I think Joolsali that is a negative post about support social workers. I managed a team of support social workers and they worked damned hard to ensure that they did actually support carers, in whatever way was needed. They visited on a regular basis and in between planned visits if necessary, attended reviews with carers, listen to issues that the carers raise, liaised with the social worker for the children in placement, did joint visits with them if necessary. Ensured that carers received payments at the appropriate time, arranged for extra funding where necessary. Sometimes the social workers for the children were being unreasonable and then I would intervene with the manager for the particular social worker to resolve matters. They ensured that they were kept abreast of all training in the dept., (there was a monthly newsletter to all foster carers in the county and they contributed to this) put on a "thank you" evening every year with cheese and wine, organised Christmas parties for fostered children and carer's own children - the list is endless.
The issue of "unannounced checks" is an annual visit and it is laid down in legislation, so it is not negotiable. Health and safety checks are done as part of the assessment and so if you are already approved NottingHill these will have been carried out. They don't "correct you if doing wrong" at all - obviously things don't always run smoothly, the whole business is something of a minefield, and care has to be taken to ensure that the placement is meeting the needs of the children.
I know you are an IFA carer Joolsali as I've just seen another post of yours and you say that you get better support than LA carers. Of course you do because the IFAs charge the LA for support social workers who are employed by IFAs and I can assure you that the charges are very high. You say you get more difficult children that LAs can't place and I'm sorry to disagree, but this isn't the case. It may well have been some 10 years ago but these days, if a LA can't place a child or children (regardless of age or behavioural difficulties) they have no option but to buy an IFA place. I know of IFA carers with babies and children under 5 in placement.
NH I hope you haven't been put off - and I do realise of course that all LAs will be different and the service provided by support social workers may not be as good as in my day (I retired in 2009) as the cuts to budgets by this coalition mean that services are going to suffer as a result.