Thursday’s Fostering Blog
We have been fostering Alice for over four years. A year into fostering we were asked to consider fostering her long term. After lots of thinking and discussing we agreed that this was the right thing to do. At every Looked After Child (LAC) review since then, we have been asked again and again about having her long term. So far no-one has done the paperwork for this and we have not been to a matching panel. At the last LAC review in January our Independent Reviewing Officer got very cross with both the Local Authority Social Worker and our Social Worker from our Independent Agency. She was cross because neither of them had done the paperwork which they had been asked to do time and time again.
Both social workers agreed to get the paperwork done, and the reviewing officer insisted that matching would happen by the end of March. To be honest I have heard this so many times before so I haven’t been holding out much hope. We had a small glimmer of hope when the Local Authority Social Worker came for a Statutory Visit last week. She had done all her paperwork and had set a date for panel.
The glimmer of hope has pretty much faded away now. Our social worker has not done her paperwork, neither has she organised an independent social worker to come and reassess Alice’s needs to ensure we are getting the right level of support.
She is now on sick leave – so panel has had to be postponed for another month – surprise surprise. I think it is now a case of we will believe it when it happens!
To be honest getting the “long term” rubber stamp wont change anything. It would just be nice to have that security for Alice and for us as a family. It would allow us to plan properly and focus on the future with more clarity. One day this will be sorted, but it reminds us that the supposed ‘child-centred’ approach of the professionals can sometimes be in short supply!
A Less Ordinary Family Foster Care Blog
