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I had a call from my Supervising Social Worker (SSW) today regarding James (name changed). James’ Social Worker had called to ask the SSW about having James as a long term placement, with me.

The SSW asked why the question was being asked but the Social Worker said that she couldn’t divulge that information at present. The SSW asked me what my feelings were about this. I said that I would be happy to do it as long as I still received the same level of support as I do presently.        

I’ve found, in the past, that some Local Authorities tend to ‘forget’ placements in long term and it can be used as a way of freeing a space up for the Social Worker. The SSW said she would call the Social Worker back and pass on my views and see what happens.

I sat, with my coffee, and thought long and hard about the positives and negatives about taking on James long term. The positives far outweighed the negatives. James was a nice lad, no real trouble, helped around the house, was settled at school and there was, currently, no issues regarding contact. So I carried on with my day as James did his school work in the dining room.

Over dinner he asked whether he could be home schooled all the time. He said that he missed his mates and, of course, Paige. He missed games especially. So I sat and worked out a slightly new regime for the day. I organised a Zoom conference call every evening at 6 for him and 3 of his friends. He already did this with Paige. I also worked out an exercise routine, via YouTube, for him to complete every morning.

We would carry on with our regular walks and ensure that we tried to maintain some levels of fitness. We would also try to limit the junk food and takeaways so not to put on weight. I then saw an exercise bike for sale, locally, that was quite cheap, so I bought that and put in the covered area in the garden.

James embraced all of this although he was a bit unsure about limiting takeaways. So we were all set and ready to take on the world, starting the following Monday, of course.

I heard nothing back from the SSW so I decided to forget about it and just carry on as per normal. I then had an email from the agency regarding what training courses I wanted to do in the next calendar year.

There had been a bit of a change in the training team at the agency and some new courses had been added to the list, so I decided to try three of the new ones, just as a change. The venue for the courses was different too and a lot more convenient, which was good.

I do actually enjoy the courses and learning different things so I was looking forward to those, Covid permitting. So we had had a positive couple of days organising our lives and making sure we made life as normal as we could and having a good routine to help alleviate the physical and mental downsides of being in lockdown.

A Simply Fostering Blogging Foster Carer.

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