Statement of Purpose

Aims and Objectives

Aims

At Aim High Fostering Services (AHFS) our primary aim is to provide children in care with a stable, secure and nurturing family environment because we believe that the very best environment for a child to grow up in is a family. The needs and welfare of the child is paramount at all times and our service reflects this. We recruit and fully train competent Foster Carers from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds in order to deliver a fully inclusive, holistic approach in supporting children and young people. By implementing the National Minimum Standards we ensure the physical, mental, emotional and educational welfare of our looked-after children is of the utmost importance and we strive to exceed the expectations outlined in the ‘Fostering Services National Minimum Standards & Regulations 2011’

Objectives

➢ Ensure that only competent Foster Carers are recruited and full assessment and training is provided.

➢ Ensure Foster Carers reflect a broad section of society and the local community.

➢ Ensure all Foster Carers are fully supported 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and have access to continual professional development throughout their career.

➢ Deliver foster placements that provide looked after children with a caring, safe and secure environment, free from abuse, neglect, exploitation and deprivation where they can achieve their full potential.

➢ Offer individually tailored placements and to ensure children and young people are carefully matched to best meet their needs.

➢ Ensure children and young people receive quality, consistency and continuity in all aspects of their family life including Foster Carer, Social Worker education and health.

➢ Provide opportunities for children and young people to remain with their siblings and to facilitate regular contact with immediate or extended family members and close friends.

➢ Prepare young people with the necessary competencies and skills in preparation for adult living, thus enabling a smooth transition when leaving care to independent or semi-independent living.

➢ Ensure all staff and Foster Carers are trained to the highest standard and receive regular and on-going training, including relevant up-to-date legislation and safeguarding procedures.

➢ Ensure all Foster Carers receive additional training and guidance in regards to special needs placements, including children and young people with disabilities and teenagers dealing with issues such as gang affiliation, drugs, sexual exploitation and self-harming.

➢ Provide additional training for all household members, including children of fostering families on issues such as; safer caring, managing difficult behaviour and situations, boundaries, feelings and general support.

➢ Provide Foster Carers with training and resources to support children and young people who are new to the UK and have English as an additional language.

➢ To provide fun activities, outings, in-house support groups for birth and looked after children and young people and to provide support sessions on issues pertaining to their needs.

➢ To recognise and celebrate each child and young person’s progress and achievement

➢ Consult with children and young people and Foster Carers. Ensure their views are listened to and considered in services and future planning.

➢ To provide a pro-active, responsive and professional service to Foster Carers, children and young people and commissioning authorities.

➢ Continue forming strong working relationships with existing and potential Local Authorities by offering high-quality foster placements.

➢ Value diversity and ensure our work is undertaken in an equal opportunity environment.

➢ Aim High Fostering Services will continually review its service and self-evaluate in order to meet all the legal requirements and exceed the standards laid down in fostering regulations.

Aim High Fostering Services (AHFS) maintains a carefully selected central list of persons suitable to sit on fostering panels in accordance with the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011.

The Fostering Panel consists of five to ten members who have a variety of expertise and knowledge including social work, youth offending, health, education and experience of being in care. Our Panel members have a balance of gender, qualifications and ethnicity that reflect our commitment in bringing together individuals from different backgrounds.

The function of the Panel is to provide an independent quality assurance role recommending whether the potential Carers presented to them are suitable to become good Foster Carers. Our overriding objectives are to promote and safeguard the welfare of children in foster care.

The final decision for approval is made by the Agency Decision Maker—a senior manager who is social work qualified. If the Foster Carers are unhappy with the final decision, they have a right to appeal. This can be made directly to the agency or to the Independent Review Mechanism.

Foster Care Agreements are completed following approval, covering a range of contractual information including:

• To care appropriately for children & young people in placement, as identified in the foster placement agreement.
• To inform AHFS of any relevant significant changes to their household or details.
• To follow procedures laid down within the agency’s handbook

All Foster Carers are given a Foster Carer’s Handbook for reference and guidance upon approval.

At Aim High Fostering the welfare and needs of the child are always at the forefront of our services. We maintain a clear focus on promoting and safeguarding the emotional and physical welfare of all children and young people in our care. We work with all stakeholders to ensure children and young people are given maximum opportunity to fully develop in all areas and achieve their potential. We encourage and support the maintenance of family contacts and promote educational achievement.

Our definition of good work and safe practice is highlighted throughout our key documents:

• Foster Carer’s Handbook
• Policies and Procedures
• Staff Handbook

Aim High Fostering will ensure we promote equality and diversity at all times when recruiting, completing assessments and when matching placements and providing outreach support. We will endeavour to adhere to statutory requirements and nationally recognised standards of care and codes of practice, which include:

• Children Act 1989 and 2004
• Children and Young Persons Act, 2008
• Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011
• Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2015
• The Care Planning and Fostering (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2015
• The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review and Fostering services Miscellaneous Amendments) regulations 2013
• Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010
• Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards (2011)
• Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 4: Fostering Services (2011)
• Assessment and Approval of Foster Cares: Amendments to the Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 4: Fostering Services (July 2013)
• Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter-Agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children (July 2018) updates to December 2020
• Children and Families Act 2014
• Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Looked After Children: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities, Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS England (March 2015)

(please note: this list is not exhaustive)

Aim High Fostering Service works in partnership with Local Authorities and we strive to offer a wide range of placements. We appreciate that every child’s situation is unique and therefore we offer different types of foster care to meet their needs. That can range from somewhere to stay for a few days in an emergency, or a home for years to come.

We provide secure and appropriate placements for all children and young people from birth to adulthood, of all nationalities, ethnicities and religions. The different types of placements we provide include:

Mainstream Fostering Placements include:

Emergency placement: Emergency Foster Carers will need to be prepared to take a child into their home at any time of the night or day and have them stay for a few days. This type of fostering is used at short notice i.e. same day placement. For example, if a lone parent is taken into hospital and there is no one to care for their child.

Bridging Placement: This is a short term, flexible placement focusing on ensuring the most sensitive transition for the child, into and from the placement.

Short-term placement: This can mean anything from an overnight stay to a period of several months. Short-term Foster Carers provide a temporary place to stay until the child can return home to their own family or a longer-term fostering placement or adoption, special guardianship order (SGO) arrangement can be made.

Long-term placement: Sometimes children will not be able to go back to live with their own families for a number of years, if at all. Long-term fostering allows children and young people to stay in a family where they can feel secure, while maintaining contact with their birth family.

Sibling Placements: These are placements where siblings are either placed together or separately with us facilitating contact between siblings.

Respite / Short break: Also known as ‘shared care’, this covers a variety of different types of part-time care. You might have a child to stay for anything from a few hours each week to a couple of weekends each month, giving their own family or their full time Foster Carers a break.

Newly Arrived and Unaccompanied Minors: These are placements for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people. Caring for these children will include helping them with immigration, education, supporting their religious beliefs and helping them integrate with community and faith groups which will support their language and cultural needs. Often these children and young people arrive with no or very limited knowledge of the English language.

Specialist Fostering Placements include:

Solo Placements: These placements are required when a child needs to be the only looked after children in the fostering household. They are cared for by highly experienced Carers who are able to support a child with very complex needs and/or challenging behaviour.

Parent and Child: Specially trained Foster Carers will take the parent(s) and baby into their home, usually for a specified period of time. A bespoke package of care is agreed with the Local Authority, depending on identified needs, risks and the legal status of the parent and the child.

Support care: There are a growing number of schemes which help to prevent children or young people coming into the care system by offering their families support before difficulties escalate to a point where the family can no longer manage. Foster Carers offer part-time care to provide both the children and their family with a break. Arrangements are made to suit the needs of the family.

Youth Justice fostering: Some young people need Foster Carers who can provide a supportive family environment while they are awaiting criminal court proceedings, have been bailed or have recently left a Young Offender’s Institute

Placements for children and young people with disabilities: These placements are for children and young people with disabilities and disorders such as: learning/mental/physical/behavioural/emotional/social/ADHD and Autism. Additional training and support is provided to Foster Carers who choose to undertake these types of placements and the Form F Assessment will identify those prospective Carer’s who demonstrate experience and capabilities in looking after this vulnerable client group.

Carers can expect an extensive support package to ensure the needs of the child are met as well as feeling fully supported themselves.

At Aim High Fostering Services, we carefully match all placements to ensure the needs of the child/children are fully met. We always consider the experience, skills and suitability of our Foster Carers before placing a child and this ensures the success and longevity of the placement.

At Aim High Fostering Services (AHFS) all children and young people in placement are seen by an allocated Supervising Social Worker at least every two months. Whilst visits to the Foster Carer’s home are arranged every month, Supervising Social Workers will ask for the looked after child/children to be present every other visit to develop a relationship and enhance safeguarding practices and report for the placement.

During the monthly supervisions dimensions of care provided to the child/young person are addressed, including ways to support the child’s development, stay healthy, achieve positive outcomes and prepare for successful, independent life. We ensure that the best interests of our children and young people are being safeguarded and promoted at all times and with the child’s participation, identify further services that are appropriate to promote their physical, mental and emotional welfare.

The range of services available to children and young people include:

• Supervised contact with families and external family members when required.
• Support to access full education/training opportunities and health services.
• Culture/identity awareness.
• Assistance to pursue a hobby or activity.
• Life story or permanency preparation.
• Education and Therapeutic support, including home-tutoring for excluded pupils.
• Mentoring services.
• Support and group work in relation to gang affiliation, use of weapons and drug/alcohol substance misuse.
• Working with offending behaviour.
• Support sessions for unaccompanied asylum seekers.
• Access to national organisations for looked after children and young people.
• Leaving care advice information, guidance and support.
• To facilitate the opportunities for day trips and ‘get-togethers’ e.g. Christmas Panto, summer BBQ, trip to the seaside, offering social time and new experiences.
• Advocacy

All children and young people in placement are given the contact details and telephone numbers of their Carer, Local Authority Social Worker, the ‘out of hours’ (Emergency) Duty Social Worker, their allocated AHFS Supervising Social Worker and the telephone numbers of national help lines and Emergency Services.

At Aim High we recognise and value the important contribution our Foster Carer’s make to a looked after child’s life. We are therefore dedicated in ensuring all Carer’s are provided with a high level and wide range of services and support. This enables and equips them to fully meet the needs of children and young people in placement.

We realise there may be a time in a Foster Carer’s life when personal issues have an impact on their role as a Foster Carer. This may be due to their personal history, family circumstances or health and would benefit from additional support in their own right. In this instance we would offer support by sourcing specialist services: i.e. Relate or Bereavement Counselling.

Our package of support increases placement stability and improves recruitment and retention of Foster Carers.

• A designated Supervising Social Worker in regular and flexible contact.
• Access to 24-hour duty support throughout the year.
• Therapeutic advice and support for Carers.
• Educational advice and support.
• Provide on-line information, resources and advice to Carers.
• Membership to Fostering Network, benefits for all immediate family member over 18 years include:
• Legal insurance protection cover
• Advice from an independent body
• Up to £1250.00 for an interview under caution
• Up to £50,000 for a criminal prosecution
• Up to £10,000 for a civil prosecution
• Up to £2,000 to appeal against the judgement of a tribunal
• Access for independent advice 24 hrs a day in relation to allegations against Foster Carers, medical advice and counselling.
• Festival and birthday allowance.
• Respite and Holiday allowance.
• Use of Aim High caravan for a short break
• Outreach and mentoring services to support our children and young people in placement.
• Foster Carer’s Handbook.
• Comprehensive on-going training programme for Foster Carers.
• A monthly self-help/support group for Foster Carers and on-line AHFS newsletter
• Financial advice regarding Tax, pensions

Foster Carers

Aim High Fostering Services (AHFS) is committed to recruiting fostering Carers from diverse backgrounds. We want our Carers to reflect the local community and to have an understanding of the cultural and religious needs of the children and young people that are placed with the agency. By doing this we can ensure that more choice is available to local authorities when seeking suitable placements.

In order to attract potential foster parents, we have identified media that has proved to be effective. This includes:

• Local Newspapers advertising in the London area.
• Incentivising existing foster parents to identify other friends / relatives who might wish to foster.
• Face to face recruitment at local job centres and community/ religious events.
• Social Media – currently this appears to be a very effective way to recruit and Aim high is developing a presence on several Social Media platforms.

We regularly monitor the effectiveness of our recruitment strategy in terms of number, type and quality of applicant to establish where we need to make changes and improve.

When dealing with applications to foster, the agency completes the following procedures:

• All new fostering enquiries are screened to ensure that there are no obvious reasons why individuals should not foster and can offer sufficient accommodation and time to provide care.
• There is an initial home visit and once suitability has been established, the prospective Carer is sent an information pack and an Application form.
• Statutory checks and references are undertaken. This includes an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for the applicant and all adults living in the household.
• Applicants attend Skills to Foster training course and suitability to foster is confirmed.
• A qualified Social Worker then carries out a structured assessment using a Form F template. This process usually involves 8-12 home visits and information is gathered regarding the prospective Carer/s childhood and experience of being parented, current lifestyle, skills and experience of looking after children. Additional references from various sources including health information and enhanced DBS checks will be required. All household members are interviewed.
• The assessor then prepares a report for panel highlighting evidence to support suitability to foster.
• This completed Form F is shared with the applicant and line manager for checking before it is signed. The line manager then undertakes a second opinion meeting with the prospective foster carer and this report accompanies the signed Form F, which is to be presented to Panel. The applicant is then invited to attend the Panel with their assessing social worker.
• The Panel will then make recommendations about the suitability of the applicants to foster and these minutes are referred to the decision-maker who will send written confirmation to the applicant within 7 days of receiving the minutes from the Panel.
• Prospective foster parents can appeal against a decision within 28 days following the internal procedure or directly to the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM).

All new Foster Carers receive a comprehensive induction into their role in the first year and are supported to complete the Training Support and Development Standards for Foster Carers (TSDs) portfolio. Thereafter, they are required to attend monthly on-going training on relevant subjects including:

• Child Protection.
• Caring for children who have been abused.
• Safer Caring and Safeguarding.
• Child Development.
• Promoting Contact.
• Promoting Identity and Self-esteem.
• Valuing Diversity.
• Attachment, Separation and Loss.
• Managing Challenging Behaviour.
• First Aid and Health and Safety.
• Education of fostered children and young people.
• Caring for children with disabilities.
• Preparing children and young people for adulthood
• Legislation and Regulations, Record Keeping

It is also our view that all Foster Carers who are approved should complete the Training Support and Development Standards (TSD) within the first twelve months of fostering. This ensures all our Foster Carers are equipped with the skills and knowledge to provide high quality care to the children they look after

Aim High Staff

The skills, knowledge and experience of all staff at Aim High Fostering is the cornerstone to providing safe and effective service to children and young people. All staff are appropriately trained and qualified and selected using appropriate, safer recruitment techniques such as interviews, tests and group exercises. Their suitability is also checked through a series of referencing approaches including DBS checks, job references and qualifications checks at a minimum.

All staff members have clear role descriptions identifying their responsibilities and limits of authority and lines of accountability. At AHFS there is a significant commitment to continual professional development and all staff are required to attend relevant training. This ensures all staff are given every opportunity to build on their skills and ensures they are knowledgeable with up-to-date legislation and guidelines.

All staff participate in supervision every four weeks with their line manager and annual appraisals where future training and development needs are identified. Staff will be offered opportunities to give feedback and implement changes and ensure the agency continues to exceed the National Minimum Standards.

AHFS has a clearly communicated whistleblowing policy that encourages all staff to contact suitable authorities should they believe that some form of malpractice may be happening.

All staff participate in weekly team meetings where the organisation prioritises workload and tracks progress of improvement activities and allocates resources in support of placements.

Aim High Fostering Service has a comprehensive complaints procedure, which is made widely available in different formats suitable for children, young people, Carers, parents and professionals.

Our complaints and allegations procedure provide a fair, transparent and effective means of dealing with any concerns raised by third parties regarding the care provided by Foster Carers or any other member of the organisation.

At the heart of the procedure is the clear understanding that the protection, welfare and interests of the child or young person must come first. There is a clear procedure which is set within realistic time frames to ensure any issue is investigated with due respect to those involved.

The organisation will regularly reflect upon and take appropriate action to improve policies, practices and procedures in order to address complaints promptly.

Dissatisfied complainants can contact the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

Ofsted
National Business Unit
Piccadilly Gate
Store Street
Manchester
M1 2WD

Tel: 0300 123 1231

Enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk

For a copy of our Complaints Procedure or to make a complaint, please contact the
Registered Manager on 020 3880 6715