What is Private Fostering?
Sometimes your mum, dad or carer might ask someone to look after you and care for you in their home. If the person that you stay with is not a close relative and you stay with them for more than 28 days this is called private fostering. The person that you are staying with is called your private foster carer.
A close relative is an aunt, uncle, sibling or grandparent. If you are being privately fostered the local council must be told about this because it is their job to make sure that you are being properly looked after by your private foster carer.
A social worker from Coventry Children’s Services will visit you and explain everything about the help and support that you will receive.
What will the social worker do to help?
Your social worker will come to see where you are living and will talk to you and your private foster carer. They will talk to you to make sure that you are OK and you are being well looked after. The social worker will check that the private foster carer is able to look after you properly and make sure they understand what their responsibilities are. They will also talk to your parent(s) to make sure they know you are being well cared for.
Who is responsible for me?
Your parent(s) or the person with parental responsibility for you remain the people who are ‘responsible’ for you, and they must still make the important decisions about your life. They should also try and stay in touch with you by visiting, ringing, or writing to you as often as they can.
What should my private foster carer do to help me?
Your private foster carer must do all the things that parents are expected to do for their own children such as:
- give you regular meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make sure you have warm clean clothes and a bed of your own
- make sure you can go to school so that you can learn
- take you to the doctor or hospital if you are sick, injured or need a vaccination
- take you to the dentist so that your teeth stay healthy
- give you the opportunity to make friends and enjoy sports or hobbies you like
- help you to stay in touch with your family
- help you to follow your religion and customs that are important to you and your family
Your private foster carer should not make big changes to your life without consulting others.
This includes things like:
- changing your name
- changing your school, unless this is agreed by your parent(s)
- move you to another family unless this is agreed by your parent(s) and your social worker is told
- take you to another part of the country unless this is agreed by your parent(s)
- take you overseas without agreement from your parent(s)
- if you need serious medical treatment your own parent(s) must agree to this unless it is an emergency and they cannot be contacted quickly enough. If this happens a doctor will decide what to do
A social worker will visit you at least every 6 weeks during the first year that you live with your private foster carer. After the first year this will change to at least once every 3 months.
When your social worker visits you will be given the opportunity to talk to them alone so that you can talk about anything you feel concerned about or about something that you feel is not being provided.
Remember, if you need to speak to someone you can contact your social worker. If they are not available and you need to speak to them urgently there will be someone else from their team that you can talk to. There are also other people you can contact for help and support such as a teacher or school nurse.
Key contacts
Make sure you know:
- what your social workers name is
- what their contact details are
Office number is 02576785568
If you would like to make a compliment or complaint:
Telephone: 08085 834 333