Transferring foster families quickly is more safe, and more compliant… discuss…
A series of three short blogs from Jane Keenan #3 of 3…deep breaths, people… minds may be blown
To recap the final paragraph of last time:
“Ok, alright… I hear…
…so it might be safe enough… safer than for new families, safer for the kids to get the transfer done quickly… but there’s nothing in the regs, standards or guidance that allows for that…
…I mean, we’d love to, but our hands are tied!
I kinda see how maybe we could get it done in a few weeks… I’m still struggling with a few days to be honest… but anyway… we have to be compliant!
We have Local Authorities to reassure, and Ofsted… they aren’t going to like it!
We’ve always done it this way for a reason, right…?”
How do we figure out what to do, when we’re all committed to not only complying with the regs, standards and guidance, but also to continuous improvement?
Social Workers are required to log CPD - Continuous Professional Development.
Continuous.
Throughout the world, good organisations are expected to learn, to evolve, to find solutions to new problems.
The magnificent Maya Angelou has a way with words:
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Hell, that’s why the independent fostering sector exists right!
Good old Nancy Hazel… changing the world, proving that teenagers could be fostered in a time when they just weren’t, when no-one thought it possible… good ol’ Nancy, then Brig and Jane founding the very first IFA… deciding to do things differently…
You don’t know that story?
It’s a stonker… another time perhaps.
But it is why - my respected friends in NAFP registered IFAs - it is why you exist.
Someone deciding to do things NOT the way they’ve always been done, but differently… in ways that are better for the kids we’re here to serve.
We get continuous improvement - alongside compliance - right, by starting with and focussing on what’s best for the kids and for the families who foster them.
So… here’s why transferring families quickly is MORE compliant than going slow…
Ed Timpson may look cuddly (just me?) but packed a punch as Children’s Minister a while back. He comes from a fostering family, as it happens.
As I’m sure many of you know, he was responsible for a number of changes to reduce bureaucracy in fostering, including, for example, delegated authority.
And look what he wrote into the 2013 statutory guidance on ‘assessment and approval of foster carers’, my bolding:
“Sharing information about a person that is held in their existing foster carer…records is permitted for the purposes of informing a new assessment of a person’s suitability to foster…. The intention is to ensure that the fostering service… has all the relevant information that already exists about a person, so avoiding unnecessary delay in the process by which… an approved foster carer, or person who was approved…in the past, can be approved by a new fostering service.”
Avoiding. Unnecessary. Delay.
If we can gather the information required in a month… taking two months is an unnecessary delay, and is therefore less compliant.
If we can gather it in a week… two weeks is an unnecessary delay; less compliant.
If we can get a rigorous, compliant Panel process, including ADM decision, done in a couple of days … anything longer is an unnecessary delay.
What if we could gather the information in a day?
Mind blown, about how we’ve always done it?
Transferring foster families quickly is more safe, and more compliant… discussed.
There will still be questions!
And there’s loads more detail involved to make it happen.
Jane began operating this approach in 2015, in organisations rated Outstanding, and on Friday 12th April will be joining the best practice group for an opportunity for live chat, and to consider a whole new way of transferring foster families, fast.
Ready to revolutionise the sector?
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