Monday’s Fostering Blog
So this is the first full week of all three kids being back at school. I do love the summer holidays – I love the break from the routine, I love that we can have lazy starts to the day and stay in our pyjamas if we want to. All that said, after 6 weeks break, I am now ready for the routine to resume, back to the structured day, well at least till the next half term!
Fostering a child like Alice who has physical and learning disabilities comes with lots of additional work. As well as the routine statutory visits from the local authority social worker, monthly supervision from my agency social worker, Looked After Child Reviews, regular hospital appointments with a range of specialists and consultants, there are also many education meetings.
Alongside all of these meetings come the daily note taking and recording of medications and invasive procedures. This is the part of the job I least like, and yet it is probably the most important part of the job. Taking good notes is a safeguarding tool – to protect both for you are your foster child in the event of an allegation.
And yet with all the busyness of the job I still find it hard to answer that dreaded question that comes from so many “what do you do?” So much of our identity is wrapped up in what we do rather than who we are and I fall in to the trap of trying to justify how I fill my time. I must get better in confidently saying that I am a professional foster carer for a complex child.
A Less Ordinary Family Fostering Blog
