan should be subject to regular review and updated by your Supervising Social Worker.

Fostering Disruption Meetings

Disruptions in a foster placement are when the placement has had an unplanned ending.

In most cases where an unplanned ending takes place the Fostering Service will be aware of the situation as a Fostering Support Plan should be in place and a fostering support meeting will have happened.

It may be that the plans have changed during the placement, because of changing circumstances. So not all placements which end differently to what was originally planned will be considered a disruption.

A Disruption Meeting chaired by the Fostering Team Manager should be held for every disrupted placement.

A Disruption Meeting will be held as soon as possible after the disruption has taken place. Your Supervising Social Worker will arrange the disruption meeting. The meeting must be held within one month of the placement ending.

The Fostering Service may look at whether you should be put on "hold" from taking any further placements until this meeting has taken place.

A Disruption Meeting will not be held whilst an investigation into an allegation or complaint is going on.

The paperwork for the Disruption Meetings will be sent out before the meeting.

You should bring all relevant information with you to the meeting.

The Disruption Meeting will look at:

• What led to the disruption;
• Why the child is in care, their current needs;
• What support the foster family will need to cope with the disruption;
• Why was this particular placement chosen;
• Any cultural issues;
• How you were supported and prepared;
• Your assessment;
• Introductions;
• What could have made the placement work;
• What might solve the issues;
• What are the best placements support and training needs for foster carers;
• Put together a plan for the child based on what the meeting has found out;
• Learn lessons for all parties.

Who will be invited to attend the Disruption Meeting:

• The child or someone to represent their views, e.g. the Children's Rights Officer;
• You and your Supervising Social Worker;
• The child's Social Worker and, if possible, their Manager;
• The Chair -Fostering Team Manager or Principal Practitioner;
• Any other professionals closely involved with the placement, e.g. N.S.P.C.C. therapist, S.T.E.P.S.

Birth parents don't normally attend but if appropriate, the child's Social Worker will ask their views and bring those views to the meeting.

The Disruption Meeting may last for two hours. The Chair will write a report which will include clear recommendations.

The report must address:

• Changes to your terms of approval;
• The need for a foster carers review;
• Whether a report is needed for the Fostering panel.

The Fostering Team Manager will send a copy of the report to Fostering Service Manager within 7 working days after the meeting.

They will use any information to improve services and how people work.

See Fostering Support Plan Template which can be accessed via Forms and Records.