PEP meetings

[Peace]

Please could you let me know if I should be invited to PEP meetings?
Thanks

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Peace

Welcome back to the parents discussion board and thank you for your further posts.

I will reply to all here.

'Just wondering if a foster carer's friends and family are allowed to stay overnight?'

I think you may be worried about your child/ren in foster care as you have had a couple of queries about what foster carers can/cannot do. Parents sometimes worry about the care and supervision their child/ren are receiving and often need reassurance or have questions. There are processes in place to monitor foster carers and ensure that they are providing consistent care.

Foster carers are entitled to have a family and social life but of course are also responsible for protecting the child/ren they are caring for and so their supervising social worker should make sure they know and follow all the correct procedures.

If you are worried that a foster carer is inappropriately allowing visitors to stay overnight then I think that the best thing for you to do is to have a discussion with your social worker about any concerns you have and about the current foster care arrangements for your child/ren. Do you have a copy of all the relevant Looked After Children paperwork? If not, then it is a good idea to ask for this as soon as possible.

If you are still very worried you should contact the fostering team or your Independent Reviewing Officer(IRO) .

In my previous response I provided a link to fostering services regulations for England and the national minimum fostering standards as well as your local authority’s fostering handbook and local policies for further guidance. These should answer any general questions you have about what foster carers can and cannot do.

'Please could you let me know if I should be invited to PEP meetings?'

Parents can be invited to PEP meetings and should certainly be consulted about their children’s education. However, whether or not you should be invited may depend on whether your child/ren are in foster care under a voluntary arrangement or a care order and also on your child/ren’s age, their individual needs and circumstances children's services assessment of you.

If you are worried that you are not being allowed to participate in the way you would like I think you should ask your social worker to invite you and if they are unwilling to ask that they let you know in writing the reasons why not. You could also copy the IRO into any correspondence so that they are aware of any difficulties you are experiencing. If you feel that you are being treated unfairly then you could consider making a complaint.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie