Foster Carer's Handbook

Foster care means looking after someone else’s child in your home and working closely with their family. This is a difficult and demanding job which requires an ever increasing level of skill and responsibility. The following sections outline our various services.

This is the Brighton & Hove Pledge to children and young people in care and to care leavers.

Brighton and Hove City Council is committed to providing a high quality fostering service. The Statement of Purpose will detail the aims and objectives of the service, quality assurance mechanisms, and the range of services provided to children, prospective carers and foster carers including family and friends carers.

Brighton & Hove City Council’s Equalities & Inclusion Policy 2008 – 2011

Every possible step will be taken to ensure that carers and potential carers are all treated equally and fairly and that all decisions including those on recruitment, approval, training and development, are based solely on related standards, policies and regulations. Through this the Trust ensures the most effective use of what carers have to offer looked after children.

Identity is important for all children but is particularly crucial for Black and minority ethnic children from the day they are born. Foster carers need to be aware of this and think about what can be put in place to help the child with their identity as soon as possible.

Overnight stays can promote friendships and links in the local community and help to normalise the experience of being in care. The aim of this guidance is to provide detailed advice to social workers and carers about the law and good practice in relation to looked after children staying away from their placements overnight. Definitions of different overnight stays will be provided.

Formal agreement between the carer and Brighton & Hove Children And Young People’s Trust. Includes downloadable copy.

Children and Families' policy on the placement of black and minority ethnic (BME) children and young people with foster carers clarifies our approach to placing BME children on the occasions when suitable same race and heritage placements with carers are unavailable and provides guidance and procedures for staff and carers.

Identity is important for all children but is particularly crucial for black and minority ethnic children from the day they are born.

Foster carers need to be aware of this and think about what can be put in place to help the child with their identity as soon as possible.

Each child or young person in foster care must be protected from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and deprivation. To achieve safe caring, we have put in place arrangements to protect children and young people in foster care and you as carer.

Your contributions to Looked After Child Reviews are a vital part of the process in sharing views and information, identifying new goals and promoting the child’s development.

The Children Act 1989 (CA89) and the Care Standards Act 2000 (CSA 2000) provide the statutory framework for the care and protection of children.

The Children Act 1989 and Adoption and Children Act 2002 impose a duty on local authorities to promote contact between a child who is being looked after.

When couples separate and one partner moves out of the home, the supervising social worker needs to complete a brief interim report on the carers’ circumstances. This should be sent to the Fostering Panel Adviser who will notify the next Fostering Panel under AOB. This should be at approximately 3 months after the couple separate.

Requests for access to personal files can be made for many reasons, including a wish to see all the personal information that has been gathered on oneself, a need to ensure that specific facts or views have been correctly recorded.

The introduction of the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services 2002 means that for the first time local authority fostering services, independent agencies and voluntary organisations that provide fostering services all come under the same system of accountability and scrutiny.

Everyone working with looked after children and their families are involved in recording in different ways. Recording is an essential part of the service provided to children and families.

The Integrated Child Development and Disability Service is a multidisciplinary service working with any child who has developmental delay. Within the service are a range of Health, Children and Families and pre school educational services who work together to assess and provide a range of support and interventions to meet children’s needs. We work closely with staff and services across Children and Families, linking in with Area based mainstream services.

Chart showing support options for fosster careres in Brighton & Hove.

The Government’s Department for Education has ensured that every local authority develops a framework for assessing, planning and reviewing its services to individual children. The elements, which are most likely to involve foster carers are assessing, planning, accommodating the child and reviewing the child’s Care Plan.

Written Agreement between the carere and Brighton and Hove Children and Families.

Parent and baby carers offer a very specialised form of fostering. They have a role as a teacher of parenting skills whilst also contributing to the assessment process which will determine the care plan for the baby in placement. There is an expectation that carers will endeavour to educate, advice and support parents in placement and also model appropriate parenting behaviour.

It is good practice for the foster carer to meet and introduce herself, and outline her family circumstances to the parent before a placement commences. Ideally if a placement has been able to be identified at an early stage and the parent is accepting of the care plan a visit for the parent to the carers should be organised prior to placement.

Download documents on parent and baby foster placements.