That was then, this is now.....

Now some of you will have read the little stroppy one (though of course I never actually call her that to her face- tooo risky)last blog entry. You might be forgiven for thinking she was upset.

That was then, this is now. She had, by means of casual amusement opened our pay slip.

Much to her surprise she noted we have been docked a bit of money. Investigations revealed the cause.

Now maybe I need to go back a few weeks. Some time back one of the kids here, the larger D asked to go on the school trip to Spain. The district team came up with what amounted to a third of the cost the fostering team of toilet checkers promised to come up with another third and we were left to find the difference out of our allowances.

Fair enough.

Of course the toilet checkers never got round to raising a cheque and we had to get the money in before the man in question lost his place on the tour.

A bit of questioning and we found that they had really paid us the moneys since they were not going to take our allowances off us for the week he would not be here and that was how they were paying their share. Anyway if would be far to complex administratively to alter our pay structure for that weeks.

Of course, I would not have minded losing that money since it would have meant they needed to pay the rest of his tour fees and come up with all his spending money etc etc etc. In effect what they were proposing was the cheapest thing for them, getting us to subsidise their service.

So anyway, last week, young P goes for the weekend with his mother and, guess what, we got docked 48 hours pay because he had spent 36 hours with his mum. It was explained to her that it had to be so as he had not been here for two nights so we were not entitled to be paid the money.

That was the perfectly decent young person in admin not the toilet inspector social worker who made the instruction, the same one for whom it was too complicated to to stop our money for a week so it was easier for us to subsidise them. To rub in the salt as it were, it was taken for granted that even though our money would not be paid we would still pick up P from school, go and meet his mum take them both to the leisure centre so he can go to his Karate club, then an hour later take her and him 20 miles to the railway station on a Friday evening to boot. Leaving muggins here to manage a mutiny of children single handed.

It would have been fair to say that she was a bit upset last night.

Today little wisps of steam are gently wafting out of her ears. She is glancing at papers and they spontaneously combust, the cats are in hiding, I am typing this inside the office with all the furniture piled up against the door. Some where off in the house distant crashing tells me where she is at the moment.

I wrote before about how foster carers are often treated with a disrespect that borders on contempt. The money is not really the issue here, it's the assumption that they can simply take without asking, discussing or negotiating. That goodwill is there for the taking and we can be taken for granted, no, more than that, taken for fools.. Personally I think the toilet inspectors are would have to improve 100% to be contemptible.

Management, oh she says someone is going to pay, and you know, I think they just might......