Welcome to the Winter issue of "Fostering Matters" - UPDATED ISSUE
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Welcome to the Winter issue of "Fostering Matters", we hope you enjoy reading our newsletter. Please send any comments, news or contributions for the newsletter to our editor, Martha Holland, by replying to this email.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We hope you enjoy the holidays.
Thank you to everyone for all your good work, help and support across the year.
Foster Carer Fun Day
Around 80 foster carers and 50 children gathered for the Northern team's bi-annual foster carer fun day. The familyplacement.com family has grown so much in this area that this time we needed to find a bigger hall and Exeter Hall in Kidlington fitted the bill.
We had a full day of activities for all the children to enjoy, along with a great science show from `Atomic Science` and karaoke for the teens to enjoy and `belt out a few tunes`.
As ever the foster carers and children enjoyed a hot lunch and some really yummy homemade cakes. The teens had the chance to mix some `mocktails` from all sorts of juices and syrups.
A wonderful day was had by all and there were lots of positive comments as the children made pom pom animals, bead bracelets, badges, fairy houses and played lots of games. Oh and not forgetting that everyone went home with a glitter tattoo...including the workers and male foster carers!
Question & Answer with Senem
Meet our new student, Senem, a third year undergraduate due to qualify with a BSc in social work next June and is working from our Hampshire Office.
Q. What made you want to qualify as a social worker?
A. My own experience growing up gave me an interest in the lives of others. I have a particular interest in families and children and want to help improve their lives and futures.
Q. Why did you choose to come to fp.c?
A. My last placement was in a contact centre where I met children who were fostered. I thought it would be very interesting to see where they lived and the care they received while in foster care. This would be a new experience for me and fp.c has a good reputation, which also made it appealing.
Q. What are you enjoying about your new role?
A. It’s still quite new to me but I am really enjoying meeting all those involved with fp.c and learning about why children are fostered.
Q. Where do you see yourself working once you qualify?
A. Definitely in children and families! I plan to do my first year in child protection but hope I can return to fostering in the future.
What an achievement!
One of our foster children, Tommy*, is showing loads of potential in the field of running, this year completing the Coventry, and more recently, the Birmingham half marathon on 15th October in 1 hour 23 minutes, which is such a fantastic time. Tommy is only 16 years old and has only been running for the last 12 months.
*this is not his real name or photograph, it has been changed to protect his identity
A Good Day...
By Steve, foster carer
A good day starts with not having to get up at 4.15am to let your favourite 15 year old dog out to toilet! Once up I cannot get back to sleep for fear of oversleeping.
I wake the young lad who we foster at 6.30am and we have a good breakfast. We leave the house just after 7.30am.
A good day is when we chat in the car for the 30 minute drive.
A good day is when it's not raining. We get to the park around 8am and walk through, again chatting about nothing and everything.
I get home around 8.45am, have another cup of tea - I firmly believe our household keeps the tea industry going in this country!
A good day might be going to a Foster Carer Practice Meeting to meet up with other foster carers. We are newish to fostering...
Training update
In the next few weeks our carers will receive the updated Fp.c Training Programme along with a schedule of Training Workshops and Local Practice Meetings in your area. We have been working to extend the variety of online courses available to carers as well as the opportunity for carers to attend more in depth, extended training courses.
In 2018 we will be providing carers with the opportunity to attend the Fostering Changes Programme. This programme is specifically designed for foster carers to help you manage difficult behaviour and improve your relationships with the children you look after. It is a behaviourally based programme which derives from research into parenting skills, attachment, educational attainment and the academic progression of looked after children who are in Foster Care. Fostering Changes covers twelve core modules, which will be delivered over a number of weeks and includes topics such as Understanding and Recording Behaviour, Positive Attention, Communication Skills, Education and Endings, etc.
Your supervising social worker will arrange to see you shortly to complete training booking forms and will provide a copy of your training record to ensure that you are booked on to all required courses.
Company news
We'd like to send a warm welcome to our newly approved foster carers: Bero; Wendie & Richard; Graham & Sally; Sandy & Richard; Paul & Kathryn; Sheelagh & Patrick; Audrey; and Tammie & Ian. Welcome to our fostering team!
Congratulations to our foster carers Beccy & Mike Knight who gave birth to their twin boys, Spencer and Maxx, on 14th July 2017.
We had a great response to our Christmas card competition. The quality of entries was so high it was difficult to choose but we're pleased to announce that the winning entries were Travis and Kali. We will be announcing the runners up shortly. Well done everyone for all your hard work. Look out for a copy of the winning cards which will be on our website soon!
Exciting news! We have purchased Max Cards for all our foster carers, which will be with you soon. The Max Card is a discount card for foster families. Families simply show their Max Card upon entry to a venue in order to obtain free or discounted admission.
Young Persons Website
This will be going live soon. All young people who are looked after by Fp.c will be receiving log-in details which will enable them to access the site. We look forward to hearing everyone's feedback.
Recruitment advisers
We have now welcomed six foster carers into our Recruitment Advisers pilot scheme. They are about to receive some training and the project will start in the new year. Look out for some introductions in future newsletters.
Mentoring Update
We are pleased to report that we are moving ahead with the new peer to peer mentoring scheme for newly approved foster carers. We are on target to launch the pilot from our Hampshire office in January and will be recruiting our first mentors then. Please keep a look out as more information will be coming your way!
Children's Council News
We are really pleased to welcome Rachel Leason to our Child Participation team. Rachel will be holding meetings in the North; look out for dates and venues. Please speak to your Supervising Social Worker if you would like more information
BookTrust have just published the Great Books Guide 2017 for Children's Book Week. Featuring recommended books for children aged 0-13, there is something for everyone. The right book is always what a child actually wants to read – and the BookTrust hopes their guide inspires your family to find that book.
Note from the editor
Martha Holland joined familyplacement.com in January 2017 as Recruitment and Marketing Adviser.
Martha deals with all initial enquiries from prospective foster carers over the telephone, via the website and face to face answering any questions they have about fostering with us, sending out Information Packs and progressing suitable enquirers to the next stage of the process to become a foster carer. Martha is also involved with marketing familyplacement.com to prospective foster carers. This includes: posting news stories and event information to Facebook, Twitter and our website; online advertising; the production of our quarterly email newsletter, ‘Fostering Matters’; and updates to our brochure for prospective foster carers.
