Finding homes for looked after children
What we do
Placements and Fostering Officers work in the Commissioning and Placements team and are the main link workers for the Fostering Service. Part of their role is to collate a list of available foster homes. This includes information about foster carers including their skills, experience and whether there are any other children in the home. This information allows the officer to match carers with children based on the child’s needs and the carer’s ability to meet these.
They discuss with the Fostering Duty Workers or Supervising Social Worker any potential foster homes which are available for the children in need of care and keep in touch as to whether they would be suitable or if another home needs to be found.
Officers can attend placement support meetings to help make creative packages of support for a child’s home. They can also share knowledge they have gained from working with private fostering agencies and children’s homes around strategies that work to stabilise and support children and families.
Duty system
The Commissioning and Placements team have a duty system for identifying homes for children. Duty workers are responsible for quality checking the information which is provided about the child through a form called a ‘placement request’. Duty workers make sure the information describes the child, their interests, strengths and qualities, as well as any risks or concerns. We want the information to bring the child to life! It is important that the right information is received to help the workers make decisions about whether the child could be cared for by the foster family.
