Читать книгу Social Work and Foster Care - Helen Cosis Brown - Страница 19

HM Government's Guidance and Regulations Volume 2 were published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in 2010. They were part of the implementation of the Care Matters White Paper, and the Children and Young Persons Act 2008. Volume 2 provides Guidance and Regulations regarding care planning, case review and the placement of children who are looked after. In the assessment of prospective foster carers and their subsequent reviews, the careful evaluation of what they can be expected to, as well as want to, have as their terms of approval is noted in Volume 2 as follows:

Foster carer assessments are designed to identify the ages, number or needs of the children to whom the foster carer is most likely to offer the best care. Research evidence consistently shows that placements outside the terms of approval are significantly more likely to result in placement breakdown, often if there is a foster child already in the household. Where the responsible authority wishes to amend the terms of approval to enable the child to remain with the carer, careful consideration must be made by the fostering panel to ensure that the carer has the capacity to meet the child's needs in the context of the needs of other children in the household.

(HM Government, 2010, p57)

A social worker's assessment of a foster carer's capacity to care for particular categories of children at the approval stage, and re-assessment of the appropriateness of a foster carer's terms of approval, as time goes on, is particularly important. This re-assessment is part of the foster carer review process and should be carefully considered at each review (Brown, 2011).

Importantly, the Guidance and Regulations Volume 2 sets out what is expected of children's social workers in respect of placement planning. This was further strengthened through the 2013 amendments (Department of Education, 2013c).