I just knew it was going to be one of those days. It started with a video call from the Bruce who was, obviously sitting in darkness drawing light from her head lamp because her room mate was still out of it.
"I'm stuck in this mine, get me out" she typed.
Later came the news that lacking culinary skills most of her housemates are set to starve, so Branwen has opened her own kitchen selling bacon sandwiches with barbecue relish to other students fro breakfast. Teatime she was using some veggies she got cheap at Aldi to make a curry. Dear me - she is frightening.
We kicked off our day by trying to get the stove next door to work, did I enjoy realising the bloody thing leaks. That of course and the huge struggle to get the chimney to draw after having been without a fire for a long while.
Then there was the little matter of the hot water taps being completely air locked and refusing to operate. This required a really bizarre back filling operation which in turn meant opening the back of the fire engine for small pumping tools.
The afternoon kicked off in fine form. Our fostering social worker saying we would not "get permission" to go to France next month to sort out a few matters to do with the house. The reason? It would mean leaving big D on his own with Bethan and Taliesin.
Yes it was OK to leave them here as they are 18 and 19, they could look after themselves.But D who is 17 is looked after and so he must not be left on his own. Or using another word he must be discriminated against because he is looked after.
There was no discussion of his skills or his abilities, no question of offering him choice or allowing him to make a decision.
Fatally the link worker said it was not her view but her managers and the manager had said that it was forbidden by fostering regulations. That is potentially where a serious mistake was made, trying to sell it to us on the basis that there was something concrete that says no.
I might add a helpfull hint for anyone who is a supervising social worker or manager. Foster carers like me can, very often, read, sometimes do research on their own, they even search the internet.
So it was not a vast ammount of time before I was looking on various websites and for the life of me could find no version of Welsh Fostering Regs that said I could not treat a 17 year old as being responsible, competent and able to choose.
Oh yes lets flit back, on the days we would not be here big D has college and he also has a day work placement. Put another way coming with us would have cost him EMA and wages.
So he was quite clear he wasn't coming. I suspect though, their position was less about taking him and more about stopping us. Perhaps uncharitably, I am going to call that Oppressive Practice.
Fostering Services can sometimes seem to expect to control your whole life and that of your children as well.
Time to make a few waves then, first off a call to the Fostering Network, having missed the regular advice line, it was call the national office. It would be falling a little bit short if I said the word "expert" was applicable to the worker I spoke to. She might have known what fostering was, but nothing about the framework of regulation within which it operates. In fact she didn't even know who is the team leader responsible for fostering in the Welsh Government. As is the way in devolved Wales I was on the phone to the head of the fostering unit in the government within a few hours. Someone who really did know what they were talking about.
They agreed with me that the regulations said nothing about this situation but they could tell me (though I allready knew ) that they had recently tweaked the regulations because being in care was causing many looked after children to lose out on things like trips out with friends and sleepovers that most children enjoy.
She offered to give the fostering service a ring and ask what they were playing at, epsecially as she thought as I do that their practice was discriminatory, and therfore quite possibly illegal.
Now, that sort of phone call might have triggered an out break of hysteria in fostering central so I asked her to keep that one on the back burner.
On a whim I decided to speak to D's Social Worker. She, not quite litterally hit the roof. The situation was ridiculous but also a stunt that had been pulled before. On that occasion they at leaving care had simply overruled the fostering service involved, really???
This provoked another image as, knowing the managers involved, someone saying that to them would result in everything going out the pram: rattles, teddies, blankets and toys. A serious tantrum might ensue.
Of course what this was really about was respite. On the days we were planning to be away, they wanted to use us for two young lads whose carers need some "me" time. They would not commit to needing the beds but they wanted us hanging round in case they did.
Back to the controling our life bit again.
Of course it goes further than that, a little while back we looked after I the little angel. As you may recall he did a bit of damage while he was here. They also overpaid us 75 pounds in boarding out allowances, something which was the subject of 4 letters and they made sure they had the money back within two weeks.
Now the damage he did is quite another matter. £2500 is just the petty cash so there was no rush at all about paying for that. Two managers were "discussing" who should respond and we would be informed when they had finished. My garage isn't really discussing of course, he is phoning and asking questions about the bill for repairing the damaged car. Could I not pay it and wait for them to get round to paying me in their own time of course?
Yes they really had the cheek to ask.
That was before I observed that the room the two young lads would occupy was I's and that currently needed a ceiling and that it rains on the inside when it rains on the outside. I did a fair amount of damage!
I asked if they would want to place children in that room if there were no ceiling and it was down to me, would the answer be different if the lack of ceiling was down to them - silence.
Complaints officer in the morning.
He is very good at sorting things out, especially after the last time when mention was being made of Judicial Reviews, that time they had made me properly annoyed though....
R
"I'm stuck in this mine, get me out" she typed.
Later came the news that lacking culinary skills most of her housemates are set to starve, so Branwen has opened her own kitchen selling bacon sandwiches with barbecue relish to other students fro breakfast. Teatime she was using some veggies she got cheap at Aldi to make a curry. Dear me - she is frightening.
We kicked off our day by trying to get the stove next door to work, did I enjoy realising the bloody thing leaks. That of course and the huge struggle to get the chimney to draw after having been without a fire for a long while.
Then there was the little matter of the hot water taps being completely air locked and refusing to operate. This required a really bizarre back filling operation which in turn meant opening the back of the fire engine for small pumping tools.
The afternoon kicked off in fine form. Our fostering social worker saying we would not "get permission" to go to France next month to sort out a few matters to do with the house. The reason? It would mean leaving big D on his own with Bethan and Taliesin.
Yes it was OK to leave them here as they are 18 and 19, they could look after themselves.But D who is 17 is looked after and so he must not be left on his own. Or using another word he must be discriminated against because he is looked after.
There was no discussion of his skills or his abilities, no question of offering him choice or allowing him to make a decision.
Fatally the link worker said it was not her view but her managers and the manager had said that it was forbidden by fostering regulations. That is potentially where a serious mistake was made, trying to sell it to us on the basis that there was something concrete that says no.
I might add a helpfull hint for anyone who is a supervising social worker or manager. Foster carers like me can, very often, read, sometimes do research on their own, they even search the internet.
So it was not a vast ammount of time before I was looking on various websites and for the life of me could find no version of Welsh Fostering Regs that said I could not treat a 17 year old as being responsible, competent and able to choose.
Oh yes lets flit back, on the days we would not be here big D has college and he also has a day work placement. Put another way coming with us would have cost him EMA and wages.
So he was quite clear he wasn't coming. I suspect though, their position was less about taking him and more about stopping us. Perhaps uncharitably, I am going to call that Oppressive Practice.
Fostering Services can sometimes seem to expect to control your whole life and that of your children as well.
Time to make a few waves then, first off a call to the Fostering Network, having missed the regular advice line, it was call the national office. It would be falling a little bit short if I said the word "expert" was applicable to the worker I spoke to. She might have known what fostering was, but nothing about the framework of regulation within which it operates. In fact she didn't even know who is the team leader responsible for fostering in the Welsh Government. As is the way in devolved Wales I was on the phone to the head of the fostering unit in the government within a few hours. Someone who really did know what they were talking about.
They agreed with me that the regulations said nothing about this situation but they could tell me (though I allready knew ) that they had recently tweaked the regulations because being in care was causing many looked after children to lose out on things like trips out with friends and sleepovers that most children enjoy.
She offered to give the fostering service a ring and ask what they were playing at, epsecially as she thought as I do that their practice was discriminatory, and therfore quite possibly illegal.
Now, that sort of phone call might have triggered an out break of hysteria in fostering central so I asked her to keep that one on the back burner.
On a whim I decided to speak to D's Social Worker. She, not quite litterally hit the roof. The situation was ridiculous but also a stunt that had been pulled before. On that occasion they at leaving care had simply overruled the fostering service involved, really???
This provoked another image as, knowing the managers involved, someone saying that to them would result in everything going out the pram: rattles, teddies, blankets and toys. A serious tantrum might ensue.
Of course what this was really about was respite. On the days we were planning to be away, they wanted to use us for two young lads whose carers need some "me" time. They would not commit to needing the beds but they wanted us hanging round in case they did.
Back to the controling our life bit again.
Of course it goes further than that, a little while back we looked after I the little angel. As you may recall he did a bit of damage while he was here. They also overpaid us 75 pounds in boarding out allowances, something which was the subject of 4 letters and they made sure they had the money back within two weeks.
Now the damage he did is quite another matter. £2500 is just the petty cash so there was no rush at all about paying for that. Two managers were "discussing" who should respond and we would be informed when they had finished. My garage isn't really discussing of course, he is phoning and asking questions about the bill for repairing the damaged car. Could I not pay it and wait for them to get round to paying me in their own time of course?
Yes they really had the cheek to ask.
That was before I observed that the room the two young lads would occupy was I's and that currently needed a ceiling and that it rains on the inside when it rains on the outside. I did a fair amount of damage!
I asked if they would want to place children in that room if there were no ceiling and it was down to me, would the answer be different if the lack of ceiling was down to them - silence.
Complaints officer in the morning.
He is very good at sorting things out, especially after the last time when mention was being made of Judicial Reviews, that time they had made me properly annoyed though....
R
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1 comment:
Why can't they just do the job properly and get it right!
How many give up fostering after being treated like this? When they say that they are short of people to foster too.
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