Modus Foster Care: Statement of Purpose

Introduction

Fostering at modus is a fostering service which belongs to modus, an independent social care organisation providing environments in which young people are nurtured, valued and empowered. Fostering at modus will recruit and train families where children and young people can be cared for.

modus also offers consultancy, training and specially tailored services to other organisations and individuals.

Aims

To secure a range of family placements in which children and young people can live and achieve their potential.

To provide high levels of support to those families and carers for as long as is needed.

To work in partnership with local authorities placing with Fostering at modus.

Key Objectives

To build family placements for children and young people which seek to stabilise young lives and achieve change through positive influence.

To provide each child or young person with the care and control to which they are entitled, offering opportunities to relate to adults who are able to demonstrate emotional commitment combined with professional integrity and safe boundaries for behavior.

To promote children’s rights and ensure that young people’s views are represented and considered.

To value diversity, respecting individuals’ ethnic origin, cultural background, religion, language, age, gender, sexuality and any disability.

To then respond to this by recruiting and developing a workforce which reflects the significant diversity within the group of young people looked after.

To provide stimulation and opportunities which are tailored to meet individual need.

To carry out effective care planning and reviews and promote partnership with local authorities and parents.

To promote the physical, emotional and sexual health of the children and young people in order to enhance their future quality of life, so that they are able to fulfil their potential and achieve good outcomes.

To ensure that educational opportunities are made available to children and young people which take into account their current needs and future potential, so that individual and personal education plans maximise life chances.

Philosophy and standards of care

In Fostering at modus we believe that all children and young people:

Can be helped to achieve their potential.
Have the right to a chance of living in a family
With the right support, can do so.

The philosophy underpinning our intervention is to ensure that each young person who comes to Fostering at modus learns truly to value themselves and is empowered to take control of their own future. In order to achieve this, all adults will be provided with the skills and knowledge to become the conduit through which change takes place.

Valuing diversity: Fostering at modus is committed to equality of opportunity and to working in an anti-oppressive manner. No member of staff, foster carer, child or young person will be discriminated against by virtue of their race, religious persuasion, gender, age, sexual preference, HIV status or disability or through belonging to any other minority group.

Children and young people are actively involved in decision making, through access to advocacy if necessary, or more regularly through empowering young people to have a voice within the organisation, by consulting with young people regularly and by ensuring that staff are approachable and value their views.

Decisions regarding placements are made with the full participation of the local authority, foster carers and the child themselves. Placements will always give paramount consideration to meeting the needs of the child or young person.

Care planning and the review process remains the responsibility of the local authority but Fostering at modus is committed to ensuring that every child and young person has an effective care plan, which is regularly reviewed. In reviewing this plan, we aim to ensure that views of young people, and the foster carers who are responsible for looking after them, are taken into full consideration.

Foster carers receive formal supervision each month. Home visits normally take place at least fortnightly, but Fostering at modus is committed to providing whatever support is necessary. Supervision with foster carers will focus on their work with children and young people to achieve the five outcomes described in Every Child Matters. A parallel objective of supervision is to provide foster carers with solid emotional support and an environment in which they can openly discuss their concerns and anxieties. This will enable them to undertake their work in the most effective manner.

Foster carers are subject to an annual review which will reflect upon their progress over the previous review period. Foster carers will be provided with good feedback and clear objectives as well as a Professional Development Plan which will identify their training and developmental needs for the forthcoming year.

All fostering premises are inspected annually by a health and safety officer. Inspections are tailored specifically to consider the age and needs of young people living within the premises.

Foster carers and young people have access to a twenty-four hour support service which is operational every day of the year. Such support ensures that carers and young people are never left to manage situations in isolation where support or mediation would be beneficial.

Services and facilities

Fostering at modus offers a diverse range of foster placements for children and young people aged from 0 to 18 years, who cannot, for whatever reason, live with their own families. We can offer placements for sibling groups, children who are disabled and for children and young people who have come to this country as unaccompanied minors. This is in addition to supporting young people who have suffered emotional, physical or mental trauma through the experience of abuse or neglect.

Children and young people placed with foster families through Fostering at modus will have access to direct support work from staff. This will not replace statutory visits by the child's own local authority Social Worker but is aimed at supporting the connections made within the family placement. Support workers will aim to support foster carers in meeting the developmental needs of young people such as Education, Health, Social and Leisure as well as preparation for adulthood and independence. If specialist therapeutic work is required from a consultant practitioner, this can be negotiated, in consultation with the placing local authority.

Fostering at modus provides clear supervision and line management of foster carers through experienced Social Workers who are committed to supporting the development of each carer’s skills.

Fostering at modus is located within our modus Head Office, at the above address. Also based here are the Office Manager, the HR Manager and the Finance Manager, who provide support services across the whole organisation.

Foster carers are paid a generous weekly allowance but remain self employed and are responsible for paying their own tax and national insurance. Guidance about finance, as well as other issues for carers, is supplied to foster carers within the Family Carer Handbook.

Within Head Office we have facilities available for training and other meetings, together with a room specifically dedicated for the use of children and families. Some training courses will be hosted at alternative venues dependent upon geographical considerations and level of demand.

Status and constitution

Fostering at modus is part of modus, a private organisation which aims to provide high quality residential and family placement services. It is a limited company and one of the owners takes an active role in the strategic management of the service.

Staffing and management structure

Fostering at modus is currently staffed full time by the Family Placement Service Manager who is also the Registered Manager, four family placement Social Workers and two Support Workers; a Learning Coordinator works part time in Fostering at modus. An organisational chart is attached to this document.

Chief Executive: Sue Hamilton is a graduate with professional social work and management qualifications. She has over thirty years' experience prior to setting up modus, in statutory and voluntary sectors. She is the Registered Provider of Fostering at modus and is directly involved in the strategic and operational management of the organisation. She is also the agency decision maker.

Director of Policy and Quality: Coral Bury was involved in the original management of the fostering service but has now taken on a full time position leading and directing quality services for the whole organisation. She is a graduate and a qualified social worker with thirty years' experience in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors. She has worked in child protection and management of residential services, as well as having direct experience in family placement as a practitioner.

Registered Family Placement Service Manager: Gareth Walton is a qualified social worker who has been with modus since 2005. Gareth has fourteen years experience of working within social care settings including, residential child care, with children with disabilities and with children being prepared for family placement. Prior to taking up his post with Fostering at modus, he worked for a local authority in a Safeguarding Children and Families team, undertaking a wide range of statutory, assessment and court work with looked after children.

Senior Pratitioner: Specialist Placements: Julie Hewitt joined modus in 2009 specifically to lead on the joint work with G-MAP in providing specialist placements to young people who demonstrate sexually problematic behaviour. Julie has a wealth of experience in this area of work, having previously worked with the NSPCC and Police in a joint project to tackle internet based sexual offending. Prior to that Julie worked in Safeguarding for the NSPCC and in the statutory sector.

Family placement social worker: Rachael Findley is a qualified social worker who has been with modus since she qualified as a social worker in 2007. Prior to this she had accrued some experience of work with the statutory and voluntary sectors. Rachael has had the benefit of growing up in a family who foster and therefore brings a great deal of personal experience and knowledge to the post.

Family placement social worker: Sylvia Lawal is a qualified social worker who has managerial experience within social care, as well as a background in health care, having previously been a nurse. She is also a qualified practice teacher. Sylvia has also done extensive work with voluntary groups in black health care and with asylum seekers.

Family placement social worker: Rachel Hornsby is a qualified social worker who completed her final student placement with Fostering at modus. She has previous management work experience in the retail sector, as well as a relevant first degree and experience in residential child care.

Family placement social worker: Sue Gillett is also a qualified social worker who has a great deal of experience in local authority social work, both in family placement settings and in area teams in child protection work. Sue has worked for a number of local authorities in the Northwest and brings a rich amount of experience to the post. Sue also has personal experience of caring for looked after children.

Support worker: Fardous Umal is a psychology graduate who has previous experience working with children and young people in school settings, as well as working as a mentor within a youth offending team and with groups of young people in youth clubs. Fardous has a knowledge and experience of asylum law and is particularly interested in developing direct work skills with young people through counseling.

Support worker: Donna Benjamin has a wealth of early years and play experience, having previously worked in a children’s centre. She has herself been a foster carer, having fostered young people with a wide range of needs. Donna has subsequently successfully adopted. She is now working towards her NVQ III and has a specific interest in working with innovative methods of communication to support young people who have learning disability or autism.

All family placement Social Workers who supervise foster carers are registered Social Workers and have experience of family placement and assessment work, undertaking relevant training whilst working with us.

Recruitment and assessment of carers

Carers are recruited from the general public by means of local and national advertising. We have a rolling programme of press coverage and we have also used a range of other publicity opportunities, including direct leafleting and open days. We also have a website which potential carers can access to gain information about our service.

All carers are assessed by a professionally qualified social worker, or, exceptionally, under the close supervision of such. The assessment will take place over a minimum of eight home visits, together with visits to the referees. Statutory references and clearance will also be carried out, with a medical examination prior to approval.

Carers are required to attend induction training, which is comprised of seven short training courses designed to prepare for the initial challenges they will face when fostering. Carers who wish to undertake specialist placements in conjunction with G-MAP will also be required to attend a similar level of preparatory training with G-MAP.

Approval of foster carers

When the assessment is complete, the application will be presented to the Fostering at modus panel, consisting of ten members, both internal and independent. The panel can only recommend approval. Final approval will be given by the the Registered Provider, following a discussion with the Registered Manager. Long term and permanent placements will be ratified by the fostering panel of the placing local authority.

Review of approval

The approval of carers is subject to annual review which will be carried out in a face to face meeting, chaired by an independent person. A report will be prepared by the supervising worker and the views of carers, placing social workers and children placed will all inform the meeting.

Any changes to the terms of approval will be considered by panel and will be approved by the Provider after the review. The carer will be advised of their continuing suitability, or otherwise, in writing, together with the terms of the ongoing approval.

Training and support of carers

During the assessment process, carers will attend our induction training which gives a basic knowledge and skills package, as well as awareness raising. Exceptionally, individual induction may be provided if there is not a group available at the relevant stage.

Each carer has a series of recommended training events identified for them throughout the year, although they are welcome to attend additional workshops which interest them. Some of the training is mandatory and needs to be revisited annually. A range of other training opportunities are available and will be identified individually for each carer in line with their Professional Development Plan and taking into consideration any recommendations from their annual review.

Our programme is integrated with the NVQ III award to which carers have access and many of the training sessions are shared with Residential Children’s Workers from Cross Lee House.

A well as having an identified worker of their own, each family will have access to 24 hour out of hours support, provided from within the team, by workers who are familiar to them.

Carers are encouraged to access peer support from each other, either by telephone network, in group meetings or during the extensive training programme offered throughout the year.

Signed: __Sue Hamilton___

Chief Executive & Registered Provider

Date: 20th April 2010

Current Information and statistics

Summary of complaints and outcomes received during the past year

Fostering at modus, as part of modus, has a comprehensive complaints policy which is made widely available to all our service users, foster carers, children and young people and parents, as well as members of the public, through our web-site. There have been two complaints received during the past year. Of these complaints, one of these was upheld and the foster carers approval was subsequently terminated. The other complaint was not upheld, the outcomes of which were supported by the placing authority.

Placements

Fostering at modus currently has twenty two approved families, with another three families in assessment. There are always a number of families in the screening / enquiry stage. During the year up to April 2010, we approved five new foster families and two families left the service.

Of our foster carers, 25% are black or from other ethnic minority groups.

We have potential for a maximum of 45 placements at present, although because these would mean multiple placements, our emphasis on careful matching means that it would be extremely unlikely to reach this figure. On 1st April 2010, we had 22 children and young people in placement, 5 of whom were in long term placements.

Of these 22 placements, 45% are female, 55% male. 23% are from black or other ethnic minority groups.

Date: 20th April 2010