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2.11 Family Placement Service For Disabled Children Statement of Purpose

 

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

This chapter is new for December 2010


Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Eligibility Criteria
  3. The History of the Family Placement Service for Disabled Children
  4. Description of the Services Offered
  5. Philosophy and Values of the Family Placement Service for Disabled Children
  6. The Aims and Objectives of the Service
  7. Consultation with Children, Parents, Family Placement Carers, and Social Workers
  8. Equal Opportunities Policy: Diversity and Difference
  9. The Status of the Family Placement Service
  10. Standards of Care
  11. Recruitment, Assessment and Approval of Family Placement Carers and Foster Carers
  12. Support, Supervision and Training of Family Placement Service Carers and Foster Carers
  13. Carer's Handbooks and Newsletters
  14. Complaints Procedure
  15. Allegations
  16. Annual Report and Business Plan
  17. Financial Issues
  18. The Management and Staff Structure of the Family Placement Service


1. Introduction

The Leeds Family Placement Service for Disabled Children provides a range of high quality inclusive services for disabled children and their families.  The service promotes the social model of disability and the inclusion of disabled children in all aspects of family and community life.  We are committed to improving the life experience of the children and families who use our services.

 Our preventative short breaks and sitting services offers support to children and families, consistent with Governmental priorities outlined in "Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families" (HM Treasury, DES May 2007).

It is the philosophy of our professional fostering, permanency and adoption service  to provide a family based home for disabled children who can no longer live with their family of origin which meets their individual needs and gives them the same life chances and expectations as other children in society. 

We aspire to achieve the five outcomes in Every Child Matters for every disabled child in our care, and plan our services to reflect this.  The Care Standards Act 2000 and the National Minimum Standards in Foster Care 2002 provide a guide by which standards of care and the provision of services within fostering are to be measured.  The Leeds Family Placement Service focuses on outcomes for disabled children by meeting these standards in our professional fostering service for disabled children.  These standards are also applied in a proportionate and appropriate way to our short breaks and sitting services in a manner which maximises inclusion and opportunity for disabled children.

This Statement of Purpose gives an outline of how the service is managed and its fitness to provide fostering, short breaks, and sitting services.  It shows how the welfare of children will be met, and demonstrates the systems which we have set in place to supervise, train and support Family Placement carers and foster carers.


2. Eligibility Criteria

The service exists to improve the life chances of disabled children in Leeds. Eligible children are:

  • Children with moderate or severe learning disabilities,
  • Children with autism
  • Children with severe physical impairments,
  • Children with severe sensory impairments,
  • Children with complex health needs,
  • Children with a combination of the above

The sitting service can be accessed directly by parents of disabled children for up to 2 hours per week if they do not access other services.  This corresponds to the government  Core Offer in "Aiming High for Disabled Children".

All other eligibility is subject to assessment and ratification by the Disabled Children's Allocation Panel, according to the criteria of the panel See Disabled Children's Allocation Panel Procedure.


3.  The History of the Family Placement Service for Disabled Children

The Family Placement Service for Disabled Children incorporates three inter-related services:  the Professional Fostering, Permanency and Adoption Service, the Short Breaks Service, and the Homebased and Sitting Service.

  • The Leeds Family Placement short breaks service for children has been established for 28 years and was one of the first such schemes in the country. It was set up by the Local Authority at a time when it was inconceivable that disabled children could be placed with ordinary families and have the same right to family life as their non disabled counterparts.  
  • Two years later the Family Placement fostering service for disabled children was established in a joint project between social service, health, and MENCAP, who had successfully campaigned for the closure of the long stay children's ward at Meanwood Park Hospital. The service has pioneered placements for a range of disabled children and is the established alternative to residential placements.  In 2008 -9  74 disabled children and young people were looked after by foster carers on the service. 
  • The sitting service was established in 1995 when parents of disabled children identified the need for a targeted service to support parents to care for children in their own homes.

From these origins we strive to continue to be at the cutting edge, forward looking, to improve our services and outcomes for disabled children and families.  We take a transformational approach to continuous improvement looking for ways to raise standards and make children's lives better.


4. Description of the Services Offered

4.1The Professional Fostering, Permanency and Adoption Service

The service recruits, trains, approves and supports high quality specialist foster carers (including those with nursing experience) to offer a range of placements to disabled children including:

  • Short term (including pre-adoptive, emergency, working to rehabilitation, assessment, duration of proceedings, bridging, etc).
  • Shared care (sharing the care with parents in a plan tailored to the child's needs and their family's needs for over 120 days a year).
  • Permanent foster care placements.

There are presently 48 registered foster carers on this service.  The majority of these are placed at  Level 4 PfS and amongst the most highly skilled group of carers in the Leeds Fostering Service.  In 2009 -20 10 67  children /young people had foster placements on the service and 10 young people remained in placements with former foster carers.

We ensure that matches between carers and children are carefully made in a "Joint Supervision" meeting of the professional fostering team, using  a Disabled Child Integrated Needs Assessment which is completed when a child is referred to the service and shared with potential foster carers.  This assessment format has being phased out in 2009-10 and a Core Assessment and Essential Information Record and Pen Picture for a disabled child will now be completed by the assessing social worker for the child.   In an emergency situation a CC6 is completed alongside a risk assessment by the social worker for the child and this is shared with the prospective foster carer.  Carers receive all LAC forms in relation to the child within the prescribed timescales.

Social work staff  on the scheme provide a range of support to foster carers including:

  • Supervisory visits in accordance with N.M.S
  • Ongoing support and advice
  • Short breaks (28 days holiday and 12 days respite per year)
  • Monthly support groups with an educational focus
  • Ongoing post approval training programme
  • Carer's Handbook
  • Information for foster carers
  • Support with transitions
  • Continued support (including financial) to placements post 18
  • Regular newsletter

We promote permanency for disabled children through:

  • Supporting placement stability in long term foster placements.
  • Promoting Special Guardianship for disabled looked after children.
  • Promoting foster carer adoption for looked after children in long term placements.
  • Recruiting and assessing adopters for disabled children.

Ensuring the BAAF "opening doors" approach to remove barriers to the adoption of disabled children in the assessment process is implemented in Leeds.

We provide the following adoption services for disabled children:

  • Recruiting and assessing adopters.
  • Family Finding
  • Adoption Support Services:
    • Financial support (including ongoing allowances)
    • Support Visits
    • Respite Care
    • Therapeutic support
    • Support Groups
    • Help with equipment and adaptations

All our support packages are available to Special Guardians.

4.2 The Short Breaks Service

The service recruits, trains, approves and supports short breaks carers reflecting the diverse communities of Leeds,  to offer a range of short break placements to disabled children and their families. These carers are subject to the same checks as foster carers, have a competency based assessment, which go to foster panel for approval. The carers are registered foster carers subject to N.M.S.  As most of the carers are volunteers and the children live primarily with their parents who are responsible for their health and welfare we would expect the application of NMS to be proportionate and sensitive to the service offered.

Workers from the service visit the child and parent when their eligibility is agreed to discuss the child's needs, give the parent an information pack which includes a guide for the child, and to complete a pen picture of the child to share with potential carers.

In 2009 -10  57 approved Short Breaks foster carers and 27 carers from the Professional Fostering and Adoption Service provided 5,902.5 days of care to 137 disabled children. 

Matching meetings are held on a three weekly basis to ensure that children and their families are carefully matched to Family Placement carers.  The assessment and pen picture for the child is matched to the skills, competencies and accommodation of carers with vacancies.  Not all children are matched immediately and a  child may have to remain on the waiting list until a carer with the appropriate skills to meet their needs  is identified.  The potential carer is then sent the pen picture and the child's assessment.

Eligible disabled children are matched to host families who can offer ongoing support, meet their identified individual needs, and provide placements which will broaden their experience and horizons.  The initial allocation of days for eligible families is 36 days.  This is reduced for families who chose to have a package of care combining short breaks and sitting.  Extra days can be provided if these are recommended through a childcare review and subject to an assessment of need, and agreed by the Disabled Children's Allocation Panel.

When the families are matched a pre-placement visit is arranged.  The child's social worker facilitates the introduction in the home of the Family Placement carer.   This gives the parties an opportunity to meet and get to know each other.  If both parties wish to proceed they agree a series of introductory visits for the child.  Following these introductory visits a Placement Agreement Meeting will be held with the family, the Family Placement carer, and the Family Placement Supervisory Social worker.  At this meeting the CSIR 35 Placement Agreement is completed.  This gives parental consent for the placement, and agreement to seek emergency medical  treatment if this is required, outlines the health needs of the child and any other requirement.  A risk assessment in relation to the child is also completed outlining any potential risks identified and how these will be addressed. 

When the placement is established the Family Placement carer and the child's family agree a pattern of placements within their allocated number of days to ensure the maximum flexibility to meet the needs identified.  This is a preventative service with the aim of empowering families and preventing breakdown.  Research has shown that short breaks are positively beneficial to families of disabled children and the single most effective form of support (Mencap, "Breaking Point", 2006).

Short breaks can be for daycare, overnights, weekend placements, or longer periods to enable the parents to take a longer holiday.  Short breaks can be used in a culturally sensitive manner.  For example some Asian families choose to have longer breaks to return to their country of origin.

Whilst the majority of placements are provided to children living with their families of origin the service also supports looked after children in foster care.

Social work staff  provide a range of support to short breaks carers including:

  • Ongoing support and advice
  • Supervisory visits in accordance with N.M.S
  • Ongoing post approval training programme
  • Carer's Handbook
  • Information for foster carers
  • A yearly party for carers and their linked children to celebrate their contribution
  • Equipment
  • Regular newsletter

4.3 The Sitting and Homebased Service

The sitting and homebased service recruits, trains, approves and supports sitters from across Leeds communities to look after disabled children in their own homes and enable their parents to have a break.   The sitting service forms part of the Family Placement short breaks service and is complementary to this.  Carers are subject to a competency based assessment and the same range of checks as foster carers complying with N.M.S.  Assessments are approved at a senior management level by the Head of Service Resources Manager Children.

The Family Placement link worker visits eligible disabled children and their families to give them information about the service.  They are carefully matched to sitters at regular matching meetings, taking into account the skills of the carers and the needs and interests of the child and their family.  The families are introduced at a pre-placement visit in the child's home facilitated by the Family Placement link worker.  If both parties wish to progress the match a series of introductory visits are arranged, followed by a Placement Agreement Meeting facilitated by the Family Placement link worker.  An individual tailored Placement Agreement, outlining the needs of the child including medication and invasive nursing procedure is completed and signed, and a risk assessment undertaken in relation to the child.

The initial allocation for families meeting the eligibility criteria is 8 hours a month.  This can be increased up  to a maximum of 288 hours per year, usually where children have complex needs and aren't receiving other services.  The service has capacity in exceptional circumstances for carers to "board in" overnight, or for longer periods to care for the child.  Direct access to the service  is permitted for parents with eligible children up to 8 hours a month.  Families needing more hours have an assessment of need and are referred through Common Assessment Framework, or CYPSC.

When families are linked to a Family Placement  sitter the parties agree between themselves when the Family Placement sitter will look after the child within the allocated hours per month.  The Family Placement sitter will also look after siblings alongside the disabled child where this is required.  This gives maximum flexibility to meet the needs of the family and can be tailored to meet their individual requirements.

Staff  on the sitting service provide a range of support to Family Placement sitters including:

  • Ongoing support and advice
  • Supervisory contacts proportionate to meeting N.M.S for sitters
  • Ongoing post approval training programme
  • Carer's Handbook
  • Information for Family Placement Sitters
  • Regular newsletter


5. Philosophy and Values of the Family Placement Service for Disabled Children

  • The philosophy of the service is to promote inclusion and empowerment for disabled children.
  • We believe that disabled children are children first and that disability should not be a barrier to the experiences and inclusion enjoyed by their non disabled peers.  Our services are based on a social model of disability.
  • We wish to ensure that wherever possible disabled children experience the right to family life ( Article 8, The Human Rights Act, 1998), and provide a positive alternative to residential care.
  • We believe that every disabled child matters, and that we should strive to ensure that disabled children have the same opportunities as their non disabled peers to achieve the five outcomes outlined in Every Child Matters.
  • We believe that we should positively safeguard disabled children in our care who are more at risk of harm than their non-disabled counterparts (NSPCC Full Stop  It doesn't Happen to Disabled Children 2003).
  • We are committed to providing safe care and the application of risk management which does not undermine a child's rights to inclusion (Dignity of Risk, 2004, Council for Disabled Children).  A quote from a young disabled person in the foreword. The saddest words are

    "you can't" when you know you can -I'm like a glass vase shut up in a cupboard where nobody sees me because everyone thinks I might break if they got me out!'
  • We believe that children with nursing needs should have the same rights as other children to access family based care and have developed training protocols with Leeds Hospital and Community Trusts to facilitate this. 
  • We believe in supporting parents of disabled children to enable them to have a break,  and thereby prevent crises and family breakdown (MENCAP "Breaking Point" 2005).
  • We believe  in working in partnership with parents to ensure that the needs of the child and family are met in a way which has positive outcomes for all, and that information is shared.
  • We believe that services should be personalised and flexible, carefully tailored to meet the needs of individual children and families.
  • We believe that our service should be accessible and relevant to all the varied communities in Leeds.  To this end our leaflets, videos, audio tapes, and DVD are translated into 6 Asian languages, and our team members give regular talks and briefings to community and parents groups from the black and Asian communities.  We actively work to recruit carers across the different communities of Leeds.
  • We believe in consulting with children, parent/carers, Family Placement carers, and other stakeholders in our service to ensure that we are fit for purpose and responsive.


6. The Aims and Objectives of the Service

6.1 The Professional Fostering, Permanency and Adoption Service

The aim of the service is to provide high quality foster homes for LAC disabled children in need of substitute care.  Services are offered to children on the basic principle that their needs and welfare are paramount and are best met within a caring and nurturing environment.

We achieve these aims through a number of means including:

  • The continuous recruitment and assessment of foster carers suitable to meet the needs of disabled children. Some of these carers will have gained experience of caring for disabled children through being foster  carers on the Family Placement short breaks service.
  • Approved foster carers are supported in their tasks, duties and responsibilities, by having adequate support mechanisms in place, outlined in their terms and conditions.
  • The Payment For Skills framework ensures quality, by giving a competency framework with clear expectations for foster carers, and a training and development programme. Training includes specific courses around caring for disabled children alongside more generic training required to look after vulnerable children.  This helps foster carers to develop skills and values which are directly related to the rights of disabled children and young people from a range of diverse cultural backgrounds.  The CWDC induction standards for foster carers will be implemented across the service by 2011.
  • The service develops partnerships and protocols with organisations which can progress the needs of our looked after children.  These include  Disability Service Teams, The Leeds Equipment Service, The Leeds PCTs and Community Nursing Services, Care and Repair and many others.
  • The service has clear underpinning policies and procedures which support these aims and objectives.

Where a child needs permanency we aim to achieve placement stability by supporting long term foster placements, and positively promoting Special Guardianship and Adoption.  We have identified barriers to permanency (e.g. financial and support) and removed these by creating a level playing field for different routes to permanency.

6.2 The Short Breaks Service

The aim of the service is to provide a personalised, high quality short breaks service for disabled children and their families in the homes of approved Family Placement carers.    We aim to ensure that placements are fun and positive for the children offering the opportunity to develop new relationships, and to experience new activities which are community or family based and inclusive.  We also aim  to offer parents a much needed break where they can be confident that their children are well cared for, their needs understood and met,  and they are safeguarded.  The carers on the service benefit through being able to make a positive contribution to the community.  Our service aims to encourage the development of good relationships between parents and carer.  We aim to empower children and parents by ensuring they have the information they need about the service and listening to their views and acting on these.

We achieve these aims through a number of means including:

  • We provide an information pack about the Family Placement Service to parents/carers when their children have been accepted onto the service.
  • A Family Placement social worker makes a home visit to each family to talk about the service, and to undertake a pen picture of the child to better inform the matching process.
  • The continuous recruitment and assessment of foster carers suitable to meet the needs of disabled children.  Family Placement carers agree to share the ethos and values of the organisation.
  • Consultation with parent/carers and children who use the service.
  • A clear support and supervision service for Family Placement carers which complies with NMS applied proportionately to short breaks.
  • The development of partnerships and protocols with agencies and organisations that can help us progress these aims,  including Leeds ALMOs and all of those outlined for LAC children in professional foster care (above).
  • Clear policies and procedures which support these aims and objectives.
  • A framework for short breaks carers whereby we recruit seven fee paid contract carers to meet the needs of children who have more complex needs, in addition to approximately 60 other short breaks carers for disabled children.

6.3 The Sitting and Homebased Service

The aim of the service is to provide periods of flexible, personalised care for eligible disabled children in their own home in the daytime, evenings, weekends or occasional overnights.  We aim to meet the identified needs of parents for a break in the form and at the time they would want this. We carefully match carers to families.  We aim to provide a consistent link to the family which enables the child and Family Placement Carer to build a trusting and positive relationship.  By providing the service in the child's home we aim to support children whose needs cannot be met in other ways, such as autistic children who find different environments difficult to adapt to and would prefer to be cared for in their own homes, and children who are best cared for where they can access their own specialist adaptations and equipment.  As a complementary part of the Family Placement preventative services our primary aim is to support families and prevent family breakdown.

We achieve these aims through a number of means including:

  • The continuous recruitment and assessment of Family Placement sitters suitable to meet the needs of disabled children, who agree to share the ethos and values of the organisation.
  • Consultation with parent/carers and children who use the service.
  • A clear support and supervision service for Family Placement carers which complies with NMS applied proportionately to the sitting service.


7. Consultation with Children, Parents, Family Placement Carers, and Social Workers

Children

Family Placement Service understand that consultation with our service stakeholders, and especially parents and children, is our primary way of ensuring that we are fit for purpose and that our services meet the identified need.

A  Family Placement Evaluation working party has  looked  at how we get feedback, how we can improve this, and how we can evaluate the feedback which we get.  We have adapted our consultation forms into a format where they can be collated onto a database to enable us to analyse our feedback.

It is often argued that getting the views of disabled children is complex and difficult due to the communication difficulties which many children have.  This has led us to think about how we might try harder and we have developed a number of processes to achieve this.

Initially we concentrated our efforts on the children's reviewing process.  All children using the short breaks and professional fostering service are subject to statutory 6 monthly reviews.  On the short breaks service proportionality is applied with one annual "live" review and one paper review.  A CSIR 90 Consultation Form for a disabled child has been developed to help disabled children using the short breaks service  contribute to the review process, and can be used by social workers in conjunction with the "I'll Go First" communication tool for working with disabled children.  In practice even with support this review form can only be used by a minority of more able children.  We have worked with the Participation and Communication Officer for disabled children to develop training for social workers around communication with disabled children.  This is now mainlined onto the Organisational  Development Unit training programme for social workers.  The aim is to widen participation into its widest form.  Some children may be able to draw pictures to indicate their feelings, others may need to be engaged through body language and responses within the placement.  We have worked with the independent reviewing team on accepting these different types of communication as evidence of participation. 

The Independent Reviewing Service is no longer able to record on their monitoring  form  if the child is disabled and whether their feedback on the placement was positive but have agreed to send copies of the child's review outcomes to Family Placement for evaluation. 

We also ask the child's social worker (on their consultation form) to send any feedback the child has given at their review to feed into the foster carer review.

All three services we have a consultation form for children to feed into the foster carer/Family Placement carer review.  The form is sent via parents on the sitting and short breaks service.  On the professional fostering service the form is sent via the child's social worker to ensure independence.  The social worker will help the child to complete the consultation form  if they need assistance.  When forms are returned the information is added to an evaluation database which help us to measure how children using our services judge our performance.  So far this has proved to be a very good development with positive responses from children.  On the sitting service Ellie  says of her carer

"she plays snap with me.  I like her".

In the last year we have not held any formal consultation or participation meetings for children using the service.  In 2008-9 we did organise an event with the participation officer which had to be cancelled for lack of response.  The feedback was that the children wanted to do something fun.  In response to this  we held a children's winter party in Jan2010  and a party for children and young people 13 plus who have been part of the family placement service in Nov 09.  At the 13 plus party young people were given a certificate of achievement.  In the coming year we will organise a participation event with children's rights and an event with theatre in education.

Consultation with Parents

The short breaks and sitting service have sent consultation forms to parents on an annual basis for many years.  These are sent out before the foster carer review and feed into the reviewing process.  It is gratifying that parent feedback is almost unanimously positive. 

If there are concerns raised by parents these are responded to and a copy kept on the coordinator's record of concerns.

We have developed an evaluation database so that we can record and evaluate the feedback from parents.

Consultation with the Child's Social Workers

We encourage and promote good lines of communication between the child's social worker and the Family Placement Supervisory Social  worker.  As well as ongoing discussions,  the child's social worker is sent a consultation form prior to the foster carer review.  We have developed an evaluation database so that we can record and evaluate the feedback from social workers. 

Consultation with Family Placement Carers

As well as ongoing supervisory and support visits Family Placement carers are invited to give their written views of the service on a consultation form prior to their review.  We have developed an evaluation database so that we can record and evaluate the feedback from foster carers.


8. Equal Opportunities Policy: Diversity and Difference

The Family Placement Service is part of Leeds City Council Children and young People's Social Care.  As such we promote and adhere to Leeds City Council Equal Opportunities policies. Our Equal Opportunities policy is based upon the Race relations Amendment Act, Sex discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act and the Geneva Convention on the Rights of the Child.  These pieces of legislation help us to make a clear statement of our intentions not to discriminate on the grounds of disability, race, colour, gender, creed,  religion, language, sexuality, age, or on any other grounds.   Our value statement, which all carers are given in the preparation sessions, and the foster carer agreement clearly state our expectations that our carers promote equal opportunities, respect diversity, meet the cultural needs of children placed, whilst their assessment addresses how they would challenge discrimination.

Within the Family Placement Service we aim to ensure that our services culturally sensitive, reflecting the cultural needs of individuals and communities, and are accessible to all the communities of Leeds.  We achieve this by:

  1. We have a Publicity, Diversity and Cultural Inclusion Group which includes black and Asian carers and is  intended to meet every 6-8 weeks.  The group is comprised of scheme workers and carers.  We have a plan to re-launch this group in May 2010 by writing to  all carers across the schemes and inviting them to join.  We recognise that in the past year we have missed having an Asian development worker attached to the service, and that our action plan for promoting the Family Placement Service in the different Leeds communities and voluntary groups and organisations has slipped in this respect.  We have tabled an equalities impact assessment to look at how we can improve our effectiveness for May/June 2010. We will look at how to make better use the half time Asian development worker in the fostering service to fulfil this function.
  2. We keep statistics on the ethnic backgrounds of all our Family Placement carers and children using the service.  These are published annually in the family Placement Service Annual Report and Business Plan.  We can then monitor how the service  reflects  the communities of Leeds.
  3. All of our leaflets, DVDs, and audio tapes are translated into a range of Asian languages including Selheti, Hindi, Urdu, Guru/Mukhi Punjabi.  These were advised by our Equalities Unit to reflect the populations of Leeds.
  4. We work closely to and can access the Leeds Interpreting and Translation Service.
  5. We carefully match children with carers being mindful of their cultural needs and the wishes of their parent/carers. 
  6. On the professional fostering service where a child cannot be placed with a foster carer who reflects their cultural heritage (possibly because the necessity of  meeting their specific disability needs may override this when considering the welfare check list),  we make all efforts to ensure that the cultural needs of the child are met.  This could be through mentoring (some of our black and Asian foster carers provide mentoring to trans-racial placements); giving information and providing support groups on caring for black children ; involving family members through contact; introducing a befriender or Independent Support Worker.
  7. We use our newsletter for professionals as a vehicle to keep social workers in the field informed if we have a carer who can meet a specific cultural need for short breaks.


9. The Status of the Family Placement Service

The Family Placement Service, is part of Leeds LA Children and Young People's Social Care.  The management of the service transferred to the Fostering Service in April 2007 to ensure that consistent standards, and close  working relationships could be maximised.  We are registered under the fostering service to:

  • Recruit staff to further the objectives of the service.
  • To recruit foster carers who are able to meet the needs of disabled children and young people looked after by the LA.
  • To provide long term permanency, short term, shared care, and assessment foster placements for disabled children.
  • To provide a dedicated short breaks family link service for the disabled children of Leeds and their families.
  • To recruit Family Placement Carers to provide a sitting/homebased service for the disabled children of Leeds and their families.
  • To instigate partnerships with other LA, voluntary sector, and private agencies to progress our aims and objectives.


10. Standards of Care

The principals and standards of care are in keeping with the Care Standards Act 2000, Fostering Services Regulations 2000 and the National Minimum Standards in Foster Care 2002.  Foster carers and Family Placement carers must demonstrate their capabilities through assessment, practice, ongoing training and professional development.  Foster carers on the professional service are required to promote the five outcomes outlined in Every Child Matters and to promote the welfare of the child  in such areas as education, health, emotional and behavioural development, identity, family and social relationships, self care skills, and achieving independence in a way which is appropriate with regards to the level of the child's ability/disability.  The tasks skills and competencies framework for carers gives a structure for carers to help to measure this which will be complemented by the introduction of the Children's Workforce Development Council standards for foster carers.  The Family Placement Service are working with our colleagues in the fostering service, and Employee Development Service on a on timed action plan to deliver this.  We are presently looking at the new CWDC standards for short breaks and will develop an implementation strategy for short breaks.

Any child or young person who is placed with a foster parent and alleges any form of abuse within the definition of the DoH Working Together 2006, or if these concerns are raised by other parties, will be investigated and actioned through Leeds CYPSC Child Protection Service, on behalf of the Leeds Safeguarding Children's Board under the Procedures for Investigating Allegations Against Persons who work with Children from the West Yorkshire Consortium Procedures Manual.

The service ensures that health care for our children is of the highest standard.  We have had a protocol, reviewed annually with the Hospital Trusts and the Community Nursing Service for disabled children for 10 years whereby all Family Placement carers undertaking nursing procedures in relation to a child are trained in the procedure by a qualified nurse for the individual  child.  We work closely with the children's nursing service who provide nursing support to placements where this is required.  We also have a clear medication policy for all three services.  We have worked hard in partnership with health to identify and understand the particular needs of LAC disabled children.

Foster carers on the short breaks service must meet NMS and demonstrate an understanding and application of safe caring.  As acknowledged in NMS "When foster care is provided as a short term break for a child, the arrangements recognise that the parents remain the main carers for the child.......in particular birth parents remain central to the promotion of health and education needs."


11. Recruitment, Assessment and Approval of Family Placement Carers and Foster Carers

  • Family Placement has a clear marketing strategy to recruit new carers.  We have a Publicity, Diversity and Cultural Inclusion Working Group which meets every six to eight weeks to market the service and promote the recruitment of new carers.  The group benefits from membership comprising Family Placement carers and scheme social workers.  It is chaired by the Family Placement coordinator.  As we know that most successful carers come via "word of mouth" from existing carers who are positive about the service, we use "We Care" the Family Placement carer newsletter to ask carers to promote this, and regularly send publicity materials for carers to place in their local shops and community venues.
  • We have a clear "brand" displayed in adverts, publicity material, leaflets, posters, etc.
  • We have access to the Leeds City Council Press Office who are able to help us promote the service to the Leeds press.
  • Family Placement has a website on Leeds City Council Intranet where potential carers can register interest in becoming a Family Placement carer for a disabled child.
  • The Leeds fostering and adoption service also sign post potential foster carers wishing to look after disabled children to the Family Placement service.

 We have a duty system from 9am-5pm which responds to all enquiries from individuals and couples who express an interest in becoming Family Placement carers for disabled children.

  • Basic information is given about the fostering, short breaks, or sitting service.  Basic information is also taken about the perspective carer.
  • An information pack is sent to all carers which includes an invitation to attend the next preparation course for the short breaks/sitting service. These preparation courses are held over a weekend or six evenings five times a year.  They are based on Shared Care Network "When am I Coming to Stay" and meet Skills to Care induction Standards.  Potential carers are invited to complete an Application Form.
  • All potential carers who are interested in becoming a foster carer on the professional fostering service for disabled children have an initial home visit to give further information, begin to introduce the procedures and guidelines of the service, and to undertake an initial view of the suitability of the applicants.
  • Potential professional foster carers who are not experienced in caring for disabled children/young people, but have the potential to do so, are advised that they will need to undertake six months caring on the short breaks service before they can be approved as foster carers for a LAC disabled child and are directed to the "When am I coming to Stay" preparation course. 
  • Carers who potentially have the skills and competencies to be approved under Payment for Skills at Level 4 for a disabled child are invited to complete an application form.  They will be invited to attend a "Skills to Foster" Preparation  Course delivered by social workers from the fostering and Family Placement Service with a foster carer who has completed a "Training the Trainers Course also facilitating.   The course is designed by Fostering Network, endorsed by BAAF, meets CWDC induction standards.

All Family Placement Carers are subject to a number of statutory checks and references.  These include:

  • CRB checks.  Where potential applicants wish to be  foster carers or  short breaks carers all members of the household are checked including any person aged 16 and over who stays in the household on a regular basis and who sleeps overnight.
  • Child Protection Checks
  • Children Young People's Social Care ESCR
  • Department of Health Checks
  • GP checks or medicals. (applicants for short breaks and sitting are asked to complete a medical questionnaire which is sent to their G.P. for verification / comments). 
  • Two personal references
  • A work reference if the carer has previously worked in a caring position, with children, or in a related field.

In addition interviews are conducted with grown up children and children living in the household for potential professional foster carers and short breaks carers.

Potential professional foster carers are additionally asked to undertake

  • A full medical examination with their GP
  • A work reference from present or previous employer.
  • To agree to the department making contact with any schools which their children attend to ascertain the school's view on their involvement / suitability.
  • To agree to the department making contact with ex partners regarding their application to foster.

The Assessment Process

All Family Placement Carers are subject to a competency based assessment.  The depth of this assessment will depend on the role for which the carer is being assessed, with appropriateness and proportionality being the measure of this.  All potential carers are invited to be fully involved in the assessment and to use self completion sheets as a tool to look at their competencies.  The BAAF Form F foster carer assessment form is used.  All social workers on the professional and short breaks service were  trained in the BAAF assessment tool in 2009. 

The assessment of a Family Placement sitter will continue to be competency based and takes place over two visits to the carer, and may be carried out by a social worker or by a trained assessor on the sitting service.  The assessment and supporting checks are approved at a senior management level by the Head of Service Resources Manager Children.

The assessment of a Family Placement short breaks carer is undertaken by a qualified social worker and would take place in the applicant's home over a period of five to six visits, plus reference interviews and interviewing other relevant parties.  The BAAF F Form for short breaks will be used.

The assessment of a Family Placement professional foster carer would take place in the applicant's home over a period of six to eight visits, plus reference interviews and interviewing other relevant parties.  The assessing social worker would also ensure that timelines, analysis of significant relationships, the family dynamics, and characteristics of the foster carers underpin and inform the assessment.

The assessment focuses on the individual or individuals applying to become foster carers and their family.  We make a detailed assessment of their past and present experiences, the skills and competencies which they would bring to their new role, and help them to think about their reasons for a applying to become foster carers.  The assessor will also use the process to assess the applicant's suitability to foster disabled children and this is made transparent.

The assessments, together with a portfolio of evidence of experience and skills compiled by the foster carer, are presented to fostering panel.  Applicants are encouraged to attend with the assessing social worker.  All information gathered except references is shared with the applicant/s.  The social worker's assessment is shared with them prior to the panel.


12. Support, Supervision and Training of Family Placement Service Carers and Foster Carers

All family Placement carers are linked with a supervisory social worker,( or link worker on the sitting service).  The supervisory social  worker provides support and supervision:

  • On the professional fostering service the supervisory social worker undertakes a minimum of four supervisory visits per year including a review of the foster carer.  They also make an unannounced visit to the placement. 
  • On the short breaks service the supervisory social worker undertakes the same level of supervisory visits.  However, this would be applied proportionately.  For instance if the family is matched to a child who visits twice a year it would be inappropriate for the supervisory social worker to visit more often than the child.  Unannounced visits are made to busy carers but aren't practical for some short breaks placements, which are typically at weekends and where carers frequently take the child out when they are in placement.
  • The application of NMS is applied proportionately to the sitting service (which is not a fostering service).  Carers are reviewed annually, and additionally have a minimum of two supervisory contacts per year.  This may take the form of visits or supervisory telephone contacts.

The Family Placement Short Breaks and Sitting Service provide pre and post approval training for carers. This is a requirement under National Minimum Standards in foster care. 

The requirements of Children's Workforce Development Council induction standards for foster carers, pertain to short breaks carers in a different format with different standards.  There are different competencies and booklets for short breaks carers for disabled children.  The coordinator, a team member, and a foster carer is part of the Implementation Group for CWDC.  Implementation is being rolled out across the professional fostering service.  The short breaks standards were published by CWDC in June 09.  The Family Placement Service have also developed tools and started to implement  the short breaks standards for CWDC.

There is a clear training requirement for professional foster carers linked to Payment for Skills Levels outlined in the tasks skills and competency framework for foster carers.  Professional foster carers are required to complete a core post approval training programme and thereafter a minimum of 3 training courses a year.  A number of carers are currently undertaking NVQ 3 to support foster carer progression, and all Level 4 carers will complete this over the next 2 years.  Professional foster carers access specialist Family Placement training courses around caring for disabled children, and the Organisational Development Unit Training Programme for foster carers which includes:

  • Separation and Loss
  • Managing Difficult Behaviour
  • Preserving Memories
  • Protecting Children / Safer Care
  • Education Issues for Looked After Children
  • Building Self-Esteem
  • Child Protection : Basic Awareness
  • Child Development
  • Emergency First Aid
  • Therapeutic Crisis Intervention
  • Write Enough

Family Placement carers on the short breaks and sitting service access specialist post approval Family Placement training courses around caring for disabled children

All Family Placement Training courses are evaluated with carers providing feedback.  Feedback is collated and used to inform future practice.

There is a monthly support group for professional foster carers which usually  has a training component.  The programme for support groups over the last two years has included sexual health, welfare benefits, food hygiene, Payment for Skills briefing, legal briefing, role of key workers, tax information, parent partnership (education focus), switches for kids, Special Guardianship Orders, amongst others.

The Annual Family Placement training calendar is as follows:

Training Frequency
Weekend Preparation Training Sessions Three times per year (consists of 2 six hour days) 
Evening Preparation Sessions Twice a year (consists of 6 two hour evening sessions)
Child Protection 1 Twice a year (one morning and one evening session)
Child Protection 2 Twice a year (one morning and one evening session)
Moving and Handling I full day session Per year
Epilepsy Twice a year (one morning and one evening session)
First Aid

Twice a year (one morning and one evening session)

Sometimes extra sessions if demand is high
Resuscitation Twice a year (one morning and one evening session)
Introduction to Autism Twice a year (one morning and one evening session)
Autism (Specialist course) I full day session Per year
Makaton (bi-annual)
Communication/Speech and Language /Picture Exchange Communication Something from this menu yearly
Sexuality and growing Up (bi-annual) (bi-annual) (one morning and one evening session)
HIV and Infectious Diseases Twice a year (one morning and one evening session)
Understanding Difficult Behaviour (bi-annual)


13. Carers Handbook, Carer's Newsletter

All Family Placement Carers have a handbook which gives factual information which they need to know about the service.  This includes safe caring issues, the role of social workers, and procedures in a condensed format.  The Handbook for foster carers was revised through the fostering service in 2008 and has been distributed to all relevant carers.  All short breaks foster carers and sitters have specialist handbooks outlining details of the specific scheme, and their roles and responsibilities.

The family Placement Service send a newsletter "We Care" to Family Placement Carers twice a year.  The newsletter updates carers about developments in the service and reminds them about key issues.


14. Complaints Procedure

Leeds City Council Children and Young People's Social Care operates a complaints service  which is independent of the fostering and Family Placement Service.

Foster Carers are given a Complaints and Complements Leaflet, detailing the process if they wish to make a complaint, when they sign the Foster Carer Agreement, which is kept with the carer's handbook.

Parents are given a copy of the Complaints and Complements Leaflet in the Information Pack for Parents which is taken out by the Family Placement Social Worker.  On the short breaks service the Child's Guide is also taken at this time.  On the sitting service this is given at the Placement Agreement meeting.

It is the role of the child's social worker to give them the complaints leaflet for LAC children and to inform them of the Role of the Children's Rights Service.  The child can also make their views known through the review system and they are sent a consultation form about the placement prior to the foster carer review.  It is acknowledged that many disabled children cannot access the complaints process in this form because of their learning and communication difficulties.  An independent advocate can be appointed for the child where this is appropriate.

In 2009-10 there were no formal complaints specifically in regard to the Family Placement Service.  However, the service was  party to two complaints received:

  1. The  parent of a disabled girl in a placement complained about the manner in which the young person had been brought into care and whether this was an appropriate response.  The father further complained that because the child was placed in an emergency the child's placement did not meet her needs.  He made a complaint about the competency of the foster  carers via the social worker.
    • Outcome: The Coordinator of the Family Placement Service investigated this and visited the carers to discuss.  The Co-ordinator upheld some parts of the complaint in regard to the foster carers; that the foster carers had failed to communicate well with other professionals and had not fully followed procedures.  The foster carers were taken to fostering panel following the investigation and their registration was amended.  They now care for one child only with additional matching criteria being applied.  They have had further supervision and discussion around the areas which were identified as weak. 
    • The complaint is at stage 2 of the complaints process and the area team are managing this.
  2. A parent of a child who is severely disabled and is deaf has complained that CYPSC have not provided services to meet the needs of the child.  This includes Family Placement being unable to provide services.  The complaint is at Stage 2 of the complaints process.  Family Placement have given evidence that we adapted a carer property with a Level 2 BSL signer, and provided a sitter for the child who was fluent in BSL . 
    • The complaint is at Stage 2 of the complaints service and is part of a much wider complaint.  It is being overseen by the Head of Service and is in process.


15. Allegations

All allegations in relation to foster carers are investigated and actioned through Leeds CYPSC Child Protection Service, on behalf of the Leeds Safeguarding Children's Board under the procedures for Investigating Allegations against Adults Caring for Children. The CYPSC policies and procedures are followed.  Three Family Placement carers have been subject to strategy meeting in 2008-9 (one professional foster family, one short breaks carer, and one sitter).  In all these cases the carers were suspended when the allegations were made prior to investigation and strategy meeting.  In the case involving the sitter investigations were carried out through Education Leeds (the allegation related to the conduct of the sitter in her role of children's escort) which concluded the allegations were unfounded and the carer was reinstated.  In the case of the foster family the carers remained suspended throughout investigations and subsequent court proceedings.  There was a Finding of Fact in the Family Court and the carers were de-registered through fostering panel.  In relation to the short breaks carer investigations have taken place following the recommendations of the strategy meeting and this has been scheduled for fostering panel in May. 


16. Annual Report and Business Plan

Each year the coordinator and the Family Placement Team produce an Annual Report and Business Plan for the Family Placement Service.  The report details the aims, activities, outputs, and outcomes for service in the previous year in all areas of activity.  Based on this it details the business plan for the coming year.  The Annual Report is published the end of June/beginning July.

The Family Placement Annual report is distributed across CYPSC and our partner agencies.  It can be downloaded from the Family Placement website, and is available on request from the Family Placement Service.


17. Financial Issues

The coordinator manages a devolved budget from CYPSC mainline funding and carer's strategy funding.

Including  staff at the beginning of the year April 09- March 2010 the Children's Family Placement Service had a total budget of £2,161,200  which across the three services was:

Budget Spread
Short breaks £280,310
Professional fostering service £1,443,280
Sitting/Homebased service £77,210
Staff £360,400

Competitive Unit Costs and good feedback are outlined in the Annual Report and Business Plan to demonstrate why the Leeds Family Placement Service is a best value service.

In 2009 -10 the service have made various successful bids to Aiming High for Disabled Children.  We have had funding £150,000 agreed to replace the adapted vehicles of professional short breaks carers.  Four vehicles are now operational.

We also had funding awarded for an additional worker on the sitting service, and for 2 professional short breaks carers fees.

In 2010 - 11 we have had this funding continued.  We have additionally successfully bid for £30,000 for sensory equipment for short breaks and £101,000 for adaptations to properties and equipment for short breaks for disabled children, and for a befriender for disabled children.


18. The Management and Staff Structure of the Family Placement Service 

Click here to view Organisational Structure

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