Panel

[nunny]

Once you are approved as a Foster Carer do you have to go to panel every year? Also as a Foster Carer how far should you be expected to drive children to school and to contact visits?

[David Roth]

Once you are approved as a foster carer, there will be a review of your approval every year, but only the first of these has to go back to panel, although it is possible that others might be taken back.

After the first year, you would generally only be taken back to panel because there was going to be a change to your approval status, eg if you had been approved for one child and you were now going to be approved for two, or if there had been an investigation into some concerns that had been raised about you.

There is no hard and fast rule about the other matters you raised. The fostering assessment ought to look at what it would be reasonable to expect in terms of travel, given your other commitments. Eg, it might not be possible for you to take a child a long distance to school, if you were simultaneously taking other children to a different school in a different location, so some assistnce might need to be provided.

Becoming a foster carer can mean your life does become disrupted, but you should talk to the social worker about what is reasonable. If it hasn't been decided yet that a child is not to go home, then it might be reasonable for them to continue at the school near their parents' home for a while, but once it is decided that the child is to make their long-term home with you then it would make sense for them to go to a local school.

Similarly with contact - contact should be arranged so as not to be too disruptive for children. Too much travelling can be upsettling for them, so you could ask whether it could be arranged closer to you, so that it is the parents who do the travelling and not the child. Contact might be at a higher level during court proceedings than it is after the court has made its decision, if the child is not to go home.

If you want advice about your specific circumstances, then we can respond to whatever details you are able to provide.

[nunny]

Hi wonder if you can help on timescales. We went to panel on the 19th November and were approved. It then has gone to be signed off and we were told by the childrens social worker that deadline was yesterday. How long do we have to wait. We had our three grandchildren at weekend and it was awful them not knowing, asking us about Christmas and things. Their social worker told them she would get back to them at the end of November to tell them if they could live with us. We feel so mean that they are being kept waiting. Opening their advent calenders on Saturday only reminded them that it was now December. Taking them back to their Foster Carer on Sunday afternoon was so upsetting for everyone.

[Robin D]

I don't see how it would do any harm to ring the SW to ask? You can point out that the children are hoping to be with you for Christmas (if that's true!) and also that you need to know for planning purposes.

Having been a foster parent and being told one 15th December (as a result of a court hearing) that the three children we had looked after to give mum a rest would not be returning home as planned and were to be with us for Christmas, I can quite empathise at the uncertainty.

Good luck ... Robin

[David Roth]

The panel's status is that it can make a recommendation about whether or not you should be approved, but it doesn't actually make the decision. It's recommendation goes to a senior manager, who is the official Agency Decision Maker, and that is the person who formally makes the decisions. It sounds as if your recommendation to be approved has gone to the ADM and not come back yet.

This could be for a variety of reason. The ADM might have a huge in-tray, with your approval recommendation slowly rising to the top of the pile, or the manager might be off sick or on leave.

If the ADM does raise any concerns about your approval, then there are mechanisms for appealing against this. Let us know how you got on, and we can advise about what steps to take next, as appropriate.