Caring for children

At Action for Children Fostering we understand that a child coming into foster care, or accessing short breaks, may have experienced challenges, loss or trauma.

We know that each child brings their own unique character, spark and strength to their world.

We believe in the fundamental right to a safe and happy childhood.

We believe that as carers, you can make all the difference to a young life.

Our job at Action for Children Fostering is to support and enable you to do just that.

Your supervising social worker and your training will equip you to help each individual child to the best of your ability, tailored to their needs.

As first guiding principles, we expect that you will:

• Listen to a child in your care, learning additional communication skills if need be. Always acknowledge and accept their feelings – do not dismiss them.
• Respect the child’s choices wherever possible, unless this would harm another member of the household.
• If one or more of their significant wishes can’t be delivered, work with the child’s social worker and Action for Children to ensure that the child understands as much as possible about why.
• Make sure the child knows how to contact an advocate, their social worker, the Children’s Commissioner, and Ofsted – all this information is in our Children’s Guides [links].
• Understand that the views of each child about their care will be regularly sought by independent reviewing officers, Action for Children and others. These views and the views of their family will be considered at the child’s regular reviews, and your own.
• Think about the child’s perspective as you keep their records, and if helpful, write your records as letters to the child (your training will help you to do this).
• Remember what children have told us: ‘Nothing about me, without me’.

[England Fostering National Minimum Standards: Standard 1]

Each child’s identity is built up from their heritage plus their experience. As a carer you can help a child to build a positive identity and to be a resilient individual, knowing who they are and proud to be themselves.

Your Action for Children Fostering social worker will help you to work with the child, and their local authority social worker, to deliver the child’s agreed Plan.

As a therapeutic service, Action for Children Fostering works to understand the specific needs of each child. We focus on how the relationship between you and a child, in a loving home, can lay firm foundations for the child’s future.

If you’re a short breaks carer, that means offering a loving home-from-home, opportunities to learn new skills, and fun – and a relationship that makes life better for all. Often your relationship with a child’s parent or main carer is central to the success of the child’s short breaks.

All Action for Children Fostering carers receive training and support to use our Homes Framework

To help to build a child’s pride in their identity:

• Listen to the child and show them that you get it – accept their feelings as they are.
• Familiarise yourself with the child’s individual Plan from their local authority, and work with the child’s social worker to help to deliver the Plan, supported by your Action for Children supervising social worker. Take part in regular reviews of how well the Plan is meeting the child’s needs.
• Recognise and celebrate the child’s family culture, whether it is similar or different to your own family’s. (For example, how are birthdays or anniversaries celebrated in their family?) Help the child to keep safe precious photos, cards, and any significant possessions linked to their family.
• Recognise and celebrate other aspects of the child’s heritage and identity. Does the child have religious beliefs or customs that you can learn about and support?
• Give the child some say in planning meals, to acknowledge their likes and dislikes. When appropriate, encourage them to choose and make their own snacks and drinks.
• Give them some choice and control, within reason, about what clothes to buy and wear, respecting also their family’s wishes.
• Ensure they receive the required amount of pocket money/allowance, as specified in the child’s plan and agreed with the local authority. Enable them to have their own account. Keep records of pocket money.
• Ensure they have a savings account with regular input, also as agreed in their plan; keep records of deposits.
• Short breaks carers will be supported with slight differences to these expectations: pocket money and savings are not applicable.

[England Fostering NMS Standard 2]

As a carer with Action for Children Fostering, your home should be a safe, nurturing space for a child. We will support you to do everything you can to build warm relationships and to model positive interactions.

All of us who work with children are required to follow Action for Children’s Behaviour Support Policy, guidance and procedures. Your Action for Children training covers these.

As in all aspects of a child’s care, you will be supported by your Action for Children Fostering social worker to follow the child’s individual local authority Plan.

Using the therapeutic Homes Framework [link if available?] that you’ll be trained in, you will be able to see behaviour as a communication and help a child to find healthy ways to express what they need.

Things you can do from day to day:

• Notice and praise what’s good.
• Seek always to understand how trauma in a child’s past can affect their current behaviour.
• Have clear routines and reasonable boundaries to help a child to feel safe and secure. You will agree these with your Action for Children Fostering supervising social worker and the child’s local authority worker. Depending on children’s age and development, they too should be involved in these decisions.
• Work with the team around the child, you will discuss any additional, specific risks and any behaviour support plans that the child may need.
• Use your training: our fostering services use well-established therapeutic principles for building and strengthening relationships. Your training begins with the approach known as PACE: bringing Playfulness; Acceptance; Curiosity; and Empathy to your interactions. Your supervising social worker will support you to access training and development of these skills and many more.

In any incident, here are some do’s and don’ts for behaviour:

Do: follow the policies, listen to the child and always seek advice from your Action for Children Fostering social worker.

Do: work with your training and advice to de-escalate any developing conflict with a child.

Do: report any incident of behaviour that challenges straight away, and keep clear written records that will be shared with the child’s local authority.

Do: report immediately to your supervising social worker/duty worker any behaviour that could harm the child or others. Follow the Safeguarding advice [link back to Safeguarding Quick Reference section 1.5 above]. In an emergency, call 999 first then report to Action for Children.

Don’t: Punish the child, physically or psychologically, for any behaviour that challenges. For example, it’s never acceptable to chastise a child physically, isolate a child or lock a bedroom door. It is never acceptable to make a child feel shame for their behaviour. Instead, a very brief and logical consequence works better. For example, if a child refuses to stop on-screen activities at an agreed time, a brief (15-minute) reduction in screen time next day could be a logical and proportionate consequence.

If you ask a child to take time ‘out’, you will need to sit or stay near them. You may want to think of ‘time out’ as ‘time to think’, both for the child and for yourself.

Do: Let the child know that once a consequence for a behaviour has happened, it’s over. Be warm, never cold.

Do: Take time to think yourself before reacting to any challenge. Seek advice from your supervising social worker or duty worker. It’s OK to pause.

Don’t: withhold family time (previously called contact) from the child as a punishment for behaviour that challenges. This is not permitted under fostering standards.

Don’t: deduct pocket money or allowances as a punishment – this is not permitted under fostering standards.

Don’t: restrain a child in any way, unless there is a written individual plan for this signed by your child’s social worker and Action for Children Fostering, and you have had specific additional training. If you have such a written plan, you must report immediately any use of it, and your child’s social worker will need to visit afterwards.

Duty of care:

Unless you have a specific agreement and training as above, the only other circumstance in which you could physically restrain a child would be in a duty of care, if a child was at imminent serious risk of harm (for example, about to run into traffic). If you restrain a child in a duty of care you must report it to your supervising social worker or duty worker immediately you have made the situation safe.

After any incident, a child’s own views and experience of what happened should be listened to with sensitivity, and reported to the child’s social worker without delay.

Do: take time to care for yourself. If a child’s behaviour challenges you, it’s good to recognise and accept this. Action for Children Fostering will support you to understand and manage your own feelings so that you can stay safe and well.

[England Fostering NMS 3]

If you are worried about a child, see Safeguarding: Quick Reference [link back to section 1], Section 1 for what to do if:

1. A child in your care has disclosed harm by another person
2. A child in your care is missing or absent without agreement
3. You’re worried that someone is putting a child in your care at risk (for example online)
4. A child in your care may be self-harming
5. A child in your care is involved in an incident, accident, injury or has an illness

In an emergency where life may be immediately at risk, please call 999 first, then contact Action for Children Fostering.

Safeguarding is a constant, ongoing responsibility that you can build into daily life. Action for Children Fostering believes all children should have a safe and happy childhood.

As a carer with Action for Children Fostering, your relationship with a child in your care can be strongly protective of their safety.

Remember: a child’s experience of a family home may not have been safe or happy. They will need to learn to feel safe with you. Their trust must be earned and sustained. Equally, you may not know everything that a child has experienced; if you are surprised at a child’s reaction to what you think is an everyday event, be sensitive and remember that a past experience may have surfaced because of an unknown trigger.

Preventing harm by building safety into care

Things you can do day-to-day:

• Model safe, open, calm behaviour, agree dependable routines as part of the child’s Plan, and be predictable.
• Work with your household Safer Care plan and the specific risk assessment for the child in your care. Keep your Action for Children Fostering social worker updated on any changes in your household or any change you notice in the child’s needs.
• Teach the child, as they grow, what’s involved in keeping themselves safe. This means helping them to value themselves, to know that they are worth keeping safe, and to know they can ask for help when needed.
• Teach them some key steps in self care – just as you teach a child to cross a road safely, you also teach a child about how to keep personal information private, how to protect themselves online, and how to say no.
• Help them to recognise threats even when these have been concealed to entice them into danger.
• Help them to develop knowledge and language around risks – for example, labelling experiences as scary or naming feelings such as suspicion.
• Give them practice in saying ‘No, I don’t want to’, strategies for getting out of something they don’t like, and helping them to communicate their feelings.
• You can often use everyday opportunities to talk these things through. Use a TV programme or YouTube clip they’ve watched as an opening for a chat that’s about someone else, instead of them – a social story that can give them permission to feel and think things, and to use vocabulary that they might not otherwise have been able to.
• If a child in your care has a disability, remember that this makes them significantly more vulnerable to abuse and harm. Work with the child’s local authority and Action for Children Fostering to ensure your communication skills are honed to help them. Listen and observe. Report any concerns, however minor they might seem, without delay. For example if a child returns from school with an apparent bruise, report it immediately to your Action for Children Fostering social worker or duty worker so that the child’s local authority can be informed without delay.
• You’ll receive training, regularly updated, in every aspect of Safeguarding, so that you can help to protect a child from harm, including exploitation and abuse, online and offline. You can read much more about this on the links below.
• Working with your child’s local authority and Action for Children Fostering, you’ll follow the correct procedures to ensure risks are minimised, that your home is a place of safety for a child in your care, and that the child will feel able to tell you about worries outside the home.
• From the initial checks and assessments undertaken before your approval, through to regular reviews, Action for Children will support you to keep providing a safe home through the changing needs of a growing child. This will include a regular review of home safety, safe use of medication, and other checks.

Worried about a child in your care? Contact your Action for Children Fostering social worker or duty worker without delay for advice on next steps. You and Action for Children must report concerns to the child’s local authority, and other services where needed, to protect the child.

If you are worried about a child, see our safeguarding quick reference.

[England Fostering NMS 4, 5]

A child in your care should enjoy the best physical and emotional health possible, and have prompt access to care and treatment when needed. For a child to grow up healthily, you should help them to understand how to take care of themselves, how to seek help, and to know that they are worthy of good care and treatment at all times.

As their carer, you can help a child to enjoy the things in life that improve their health – a balanced diet with healthy choices, sufficient sleep, exercise, purposeful activity, fresh air and fun, among other things. (There’s good evidence that laughter benefits mental health for us all!)

You must also help to advocate for a child in your care to get specialist help, including therapeutic options, where needed, and to increase the opportunities for a child who may face limited mobility or other disabilities.

Things to do day-to-day:

• Build healthy routines into your household. Support a child in your care by modelling healthy behaviours yourself – for example, being physically active when you can, choosing healthy foods and engaging with other people in the community for activities and/or relaxation.
• All children in foster care should be registered with a general practitioner, dentist and optician. The child’s social worker will need all their contact details. You will need to support the child to attend all medical and health appointments and to have regular checks. All healthcare appointments must be logged.
• Depending on the child’s age, you will work with them and their local authority plan to have increasing choice and control over their health. They will be involved in decisions about their treatment.
• Children will be treated with respect and confidentiality in matters of their health.
• Each child will have their own Plan with their local authority, including for their health and wellbeing needs. As their Action for Children carer it is your job, with our support, to help carry out their Plan.
• Under the child’s Plan and their Delegated Authority agreement with their local authority, you should be clear about what treatments and care you can consent to, those you cannot consent to, and (in the case of older children) what the child can consent to themselves. Some treatments require specific agreement from the child’s local authority’s senior manager. For example, planned surgery with a general anaesthetic must be authorised by the child’s local authority head of service. Check the child’s delegated authority agreement, and contact your Action for Children Fostering social worker for more information.
• If you’re a short-breaks carer, the child’s parent or main carer would normally be the person to give consent for their treatment, with older children giving consent themselves wherever possible. Your supervising social worker will advise you about your responsibilities, for example regarding medication and treatment while a child is staying with you for short breaks.
• You will receive additional training if a child in your care has complex health needs.
• If your home requires adaptations for a child with specific mobility or other needs, these should be agreed in advance with the child’s healthcare provider and local authority, which should bear the costs.
• Any medication given to a child in your care must be prescribed, and administered only as prescribed. You are responsible for ensuring medication is safely stored and used within its expiry date. You will receive training on how to store, check and administer medication and, equally importantly, how to record this as required by regulations.
• If a child in your care refuses prescribed medication you should also document and report this.

Older children may wish to manage some, or all, of their medication themselves. If this is the case it must be agreed with their local authority. Contact your Action for Children Fostering social worker in the first instance if a child wishes to do this.

Injuries and illnesses

You must seek medical attention for a child in your care if they are unwell or injured. Any illness, accident or injury experienced by a child in your care, however minor, should also be reported to your Action for Children Fostering social worker or the Out of Hours duty worker. Please see Section 1 Safeguarding Quick Reference 1.5 [link].

[England Fostering NMS 6

As a carer with Action for Children Fostering, you can make an enormous difference to the life of a child by ensuring your home provides opportunities for learning, play and achievement of all kinds.

This includes, but isn’t only about, school learning. Children in care overall have faced an unacceptable disadvantage in education, but much of this disadvantage can be avoided. Children in stable foster homes do as well at GCSEs as the general population at Year 11. Many have achieved apprenticeships, degrees and other qualifications that open doors for them. This shows how important your home is as a springboard for learning and for a child’s future.

For school-based learning, you’ll help a child by:

• listening to the child, and working with them to help them get the best from school;
• engaging with their school and building relationships to support them;
• making sure the child attends daily, and advocating for the child if this is difficult;
• attending any meetings for parents and carers, and
• attending the child’s regular personal education plan reviews with their teachers and their local authority.

You’ll be expected to provide a quiet space in your house for them to do homework, access to online resources, and help with their learning as appropriate.

If a child is excluded from school, please tell your Action for Children Fostering worker immediately and we will work with the local authority to put plans in place for the child, and to advocate for their return to learning.

If a child has additional learning needs we will work with you, their education provider and within the new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) arrangements to seek the best possible support.

Older children will be offered careers advice and opportunities to progress to further and higher education, including apprenticeships, as necessary; you can make a profound difference to their confidence and self belief by helping them research options, fill forms, and attend open days.

Leisure and learning outside school or college

School isn’t everything. Children also need to have access to leisure activities, creativity, hobbies and sports. Maybe they’re great at dancing; maybe they have a flair for fashion, or art or football or frisbee? Perhaps they can DJ or play an instrument? They need chances to develop talents and interests and to have fun with their peers. As a foster carer, you will support the child in your care to engage with the leisure, creative or sporting activities that are most appealing and accessible to them. You can advocate for them, agree actions with the local authority and help to build these into the child’s Plan. A child living with an Action for Children Fostering family should experience a childhood that’s happy, active, encouraged, and as much like other children’s as it can be.

>Plan and work with the child and their local authority social worker to ensure that they have a range of rewarding opportunities to choose from.

Additional financial support MAY be available to contribute to the cost of some more expensive adventure activities and trips. Ask your Action for Children Fostering social worker for more information.

The child’s Delegated Authority agreement should be consulted to confirm exactly what activities you yourself can agree to, such as day trips and (in many cases) short sleepovers with friends. Some activities will need approval from the local authority. The agreement is individualised to each child.

Always ask your Action for Children supervising social worker to clarify anything that you’re unsure about.

Some of the more adventurous activities a child might undertake (such as horse riding, climbing or certain sports) will have specific risk assessments; your Action for Children Fostering social worker will support you with these.

Holidays:

Holidays with your family can be really important for a child in your care. They can help to confirm a child’s sense of inclusion in your household, and to broaden their experience.

For some children, the change of setting and routine can be challenging and it’s important to plan for individual needs and sensitivities.

Always check as far in advance as possible with your Action for Children Fostering social worker, who will help you to prepare for the holiday, including any necessary permissions, risk assessments and support plans.

If you plan to go abroad:

You will need to make sure you allow plenty of time for your child’s local authority social worker to get a passport for your child.

You will need written agreement from the local authority head of service for your travel together. You will need to take this letter with you. This is for the purposes of UK Border staff and helps to protect all children against trafficking.

Action for Children Fostering urges you to start as early as you can by telling your supervising social worker about proposed holidays, a year in advance if you can. Action for Children has successfully supported many children to enjoy holidays abroad with great success – but the more time to plan, the better.

[England Fostering NMS 7 and 8]

A child’s family will almost always be extremely important to them and their identity. As a service, Action for Children Fostering has a duty to support children to maintain and develop their family relationships wherever this is possible.

As a carer with Action for Children Fostering, you must support a child in your care as agreed to have regular, planned time with members of their own family. Where appropriate, family time can also extend to include non-related other people who are significant to a child. The detailed arrangements for family time will be agreed in the local authority’s Plan for the child.

The arrangements may be subject to specific limits and restrictions in the child’s Plan. Family time must always be safe for the child.

In rare cases, a Court order may prevent a member of a child’s family from having any contact with them. This will be clearly set out in the child’s Plan and Action for Children Fostering will support you to work with it.

Previously known as ‘contact’, family time should be constructive and positive for a child.

In some circumstances, family time will be supervised, for example by a local authority worker. Sometimes you will be asked to be present. In other circumstances, family time will be unsupervised; this is most common for older children.

Family time will usually be somewhere outside the foster home – occasionally in play/children’s centres but often in the community such as at a café/restaurant, or entertainment centre. Parents, grandparents and siblings may be present, or just one relative.

For some children, family time raises strong feelings, and may be a source of stress before and after a visit. As with all care, listen to the child and notice any changes in behaviour that may be linked to family time. If you are concerned about the impact of family time on a child, or the child’s views, you must report this without delay.

Action for Children Fostering will support you to help the child emotionally with these experiences, and will also support you.

As a carer with Action for Children Fostering, you should be assisted with the costs of travelling with a child to and from family time.

Short breaks carers are also expected to work positively and constructively with the family or main carer of a child who comes to stay. However, unless the child is also subject to a care order, the above arrangements for family time do not apply. Your Action for Children supervising social worker will clarify any questions you may have.

[England Fostering NMS 9]

A child living with Action for Children foster carers should be offered a safe, warm, clean home in good order.

It should be adequately furnished and decorated, and kept to a good standard of cleanliness and hygiene.

It should have enough space for all household members.

Any child aged 3 or above should have their own bedroom unless there is a specific agreement for sharing with a sibling, and the children’s views have been taken fully into account. The child’s local authority must agree to any sharing arrangement.

Depending on their needs and experiences, some children will always need a separate bedroom and this will be part of their local authority Plan.

Children will need respect for their privacy and as they grow older; they should be given choices about their private space, sharing in decisions about decorating their bedroom and expressing their identity through their choices. They should be encouraged to take pride in their room.

If children have additional needs and require special equipment or mobility aids, the home needs to be large enough to accommodate such equipment.

We will work with you on your household Health and Safety checklist and your Safer Care plan.

Storage of household cleaning materials, hazardous tools or substances, and medication must always be safe and secure. There are clear rules about the storage of any item that could be used as a weapon: check with your Action for Children supervising social worker for details.

Any outside space should also be safe, enclosed and kept in good order.

Foster carers are responsible for ensuring that any car used to carry children is safe, insured and fitted with appropriate seatbelts, plus child seats where appropriate.

If children ride bikes, trikes or scooters, these will need to be well maintained, ridden with a helmet and subject to checks.

Short breaks carers offering a ‘home-from-home’ to a child are also required to ensure the safety of the home throughout a child’s short break. Working with Action for Children Fostering and the child’s other professional team such as occupational therapists, they must ensure that any required special equipment is used safely, with any required training, and with adequate space for all.

Action for Children will undertake unannounced visits (normally two a year) to ensure that the child can expect a consistently safe and welcoming home.

[England Fostering NMS 10]

For any child, it may be daunting to be told that they are moving into a home that is not their own. With Action for Children Fostering’s support, you can help to ease this stressful situation for them.

Action for Children Fostering works hard to help to find a child the best possibly matched carers to meet their needs.

The home-finding works like this:

Local authorities ask us to help them to find foster homes for children.

We will consult you when we have information about a child who needs a home, and when we believe that child would benefit from your skills and care. If you agree that you could help, we will put you forward for consideration by the authority, initially only with outline details. We will only put forward foster carers who we believe have the right skills to offer the child.

Your profile will be shared with the child’s local authority. Meanwhile we will gather all the information we can obtain about the child’s needs and share it with you.

If the local authority chooses the carers we have put forward, we will send the child’s social worker your Welcome Pack so that they can show the child where they will live and who with.

After a series of steps, including possibly a visit from the child’s social worker, and an opportunity for you to meet the child, there will be a planning meeting. A child should be able to meet you before this meeting and before they move in. Sometimes they need to move immediately and this is not possible, but where appropriate you could still offer them a ‘virtual tour’ and a chat on screen with their social worker.

The planning meeting

The planning meeting should give you clear written information about the child’s routines, the people who matter to them, their school, health care and other services involved, their likes and dislikes and their family time arrangements. Any risks should be clearly stated and measures to mitigate risks agreed. There should also be agreement on pocket money and savings. You should receive a Delegated Authority agreement that shows you exactly what consents you can give, and what decisions you can make.

You should have all the written information you need to care for the child. If any information is missing, Action for Children Fostering will pursue this proactively.

When a child moves in, they should be welcomed, given space if they want it, and treated as a full member of the family household. They should be able to bring their possessions. You can help to welcome them with sensitive touches to personalise their room, notice their favourite foods, etc.

Helping a child to settle includes giving them knowledge of any household routines, and making sure that they know they’re able to move around the house and use the kitchen, bathroom etc in an age appropriate way.

Some children will feel safe only if they know exactly what’s happening when – including when tea is and what’s for tea! Be kind, sensitive and welcoming.

Find ways to connect, for example through music, dance, film or play. All can help a child to bond with you.

[England Fostering NMS11]

A child living with carers for Action for Children Fostering will eventually approach adulthood.

Like any other children, the child has the right to develop understanding and skills that will prepare them for adulthood.

This means that, as their development allows, you will need to help them learn key life skills such as cooking, housework and keeping things clean, using a washing machine, travelling on public transport, managing online activities and managing money.

Helping the child to make use of their education is a key factor in skilling them for adulthood.

They will need your support to build healthy peer relationships, and experience typical teenage activities if they wish to, including sleepovers, going to a rock concert, and going to parties. As always, your Action for Children Fostering social worker will help you to check what consents you can give under Delegated Authority, or where specific permission from the child’s local authority is needed.

As children develop physically and emotionally towards adulthood, they will need help to build healthy awareness of their sexuality and to form healthy sexual relationships.

At 16 children will often be expected to manage family time without support and unsupervised; you will need to help them through guidance, conversation and with advice from your supervising social worker.

You may be asked to support a 17 year old to start driving lessons, to apply for an apprenticeship, and more.

Your Action for Children Fostering social worker will support you with the sometimes challenging questions you may need to answer and ensure that the child’s local authority is kept informed and consulted at all times.

Staying Put:

Some local authorities support a child who wishes to stay with their foster carers when they turn 18, under a ‘Staying Put’ agreement – for example while they complete their education. If you and the young adult agree and the local authority will support the arrangement, Action for Children will enable you to host this young adult, if it’s in their interests, up to age 21. Different arrangements will apply as this is no longer foster care.

If a child has complex physical needs, they are likely to need a different form of care in adulthood. Your supervising social worker will advise you on this.

[Scotland: section on Continuing Care?]

Moving on:

When children do move on and leave your home, they may return to their own families, to another foster home or to other forms of accommodation such as supported living or independence. If this is the case, it’s important that the child or young adult has opportunities to understand why they are leaving and that this is planned, with their views heard, and in full agreement with their local authority. Wherever possible and in line with a child’s wishes, you and your supervising social worker should plan a proper ‘ending’ to mark the child’s time with your family and to celebrate this chapter in their life. You are encouraged to maintain positive communication with a child after they’ve moved on unless there are specific reasons to prevent this. The child’s time in your care may always be a very significant part of their story.

[England Fostering NMS 12]