Newly Approved - Both employed

[Zimara]

Hi All,

My family (DH DS1 (9) DS2 (6)) were approved 14th June 2014, my husband and i are both employed in the day time. I wondered if any one else out there are "working" foster carers? I wouldn't mind some advise / feedback on how you make fostering work.

We've had 3 placement offers thus far. The first we had to refuse as the placements school was 68 mile round trip. This was an oversight on the agency using a radius to calculate distance vs a road map (live on the south coast).
The second placement was for a 4 & 2 year old (knowing we both work full time). We said yes to the placement but the kids would have to attend nursery, which (understandably) the LA refused.
The third was for two school age kids, which was ideal but the LA told the agency the placement was no longer required.

I wondered if this happend a lot? Seem to spend a great effort talking to employer and arranging things only to not get a placement. Am starting to think its best to hold off until you get conformation of the placement.

Also I'm getting the impression that the LA doesn't really favour (placements team mentioned it) working foster carers as they prefer to have someone at home full time (why approved us then)!
It had always been our families plan to try fostering first before reducing work hours or potentially leaving a job but am starting to wonder if we have a chicken and egg situation.

What are your thoughts?

[mum2tots]

Hi, Only one of us works so can't offer any advice on that part. As for placements not materialising, well we've been approved for 12 weeks now and haven't had a placement yet. We've had four referrals. First one was can you take baby tomorrow, we said yes, 30 mins before he was due we got a call to say no longer coming. Second referral for three sibs but we only have space for 2. Third one was for little boy (2) said yes, went to court, we were expecting him right after court but the judge didn't side with SS. 4th referral is for respite for a toddler for 3 weeks, placment team said its certain but ive not yet heard from the foster carer so sent a text to my sw now waiting.

La's only use agencies when they can't place in house so agencies have many more carers than children needed care. The agency gives them a stack of people and La will pick best fit. La are likely to pick people that are at home more for younger kids. Just have the same philosophy as us i guess, you will have the child meant for you, just gotta wait for them.

[3catsnokids]

My local authority pretty much insists that one of a couple gives up work. I gave up work the day we got the children. To be honest I can't imagine working and looking after them. I'm exhausted each night!

We got our first placement 2 days after we were approved. We got a call about 2pm and got the kids about 6pm. Sadly, I think my town has a steady stream of children needing to be taken into care .

[Gillian1980]

I'm quite surprised that they've approved you when you both work full time. Fostering really is a full time job in itself.

Even if the foster child is in school you would have loads to do during working hours - meetings, training, lots of paperwork. And lots of kids are out of school on exclusions etc due to various difficulties.

I genuinely don't know how a looked after child, with all the additional needs they come with, could have their needs met if you both work full time. Was this not explored in significant depth during your assessment?

[scarlet5tyger]

Does your agency pay you if you don't have a placement, or are you only paid once a child is with you? If its the latter then I suspect the Agency has nothing to lose by recruiting you knowing full well that you're seriously restricted in the children you can take.

As 3 cats says above, most LAs won't take on carers without at least one carer being at home full time. Most meetings/stat visits/medicals are during the day and its vital to attend. In addition to this Looked After Children have huge emotional needs and I wouldn't dream of putting a newly placed child into a nursery - they've just discovered the hard way that sometimes parents "leave" and don't come back, imagine the trauma that could be caused by their new carer also disappearing each day.

Even with a school age child, just because they're school age doesn't mean they go to school! You can expect numerous calls from school telling you the child you dropped off that morning is no longer there...

[Machakos]

Hi, my husband and I have been fostering for nearly 9 years. For the first 8 years we both worked full time. In the last year I have gone down to working 4 days (due to teaching demands rather than the fostering). Obviously I do work in a school and have the school holidays, and we only agree to placements with school age children.

[yellowribbons]

Like others have stated I am really surprised that you can combine fostering with a full time job. There are so many meetings, reviews and visits, all of which are in the day time. There's visits from the children's SW, your own SSW, regular reviews, meetings with the school, EPEC, various therapy sessions, meeting with CAMHs and LACES, contact with family members that occur straight after school, health checks and any other medical appointments - and as others have said being available to attend meetings for the problems with school, that so sadly always seem to occur. Then there's the regular training courses, and all of the above take place during school hours. I would say on average two days a week are given over to the above, sometimes more. This week we have had four out of the five weekdays devoted to meetings regarding the foster children - as SW are off on holiday next week. I've also had phone calls from the school every day this week. I don't think I have ever had a completely free week in the past 4 or 5 years, there is always something.

Was this covered during your assessment, because if there is an answer I would love to know? For me it is the worst part of fostering, continual meetings and appointments. I had not anticipated quite so many. I actually find that school age children take up much more time than little ones. I also agree that it would probably be frowned upon to put a young child into nursery until he or she has settled with you.

I hope fostering works out for you, and I do not mean to come across so negatively, I genuinely would like to know how you would manage to attend all these appointments and work as well. Good luck!

[Zimara]

Hi all

Thank you so much for your messages, they made interesting reading.

My husband and I had always intended giving up work (only one of us) if we got long term placements but I think that reality is not going to happen if it does it could be years off and this defeats the point!
I am reluctant for one of us to give up if we don't have that kind of security but i think we've come to the conclusion that we may have to take that leap of faith. We can always get some evening work to get us by when we don't placements.

[Gillian1980]

Yes, it's a bit of a catch 22 really.
If you're not available then you may miss out on placements, but if you don't have placements you're reluctant to leave work.
A lot of people I know do bank/agency work between placements so that they can leave immediately if a placement comes up without worrying about working notice.

[wonderpants]

My husband and I work long days on different days of the week! It means we can still have an income we can live on. In all honesty, although we foster for a LA not an IFA, the allowance pretty much goes on the child. It isn't an income for us!