Looking At Different Aspects Of Foster Care Social Work Essay Essay Example

Looking At Different Aspects Of Foster Care Social Work Essay Essay A affinity attention agreement is an understanding that is normally made between the parent of the kid, the local authorization and a close comparative such as a grandparent or aunt on a short or long term footing, the affinity carer must be approved by Warwickshire Fostering Panel. Where the kid is accommodated by the local authorization that is frequently capable to an Interim Care Order the affinity understanding is reviewed under the Child in Need process s ( Warwickshire County Council 2009 ) . There is a six hebdomad timescale to finish the affinity appraisal. The fosterage squad has the duty for finishing this within the timescale set out in line with the Fostering Regulation s 2002. A Viability Assessment which is Schedule 3 of the fosterage ordinance 2002 requires that there is a elaborate study complete with mentions be submitted to the Fostering Panel for blessing ( Warwickshire Fostering Services 2002 ) . As portion of this appraisal I had to finish a two portion Health A ; Safety Checklist Part One during initial visit and Part Two during the existent appraisal, which is updated yearly as portion of the Foster Carer reappraisal. I was required to finish the initial 6 hebdomad Kinship Assessment on Arthur and Joan to be submitted to Warwickshire Fostering Panel blessing, followed by entry to a Finding of Fact meeting in tribunal. 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The local authorization have been involved with Ruth and her kid since 2008 the constabulary reaching societal services to rede them that Ruth s spouse had been arrested for holding indecorous images of kids on his computing machine and serious maltreatment of babes. Ruth was advised of this but did non look to recognize the hazard he presented to Jane. The tribunals ordered that Ruth should merely hold supervised contact due to this. Warwickshire Council convened a kid protection conference which concluded that Jane be made topic of a kid protection program. Whilst the probe into the disregard was on-going, Jane stayed with her maternal gramps Arthur and Joan his spouse. Arthur is 58 twelvemonth old football manager and Joan is a 62 twelvemonth old retired book keeper and they live in a 3 sleeping room house close to Ruth. A kinship referral was received by the Fostering Team to finish a viability buttocks Arthur and Joan s ability to run into Jane s demands as impermanent carers. Jane is still capable of a kid protection program, every bit good as Looked After Child processs and is capable of an Interim Care Order made in December 2009. The duty for finishing the affinity appraisal was given to the fosterage squad that I am on arrangement with and I was so asked to finish the appraisal under supervising. This is the type of appraisal that is completed when a kid is looked after and placed on a statutory order. Jane is presently sing jobs at school with intimidation because of her skin coloring material and is in a minority. Jane is being teased because her hair is non the same as other kids. I feel that Jane has non recognized that her female parent is white and her male parent black. Arthur has stated that although she is non white she is his granddaughter and he doubts whether Jane even recognises her skin coloring material as important. It is of import for the Fostering Social Worker to hold entree to all instance files associating to the kid when finishing the viability appraisal so that the appraisal demonstrates the degree of committedness the gramps and his spouse have and have had to the kid ( BAAF, 2009 ) . Farmer and Moyers ( 2005 ) suggest: Kinship attention occupies an uneasy place on the boundary between the public and private domains of lovingness and this leads to a state of affairs where some kin carers struggle to care for destitute kids with low degrees of support and fiscal aid. Jane s maternal gramps has shown unbelievable committedness including being willing to give up his fulltime occupation to be able to run into Jane s demands. This is doing tenseness in the relationship between Arthur and Joan as this will significantly cut down their income. She has besides expressed concerns at non ever being able to get by with the high demands of Jane and how this has brought her relationship with Arthur to interrupting point at times. When kid s behavior is doing a break, affinity carers ( as opposed to further carers ) tend to be more willing to persist with the troubles faced by the kid ( Broad and Skinner, 2005, Colton et Al, 2008: 38 ) . It is of import that when analyzing Kinship Care that the result for the kid is mensurable, this could be in footings of regular contact with the birth parent with less supervising. Legislation has a leaning towards procuring long term arrangements, kids who were placed with their grandparents were the least likely to see break when compared with other household or friends ( Hunt et al, 2008 ) . Some arrangements continued with small monitoring or supervising from the societal worker. In other cases societal workers had allowed professional criterions to fall good below what would hold been acceptable to another kid. This can do the kid rights to be compromised as they will non have a service that they are entitled to ( Farmer A ; Moyers, 2005 ) . An assessment involves piecing full and accurate facts about a service user s fortunes and it is indispensable during the assessment procedure that individual being assessed is to the full engaged with the appraisal and as the assessor I am in uninterrupted audience with my supervisor. The information collected must be recorded in a systematic manner to give a clear and accurate apprehension of demands and a possible program of action ( Smale A ; Tuson, 1993 ) . The viability appraisal must pay close attending to the fortunes around the ground why the affinity agreement is needed. Arthur and Joan realise that if they do non take on the function of carers so Jane is likely to be placed with unrelated Foster carers. The appraisal includes the household to look at making a affinity agreement that will at best be acceptable to the kid, the local authorization should see the kid s drawn-out household as an option to the mainstream fosterage system when finishing the appraisal. The Children s Act 1989 directs that where the kid is looked after by the local authorization the kid should be placed with a comparative, friend or important other ( www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk accessed 16/01/2011 ) if this is a feasible option. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 directs that relations must be considered in attention proceedings and in line with Public Law Outline which emphasizes the importance of robust judicial instance direction. The Children and Young Persons Act 2008 has led to developments that promote the kid s public assistance and are likely to increase the usage of arrangements with household members. Over a 15 twelvemonth period from 1989 to 2005 there has been a gradual addition in the Numberss of kids in attention that are fostered with household and important others, from 6 per cent to 12 per cent of looked after kids in England ( Department of Health, 2006 ; DfES, 2004 ) . If a kid is looked after by the Local Authority and is placed with a hous ehold member or important other for a period transcending 6 hebdomads so the carer should be approved as a surrogate carer by the Local Authorities Fostering Panel ( Warwickshire Council 2009 ) . The Local Authority must hold a clearly defined function in enabling the parent of the kid to hold some input in the attention agreements of their kid in conformity with subdivision 20 of the Children s Act 1989. Where the local authorization topographic points kids in affinity attention agreements they besides must measure the affinity carer ( s ) in line with bing statute law that applies to unrelated Foster carers hence have duties to guarantee that the affinity carers receive fiscal support in line with get oning out ordinances ( Warren-Adamson, 2009 ) . The Munby opinion in 2002 set a case in point that local governments must handle affinity carers in the same manner as non related surrogate carers. This means that Warwickshire County Council must measure Arthur and Joan as affinity carers even though they may well already be looking after the kid at the point the appraisal starts. The troubles I experienced as the Fostering Social Worker finishing the appraisal was chiefly around the support, preparation and payment of Kinship Carers. The research besides found that Kinship Carers are improbable to dispute parents lawfully for the affinity of the kid because it can hold a negative impact on the parent s relationship with the Kinship Carers. One of the deductions highlighted by the research papers was that Kinship Carers are improbable to travel for Particular Guardianship Orders due to the decreased payments and support. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation ( JRF ) research found that kinship carers may resent the invasion the appraisal procedure will imply into their lives by statutory services and feel they are being monitored and placed under surveillance ( JRF, 2002 ) . The Joseph Rowntree Foundation ( JRF ) found that unsatisfactory arrangements with household and friend lasted significantly longer than with unrelated carers ( Farmer A ; Moyers, 2008 ) . Local Governments are required under the Children s Act 1989 to run a policy of less intrusive intercession when step ining with households. Argent ( 2009 ) draws attending to the premise that societal workers from non cultural backgrounds tend to presume that households from Black Minority and Ethnic groups would instead pull off the affinity without outside aid or they do non understand the procedure. Argent high spots that some minority groups have a strong sense of affinity without any legal or statutory intercession. There are four types of affinity attention these are determined by the legal position of the kid that is being accommodated Fostered with a household or friend ; Residence Order ; Populating with household and friends and a Particular care order. The viability appraisal I undertook was to measure whether Arthur and Joan were suited to travel on to the following phase of the appraisal, the Particular Guardianship Order. Particular Guardianship Orders were introduced in the Adoption and Children Act 2002 to promote flexibleness with respects to the length of the arrangement. This order recognizes that long term fosterage or acceptance might non be an option and that this type of order gives parental duty until the kid is 18. At present there is non a legal demand for Warwickshire Council to research Kinship but the legal model implies that it is a preferable option to private fosterage. A household group conference is called with a position to researching the potency of a household mem ber going a affinity carer ( Hunt et al, 2008 ) . The purpose of the Viability Assessment is to do certain that Jane s demands remain cardinal to the appraisal ( Hunt et al, 2008 ) . Milner and OByrne ( 2002 ) suggest that appraisals can be divided into a figure of phases: Preparation: I gathered information from instance notes and other studies that have antecedently been written, in audience with the Jane s societal worker we agreed on who to interview with respects to people that are a portion of the drawn-out household or wider support web and would be in contact with Jane. Fixing for the interview I ensured that I had the indispensable inquiries and an account of the interview intent along with timescales for the viability procedure. Roll uping informations: I checked on beginnings of written information for factual truth. Weighing the information: I identified spreads, consulted co-workers and began to place any cardinal facts or subjects. Analyzing the information: I considered relevant research grounds and theory. Using the information: I analysed the informations and formed an sentiment as to whether Jane s demands would be met by Arthur and Joan. The result of the above procedure was to do a recommendation to the tribunal. Along with the viability appraisal was the wellness and safety of the belongings that the kid will be populating in besides had to be assessed. . I had to believe about how the separate pieces of information interlink and about their impact on the gramps. It has been suggested it is of import to avoid subjectiveness and non to disregard information that does non suit with preconceived premises: Taking information for granted and non look intoing. Geting stuck with one position, and neglecting to recognize alternate accounts. Pigeonholing state of affairss and solutions to them. Making premises about age, civilization, disablement or any facet of a service user s life. The manner it s done here attack fitting service users into the everyday response of the bureau alternatively of concentrating on the client. Using the appraisal procedure to ration resources or masking their absence, in other words, assessment becomes resource-led instead than needs-led ( Milner and OByrne, 2002 ) . Smale and Tuson ( 1993 ) propose three theoretical accounts of appraisal: aˆ? The oppugning theoretical account: where the worker is seen as expert and follows a set format of inquiries aˆ? The procedural theoretical account: in which the worker gathers information in order to see if bureau standards are met aˆ? The exchange theoretical account: in which the service user is seen as expert in his or her ain state of affairs and the worker helps to supply resources and seeks to maximize possible. In decision, I realise that people change and as a societal worker I need to be cognizant that new information may emerge that causes state of affairss alteration, so I have to see the impact it has on the appraisal. Although the appraisal is frequently viewed as a separate phase to the intercession, it is besides a uninterrupted procedure and there is a demand to constantly re-assess throughout the intercession ( Milner and OByrne, 2002 ) . I used a Task Centered Model for finishing the Viability Assessment as it was a short term ( 6 hebdomads ) job work outing attack with a clear beginning, center and terminal, and has a specific timeframe to finish the assessesment and subject it to the tribunal. I adopted a Solution Focused attack in my intercession as it worked with Arthur and Joan to assist them to look at their strengths and to happen their ain solutions to challenges they may confront. A Solution Focused attack enables people to see better hereafters, it can be used to concen trate on the positives whilst besides accepting that their strengths which are Arthur and Joan s committedness to run intoing Jane s demands for every bit long as she needs them and fact that this can be used as a platform for future long term planning. In pattern I found it hard to take a individual theoretical account as I realized I would be utilizing all three in this instance. First, the Viability Assessment for affinity involved me in the function of expert with a set format of inquiries, and secondly, I was witting of the standards for affinity to enable me to inquire appropriate auxiliary inquiries but in conclusion, I feel that the exchange theoretical account reflects the values of anti-oppressive pattern in that Arthur is placed in a place of control and so that the procedure meets his outlooks every bit good every bit mine as the measuring societal worker. However, as societal workers runing within a statutory scene we must acknowledge that there are force per unit areas to conform to oppugning or procedural theoretical accounts. To work in an anti-oppressive mode is to integrate necessary inquiring, agendas and graduated tables into an appraisal that respects Arthur s expertness in caring for Jane ( Smale and Tuson, 199 3 ) .