Looks like we are getting closer to recovery as we are both feeling better and are able to be a bit more active, without having to have a lie down afterwards. James (name changed) actually wants to return to school but we have to follow the processes that the school has in place which basically means that he cannot return this week.
He cannot play football either so is a bit like a bear with a sore head. But, basically, he misses Paige and is desperate to see her. She called him, at lunch time today, to see how he was and to tell him she missed him, which was sweet.
James had some school work emailed through so he sat to the dining room table and did that while I found some little jobs that needed doing, such as a weeks’ worth of laundry and a couple of days’ worth of washing up to put in the dishwasher. In the time it took James to do his school work I had the place cleaned and looking more presentable, not that anyone was going to come round at the moment.
I got a call from his Social Worker, in the afternoon, to organise a Zoom meeting to discuss Mum’s complaint and how we were to deal with it. The frustrating thing with a lot of complaints is that we all know the complaint is being made out of anger and spite but it still has to be properly addressed and dealt with. So we agreed a date and time, the following week, and I passed that information on to my Link Worker so she could attend as well.
I have been very lucky, in this placement, to have had the same Social Worker and Link Worker for the whole time. In the past I have had placements where the Social Worker has changed on a number of occasions and have found this very frustrating; having to constantly update a new Social Worker on what has happened during the placement. I think my record so far is having three Social Workers in the first month of a placement.
The first one was allocated the file even though she had put in her notice, the second was allocated the job and then went on long term sick leave and the third was frankly not very good but carried on working with us. She improved slightly over the time we worked with her but only slightly. She constantly got everyone’s name wrong and really seemed to lack confidence in what she was going.
I understand that she left Social Work shortly after the placement, so maybe it was working with me which finished her off!
We spent the evening watching football, you’ll be surprised to hear, and James went off to bed at about 1030pm. I pottered and cleared up and then went to bed.
I actually felt shattered but tossed and turned and had one of those nights where you can’t sleep but don’t know why! I think I finally went off at about 3 despite using every IPhone app possible to help get me to sleep. Unfortunately Calm didn’t make me very calm.
Fosterman – A Simply Fostering Blogging Foster Carer.
