Fostering Blog
I had a long conference call with the Social Worker, her Manager and my Supervising Social Worker which last about an hour.
The conversation centred around several different points. The main point was Mum’s refusal to not contact James (name changed) and upset him. It was agreed that Mum was only thinking about herself in these situations and not whether James would be upset by the conversation.
Nobody felt that contact should be stopped but that Mum should be urged to think about James and not upsetting him. The problem seems to be that Mum is incapable of taking James’ thoughts into consideration, which obviously explains why he is in care.
The Manager told us that a place had been found for Mum in a rehab centre in South West London and that Mum had been told, bluntly, that she had to complete the whole six weeks before any consideration would be given to James returning home.
Apparently Mum was unhappy with this but, after several failed attempts at rehab; the Manager had told her that this was pretty much her ‘last chance saloon’. The conversation ended with the Manager saying that she personally, would talk to Mum regarding telephone contact and what was acceptable, or not, to discuss with James.
After the group meeting I spoke to my Supervising Social Worker afterwards and she thought the placement was going well and that James was really settled. I updated my diary and tried to catch up with all the stuff I was supposed to be doing that day.
The weekend was great. Loads of football on the telly and James played for his team on Sunday morning. He played well and scored a couple of goals which he was chuffed about especially as we had a £1 per goal agreement in place.
We stopped at Sports Direct on the way back from football and I treated him to a nice Hoodie and he treated himself to a new tee shirt. Sunday lunch was cooked and we settled down to eat. The rest of the afternoon was football until it was time to sort his stuff out for the week ahead. We had a nice chat about school and how he felt very settled there.
He said that there were a couple of mates that he missed from his old school, but that was it. The interesting thing was that Mum wasn’t mentioned during the whole conversation. No mention of missing her and no comments or questions regarding her.
He seemed very relaxed about life and was very happy with his surroundings. He actually looked different too. He had put on a bit of weight and just looked healthier. He liked his new clothes and was very particular about what he wore.
He showered and washed regularly and liked to feel good about himself. I had given him some old after shave I had but had to have a word about how much he put on as he had gone a little overboard on a couple of occasions.
He went off to bed about 10 and I prepared my schedule for the week ahead.
A Simply Fostering Blogging Foster Carer.
