Types of Fostering
In thinking about fostering, it might be worth considering the types of placements that will suit your living situation and family set-up; some of our carers are approved for all categories of placements, whilst others are approved for only 0 – 10 year olds and Respite.We offer a complete range of placement options to meet the diverse range of needs of Looked After Children. No two children are alike; we therefore aim to cater placements to meet the needs of the child through careful matching, risk assessment and if necessary, additional support packages. We offer foster placements, semi-independent placements and residential placements as part of our continuum service in providing the best care possible for our Looked After Children.
Sally’s mum has been taken into hospital. It is suspected that her mum will need to stay there for a couple of months until she is fully recovered. Unfortunately, there is no one else that can care for Sally in her absence. Sally’s mum phones her local authority who then puts her in contact with Social Services. Sally stays with a lovely family for 3 months, visiting her mum in hospital every Saturday. This is an example of short term placement.
Shahida is 13 years of age. She doesn’t want to be adopted but understands that she can’t go home either. Her social worker works, taking Shahida’s opinions into consideration, to find Shahida a foster family which she will stay with until she is 18 years of age. This is an example of long term placement.
It’s 11pm. The police find Mark roaming the streets. When they ask him his address, he reluctantly gives it to them and he’s insistent that his parents won’t want guests at this hour. After repeatedly knocking on the door and after checking their systems, they find that Mark’s family is known to Social Services. Mark is taken into care until the Police and Social Services can establish the whereabouts of his parents and whether or not there are any other family members that can look after Mark. This is an example of an emergency placement; generally occurring outside of ‘office hours’. This type of placement could last a couple of hours, a night or could eventually turn into a short or long term placement.
Luke lives at home with his Dad, however from time to time his Dad finds that he needs some extra support and time to recharge his batteries.Luke stays with his other ‘foster’ family one weekend a month. This is an example of a respite placement.
Jason and Kyla will not be able to return to their family home. The care plan for these two young boys is adoption. Whilst their local authority finds them a suitable family, they will stay with ‘task centred’ foster carers who will ‘prepare’ them for adoption. This can take a couple of months to a year.
Sankofa Care also has and continues to expand on specialist carers’ scheme to enable us to offer “difficult to place” children, a foster placement as an alternative to a residential placement. This service also enables placements of children aged 11-17years old (on placement) with complex needs and challenging behaviours, requiring intensive/therapeutic fostering as an alternative to therapeutic Residential placements. These carers will be paid additional fees to fostering maintenance allowances and will be entitled to respite breaks. Enhanced support will also be available through Local Authority CAMHS, Sankofa Care Multi – disciplinary team.
As an agency we pride ourselves on having a number of specialist mother and baby carers specifically recruited from the social care and health sector. They are able to deal with all manner of placements including parental assessments – supervising and monitoring the care of the baby, budgeting and nurturing skills and daily log/report writing. All mother and baby placements are supported heavily by the agency’s social workers.
Therapeutic fostering is an approach that recognises that some foster children need to be looked after by foster carers who have a specific set of skills because they have experienced trauma and abuse at a young age. Conse, these children have emotional and behavioural difficulties which can make them more challenging to care for and can put them at higher risk of future problems.
The therapeutic reparenting process trains our foster parents to learn about the child, understand what has gone wrong in the past and what they might need to help them rebuild their life. This creates an environment where Foster Parents can identify and anticipate triggers to behaviour from a child in their care. By working therapeutically, these foster carers are able to respond in the best possible way to the child (ren) to enable them to begin to learn to trust adults again and over time feel safe and recover.
Who Are We Looking For As A Therapeutic Foster Carer?
Therapeutic fostering is challenging but provides a real sense of purpose and achievement which is rewarding to our carers. To become part of the team you need special skillset and attributes.
We are looking for flexible, patient, empathetic and understanding, open and honest people who can see the potential in every child; be reliable through the tough times and offer a secure, loving and caring home for a child for as long as they need. Crucially, people who will be committed to the therapeutic programme.
We provide remand placements for children and young people who have been charged with an offence and are awaiting trial by the courts. Our carers work closely with Local Authority Youth Offending Team (YOT) Team and Youth Justice officials to ensure that all the conditions of bail are adhered to and that the – generally – short term placements go as smoothly as possible.