Coram is today publishing a free online toolkit designed to support social workers, foster carers, children’s services and all those with a role to play in finding families for children who need long-term foster carers.
Funded by The Hadley Trust, Family finding for long-term foster care: A toolkit is designed to support fostering agencies’ existing policies and procedures for family finding, offering a set of resources that can be used both individually and collectively covering every aspect of the process.
Area of family finding practice covered include:
- All about me: a direct work tool A tool for social workers, family finders or current foster carers to record a snapshot of the child’s life, including their interests, achievements and thoughts. This enables the child to think about and plan for their future, as well as provide an insight of the child for prospective carers
- Profiling children: good practice tips for social workers and family finders Family finding is a complex task that involves portraying the child positively, realistically and sensitively. One of the ways of doing this is through a written profile, and the toolkit includes guidance on producing a child-centred profile, and includes some example profiles
- Taking photos and videos of children in care: good practice tips for foster carers Photos and videos are an important way of marking key events and activities that allow children to reflect on their childhoods and histories as they grow up. The toolkit will help current carers consider the contribution they can make to the child’s profile through photos and videos
- A guide to running an exchange day for fostering: good practice tips for local authorities Exchange Days allow prospective foster carers to meet and hear directly from social workers, family finders and current carers about children who need a permanent foster home. The toolkit includes a guide to running a successful Day.
Where long-term fostering is the agreed plan for a child in care, fostering services are responsible for finding the right home and family for that child. However, there is currently a nationwide shortage of foster carers, and Ofsted data has shown year-on-year decreases in the number of approved fostering households in both the local authority and independent fostering agency sectors. This climate has created a challenging journey to permanence for children who need long-term foster care and is why the Coram toolkit will be especially beneficial for local authorities who are family finding for them. It is essential that children who are unable to live with their birth families and for whom a plan for long-term fostering has been made are afforded permanence and stability without delay.
The resources and guidance available to local authorities in this toolkit have the potential to speed up family finding for children who need long-term foster care by improving children’s profiles and increasing profiling opportunities and events in order to reach a wider network of both other professionals and prospective long-term carers.
Sally Beaumont, Head of RAA Services, Coram Ambitious for Adoption, says: “This practical guide will support and improve matching chances for children. Working closely with a number of local authorities, I can see how useful this free, downloadable guide will be in supporting family finders, social workers and placement teams to family find for children who require permanent placements.”
Ana Parr, Group Manager of the Permanency Service, London Borough of Bromley, says: “This is an excellent resource pack for family finders, defining best practices within the array of family finding activities. This toolkit will incite practitioners to think creatively together with the children and their carers, and is full of practical tips for redefining children’s narratives in a mindful language.”
The toolkit is available online from today at coram.org.uk/resource/family-finding-for-long-term-foster-care-toolkit/
To find out more about Coram’s family finding services, including Exchange Days for Fostering and Activity Days for Fostering please email Fostering.ActivityDay@coram.org.uk