Dawn and Jeff

How did you first become interested in fostering?

Mainly due to knowing foster carers in Jeff’s family and friends and my Turkish school teacher friends who fostered a small girl - so we have both been around people who fostered. We have also had our own children and helped with other people’s children and we love children. We would not only put our own children first but other people’s children first too.

Why FCC?

My sister worked with Barb (an FCC carer) and they got talking about The FCC. Dawn rang Barb for more information and she passed on the supervising social worker’s contact number and head office number. We had lots of questions we wanted to ask and found the agency very helpful.

How did you first contact FCC? What response did you receive from the agency?

We initially called the social worker Carole and had a chat, then rang head office where people were very helpful.

Tell me about the assessment process. Was this explained to you?

There is training available which is great and we have had the same social worker from the initial visit through to our assessment and approval. We got to know some of the team at head office from telephone calls and visits to Malvern.

The process was well explained to us both and was very thorough.

Was it difficult having a social worker wanting personal details regarding yourself and family members?

No, due to the good relationship we had with our social worker who was tactful. I can get very embarrassed about personal matters but I was fine during the assessment and Jeff was OK too.

Was this undertaken in a sensitive manner?

Yes, we had to be assessed about our sleeping arrangements and we were expecting to be asked about this.

Tell me about your experience of attending Panel.

Quite nerve wracking, especially for me. I can face a large crowd when I’m on stage but found it difficult in a small room with the panel but Jeff came up trumps. It was a good experience, we didn’t expect as many people on panel but they were really nice and understanding and we knew some of the questions they might ask beforehand.

Have you received training? What aspects of the fostering task does training cover? Has the training informed your fostering practice?

Yes, Skills to Foster weekend. Some support group training had to be postponed before we went to panel but we now have plenty of training dates booked in.

All aspects of training in relation to children and their differing problems and attachment, contact during the assessment and the training days cover as much as possible and we are always asked if there is anything we need clarifying or we would like to ask.

Yes, as it is preparing us for our first placement.

What about support? Does the agency provide the 24hr support it claims? How do you access this support? Tell me about the supervision sessions; what do they involve? Talk about support groups. Are these helpful? Is there adequate support for your birth children?

Yes, Malvern office is closed at certain times like any office but our social worker is available 24/7 by text messaging, emails or we can ring her. We have not had supervision as yet. This will happen when we have our placement.

The support groups we have attended have been very informative. There are other foster carers who share their experiences and information and advice and prepare us for things to be expected as new carers. Also what to look for in children placed and the windows of opportunity in every placement. And there are the social days for all the family to attend.

Tell me about your experiences: What have you learned about looking after other people’s children? What are the challenges and rewards?

We know that other people have their own household rules. Some of Angel’s friends at four are allowed to play out until 9.00pm which we would not want for our daughter. We would set good rules and help the children to adapt to them and learn from us. We are very flexible and committed to children.

The challenges would be waiting for our first placement and getting a good match and the rewards would be knowing that we can provide a safe and secure home for them and see them progress in their lives which will be rewarding for us as carers.

Would you recommend fostering to anyone who expressed an interest in this task? Would you recommend FCC?

We would pass their information onto our social worker and express any doubts we may have - but we would recommend FCC above other agencies.

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