Supporting foster carers - finding placements.
There is a shortage of approximately ten thousand foster carers at any one time in the UK. This causes two major problems; one being the obvious lack of numbers and the other being the lack of choice for social workers when trying to find the most suitable foster carers for their children. The previous government ignored calls for a foster carer registration scheme which would have given foster carers much more status and could have given local authorities direct access to foster carers and their vacancies.
Placing with foster carers - Social Services
Social Services Fostering Placement Teams refer to a list of Independent Fostering Agencies, some of which are Preferred Providers, when they are unable to find an in house foster carer with a suitable vacancy. The placement social worker then starts to trawl, fingers crossed, through the list. This is time consuming but usually successful.The problem - The gap in the placement process
The system is not fool proof and there are social workers who have to continue to search for the very best match for their children. This is where there is a huge gap in the process which the Child Placement Vacancy Database fills, giving social services and foster carers the opportunity to connect directly with each other accross the UK.Foster carers - Frustrated child care providers
Without stating the obvious, foster carers go through the assessment process to foster children. However a large number of carers reading this will be or have been, extremely frustrated by the lack of placements. What adds to the frustration is that as applicants, they were told how desperate the UK is for more foster carers due too the massive annual shortfall.Fostering Agencies
Connecting people - making placements
The majority of the three hundred or so Independent Fostering Agencies provide placements for their local social services department.
Their foster carers with vacancies are often not known to the other four hundred or so Local Authorities looking for placements both in and outside of their boundaries.
Fostering Agencies should join us by registering
with Child Care Providers. It's free, so why not?