ABC Fostering Services Ltd

General information

Statement of Purpose
Introduction

This Statement of Purpose has been revised to take account of the expectations of the National Minimum Standards and Statutory Guidance issued in April 2011.

As demanded by the standards, this Statement of Purpose sets out ABC Fostering’s Aims and Objectives, the services and facilities it provides and how the service sets about monitoring the outcomes for the children we serve.

In keeping with the expectation of the National Minimum Standard 16.1 this Statement of Purpose is made available to the following:

Foster carers approved by ABC Fostering Services;
Staff members of ABC Fostering Services;
Any social worker of a child placed with ABC Fostering Services;
A parent or person with parental responsibility of any child placed with ABC Fostering Services.
A shortened version is also made available to foster children, along with a children’s guide.

1. How ABC Fostering Services ensures the Secure Base model is a part of all that we do

ABC Fostering Services is committed to embedding the Secure Base model into all that we do in the following ways:

Introducing the Secure Base model in all our recruitment literature and on the website, so that anyone interested in fostering knows about the model right from the start;
Delivering our preparation group training with a specific emphasis upon the importance of the Secure Base model to all prospective foster carers;
Ensuring that the final analysis sections of all our assessments of prospective foster carers address the five dimensions of the Secure Base model;
Making sure that our Foster Carer Handbook, made available to all our approved foster carers, makes reference to the Secure Base model;
Making sure that the Foster Carer Review format considers the quality of care provided by each of our foster carers through the lens of the five Secure Base dimensions.

2. Quality Assurance and Measuring Outcomes

Quality Assurance and Measuring Outcomes
To monitor the quality of the services outlined above, ABC Fostering Services uses the following three channels:

Case records;
All the case records completed by ABC Fostering Services staff are monitored by the registered manager and managing director on a monthly basis, with action taken to address any shortfalls. All foster carer records are signed off and monitored through regular supervision provided by supervising social worker.

The independent scrutiny of the fostering panel;
It is the role of the fostering panel to make recommendations about the approval status of foster carers. In addition, ABC Fostering Services is committed to ensuring that fostering panel takes a balanced but robust approach to its independent scrutiny role, and that the panel provides independent feedback on the quality of all the reports it considers.
The voice of the child.
The voice of child is carefully listened to as evidenced in the Looked after Child Review, the Foster Carer Review and six monthly annual consultation events and questionnaires developed by ABC Fostering Services. ABC Fostering Services challenges itself each year to demonstrate the difference that seeking the views of children has made to our services.

In addition to the methods outlined above, outcomes for the service as a whole are measured in the following areas:

• Educational attainment and attendance ;
• Placement stability;
• Number of complaints and allegations;
• Number of incidents of children going missing from care;
• Number of accidents or other noteworthy incidents involving foster children;
• Number of children with an up-to-date care plan and placement plan.
Quarterly reports regarding the quality and impact of our services are presented to the ABC Board.

3. The Aims of ABC Fostering Services – a child-focussed service

ABC Fostering Services is committed to providing caring, nurturing homes for children who are unable to live with their birth families. ABC Fostering Services is committed to enabling children to achieve their potential and to develop resilience, overcoming the loss and trauma they may have experienced in the past.

To help us to achieve this aim, ABC Fostering Services actively promotes the ‘Secure Base’ model of fostering developed by Gillian Schofield and Mary Beek. As well as being well evidenced in terms of social care and psychological research, the model is quickly explained and its relevance to day to day fostering easily grasped by social workers and foster carers alike.

The ‘Secure Base’ model identifies five inter-related dimensions of high quality foster care as follows:

Availability - helping children and young people to trust.
Sensitivity - helping children and young people to manage feelings and behaviour.
Acceptance - building the self-esteem of children and young people.
Co-operation - helping children and young people to feel effective.
Family membership - helping young people to belong, both to their foster family and also to make sense of their relationship to their birth family.
ABC Fostering Services recognises how these five dimensions interact to provide a nurturing environment where children have the best chance to flourish and thrive.
Although the ’Secure Base’ model is based upon attachment theory, which is sometimes explained in terms of a young child’s relationship with a parent, Schofield and Beek have successfully demonstrated through their research and writings that the model applies equally well to older children and young people. The ‘Secure Base’ model can be successfully applied to the foster care of children of all ages.

4. The Objectives of ABC Fostering Services

ABC Fostering Services aims to provide:

A service where children come first, in terms of our thinking and planning as well as their achievements;
Foster homes where children feel they belong rather than placements in a care system;
Foster carers who actively promote the principles of the ‘Secure Base’ model of fostering in the day to day care that they provide;
Foster carers who are fully prepared, supported, supervised and trained in their role;
Foster homes which provide stability and security to children;
Foster homes which promote a child’s positive sense of their own identity - including their culture, religion and ethnicity – respecting the child’s origins in every aspect of the care provided;
Foster homes which promote contact when appropriate for the foster child;
Foster homes which help the foster child make sense of their past;
Foster homes which actively promote the child’s education and learning, including celebrating and developing their talents and hobbies;
Foster homes which actively promote the child’s health, including mental health;
Foster homes which help children understand and manage risks for themselves;
Foster homes which actively prepare the young person for adulthood, at a pace and style that the young person can absorb;
Foster homes which are carefully matched with the needs of the child;
Foster homes which children leave, whenever possible, in a planned way or, when this is not possible, which help foster children to understand why they had to leave unexpectedly;
Social worker supervision of foster carers that, although supportive and mindful of the challenging role played by foster carers, takes a robust approach to poor practice, challenging foster carers to provide the high quality care that children deserve;
A service which takes its safeguarding seriously, both in terms of the rigorous recruitment of foster carers and staff and also in terms of involving statutory agencies appropriately when issues of concern come to light with staff or foster carers;
A collaborative approach to care planning with the responsible authority, supporting the development of an up-to-date and child-focussed care plan for each child, ensuring a clear pathway to permanence is achieved as quickly as possible.

5. The Services provided by ABC Fostering Services

In order to meet these aims and objectives ABC Fostering Services provides the following services:

Foster homes across the Midlands and the South West able to care for children of different ages;
Foster homes able to keep siblings together when needed;
Foster homes where the child is the only child when needed (sometimes known as solo placements);
Foster carers able to contribute towards the ongoing assessment of each foster child, supporting the development and review of the child’s care plan as appropriate;
Foster carers specifically trained to care for children with complex health needs;
Foster carers specifically and intensively trained to provide Parent and Child Arrangements (the term ‘arrangements’ is the one preferred by the Department for Education).

A note on the character and distribution of this Statement of Purpose

Please note that this Statement of Purpose has been drafted to take account of the new expectations of the National Minimum Standards, Statutory Guidance and Regulations for Fostering Services issued in April 2011. As set out in Standard 16.2 this Statement of Purpose is child-focussed, setting out how the aims and objectives of the service will meet outcomes for children. It sets out the principles underpinning the service. It explicitly does not set out details of the processes, procedures and structural information demanded by the superseded 2002 standards, all of which are available upon request.

As demanded by Standard 16.1 this Statement of Purpose is made available to foster carers, staff and children. A version of this Statement of Purpose is incorporated into the children’s guide.

As demanded by Regulation 3(2) of The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011, this Statement of Purpose is made available to the parents of foster children and prospective foster carers.