Southwark fostering service statement of purpose 2024 to 25

The fostering team makes use of a variety of different placement types to ensure placements are able to meet the individual needs of children who are looked after. Thorough assessment of a child’s particular needs by their social worker can help the Fostering teams to choose the right placement. In making any placement the key questions are always: 

Will the placement meet the child’s needs? 

What impact will the proposed placement have upon other children in the household? 

What level and type of support will the foster carer require?

Short term, respite and emergency fostering 

Short term foster carers look after a child or young person for a limited period of time while arrangements are made for the child to return to their birth family or to an alternative permanent placement. Some children will return home to the care of their parents or members of their extended family while others may move to long term foster placements or become adopted. 

Short term foster carers play a crucial role in caring for children and young people who are going through a period of crisis and uncertainty, and preparing them for moving. Foster carers providing respite, provide regular short term breaks for children.

Teenage fostering and staying put placements 

There is increasing recognition of the vulnerability of looked after teenagers and care leavers and Southwark fostering service is developing new ways of working with and supporting teenage foster carers and promoting “Staying Put” placements. In particular, carers may need specialist training in order to help them continue to provide a secure base and to help prepare young people for living independently. Such training will include Child Sexual Exploitation, managing challenging behaviour, promoting emotional and physical health, gang membership, and sexual health and relationships. 

Teenage and Staying Put carers work closely with their SSW, care social worker and personal advisors to help young people to prepare for independent living. 

Long term fostering 

For some children, particularly older children, who have significant relationships with birth parents or relatives, long term fostering may be a more appropriate placement choice than adoption. In these cases, existing foster carers can ask to be assessed as long-term (or permanent) carers for the child. Where this is approved, long term fostering provides the child or young person with a sense of security and stability and of being ‘’claimed’’ by the family. 

Long term foster carers usually support the child or young person in maintaining contact with their birth family, where this is consistent with their interests. The fostering service will sensitively discuss with the foster carer the options of applying for a residence order or special guardianship order where this would be in the best interests of the child in terms of providing the child with legal and emotional permanence. 

Parent and child placements 

Southwark’s fostering service is continuing to work to develop a responsive approach to requests for parent and child placements, recognising that there are a variety of situations where such a placement may be needed. 

Traditionally, Southwark foster carers have looked after young parents, e.g. carer leavers, by helping them to bond and care for their babies independently. However there is scope for developing the service further, for example through training and supporting a small group of carers to assess parenting capacity and provide written reports to the courts. 

The parent and child foster carer’s primary responsibility is to ensure the welfare and safety of the child, and in some cases this may result in the foster carer taking temporary responsibility if the parent is unable to safely care for him or her. 

Connected persons (sometimes referred to as family and friends) 

Southwark has published a family and friends care policy explaining the way in which the council supports family and friends carers. Southwark Council believes that in some cases a placement with a family member or friend can have a better outcome for a child. The young person is able to maintain a connection to the family of origin and gains a sense of continuity and identity through this. 

The Fostering Service works with colleagues in other parts children’s social care to promote the placement of children with connected persons, where this is believed to be the best placement option. 

The connected persons and SGO team is responsible for assessing and supporting friends and family carers following the approval of a viability assessment by the Head of Service for Safeguarding. Carers will then start to receive the age-related fostering allowance for each child in their care, while the carers are assessed as foster carers. 

The assessment covers the same broad areas as for other foster care assessments, as outlined in section 6.1 above, but there is a special focus on the quality of the relationship between the prospective connected foster carer and the child or young person. 

Once a connected carer is approved as a foster carer by the fostering panel (under Regulation 27) they will receive the fostering fee in addition to the child’s allowance.

Support and services provided to connected (family and friends) foster carers

The support and supervision provided by the fostering service to connected carers (whether temporary or otherwise) is essentially the same as for other foster carers, including training, practical support and allowances and fees according to the published criteria. 

Family Link (short breaks for children with disabilities) 

Family Link offers disabled children the opportunity to have short, planned, regular breaks with a Family Link carer. The service is for children and young people living in Southwark, aged between 0 and 18 who are either on the Register of Disabled Children or meet the registration criteria. 

The children may have a significant learning and/or physical disability, a sensory loss or a severe chronic medical condition. A child will visit the Family Link carer for either a day or overnight stay on a regular basis, usually at weekends. 

Family Link carers are carefully matched with a specific child after gradual introductions. Carers receive an allowance depending on the amount of time the child spends with them. Family Link carers are approved foster carers, they have an allocated supervising social worker and they are subject to an annual review of approval in the same way as other foster carers however are also supported by the all age disabilities team.