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Welcome to our April Fostering News bulletin, we're excited to share news of the launch of Nottinghamshire's Local Offer for Care Leavers with you. We also have some dates for your diary including 2019’s Fostering’s Got Talent and service days in June. You can also read about updates and news in the fostering service, how to get a free Timpson holiday and other advice for foster carers.
Nottinghamshire‘s Local Offer for Care Leavers tells you about the “offer” of services and support that we have for our care leavers. We want to make sure that care leavers feel safe and supported and know how to get the advice and help they need.
Local care leavers told us what services and support were important when leaving care and this helped us to create this offer. We have already made sure that our care leavers do not have the burden of paying council tax until they are 25, that they are a priority for social housing and will soon be offered free access to council-owned leisure centres.
Young people can continue to email us to tell us what else they need to help them when they leave care so we can try to make sure the services and support are available and are what they need: Quality.improvementgroup@nottscc.gov.uk or tell their personal adviser or social worker.
Everything that is in the offer is available on a dedicated section of the Notts Help Yourself website and on the local offer app which the will soon be able to download from the website.
Sarah Furby from the Fostering Network attended the South’s Team meeting recently to remind carers of the advice and mediation service that is available to all NCC foster carers as part of their membership. This includes advice on;
- Allegations
- Allowances and payments
- Benefits and tax advice
- Complaints
- Contact
- Damages and theft
- Education
- Housing
- Legislation
- Placement planning
- Training
- Standards of care
You can visit their website, email Sarah on Sarah.Furby@fostering.net or call 0115 945 2486.
Ensure your contact details are up to date so that you can receive monthly news bulletins and make the most from your membership. Notify them of any changes to your details by emailing them at membership@fostering.net.
Don’t forget that as a member of the Fostering Network you are entitled to discounts from a range of holiday providers, including up to 10% off holidays and short breaks with Haven, Hoseasons and cottages.com.
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Timpson Ltd are giving away free holidays through the Alex Timpson Trust to foster families in one of three holiday lodges Devon, North Yorkshire and Wales.
To qualify you must have been fostering for two years or more. Applications open on 1st July 2019 - find out more about how to nominate your family. Good luck!
In addition to holidays, Sir John Timpson CBE has written three useful little guide books: Attachment – A Guide to Attachment, How to Create a Positive Future, and Looking After Looked After Children, which are available FREE from any Timpson, Max Spielmann or Johnsons the Cleaners stores.
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Each year, the Youth Service hosts a family event to bring together foster carers and their foster children for an activity packed day of fun. This February they were invited to Holme Pierrepont and you can read about the day here.
This year’s Fostering’s Got Talent event will be on Friday 10th May 2019. The date for entries has now closed, however we do have a number of tickets to be in the audience where you will be able to vote for your winning act. So, come and join us for an amazing night and support the contestants in their bid to win a pair of tickets to the “Britain’s Got Talent” semi-finals in London! Email us at fostering@nottscc.gov.uk to request yours now!
The next Fostering Service days will be for all staff and carers jointly. There will be two events and you can attend whichever is most convenient for you. Either 5th June 2019 in Ollerton or 20th June in Nottingham.
Please confirm your attendance at one of the events by emailing angela.simpson@nottscc.gov.uk
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You should have all been contacted and asked to contribute to a joint Nottingham Trent University & NCC research project led by Yvonne Parkes.
If you are a foster carer with experience of working with LGBTQ+ Looked After Young people and would like to take part in the research, please let your SSW know and contact Yvonne Parkes via email: yvonne.parkes2013@my.ntu.ac.uk
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Have you got your Foster Carer ID Badge? All carers and their partners are required to have an ID badge. If you have the old white ID badge this will need to be replaced with an up to date green badge. Please provide your supervising social worker with a photo and they will arrange for your badge to be issued.
The Youth Service is a countywide team that run various groups and events to support our population of Looked After Children. All foster children are encouraged to attend these clubs to make friends, build confidence and have their voices heard.
The groups are split into age groups, Play 3-7 years, Juniors 8-12 years, Seniors 13-17 years and 16–25 year old Care Leavers. See our website for the 2019 dates.
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NCC has taken up the generous offer from local charity “My Bag” for each child that comes into care to receive one of their wonderful bags full of age appropriate and comforting items that can have such an amazing impact on a child who is in crisis. From comfort blankets and teddies, to pens and notepads, My Bag can ease the trauma of a child being taken into care and give a child’s social worker something to arrive with, rather than being empty handed, giving a focal point to the meeting.
As a foster carer, you can help us implement this by looking out for the bag arriving with a newly placed child, and by getting in touch with the child’s worker if it doesn’t.
To read more about how the charity started, ways to support it and practical information see their website or like their Facebook page.
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Dawn Clark-Cain who is currently in the temporary Fostering Service Manager’s position, has decided to return to a team manager post within the fostering service. Ty Yousaf, an experienced & existing Children’s Service Manager will take over from Dawn on a temporary basis prior to permanent recruitment to the post. Ty will take up his responsibilities from the 23rd April and one of his very first jobs will be to establish a recruitment and assessment team.
In addition to Ty, we would like to offer a warm welcome to two new social workers to the fostering service; Helen Herbert has joined the Short Breaks team and Tracey Rawlings has joined the Central Team. We’d like to welcome Debra Ratcliffe back who has returned to the Central Team following a career break, Laura Poxon to the Fostering Futures team following her secondment to panel and Sarah Finlay to the Family & Friends team following her maternity leave.
As of March, there were also the following changes to the management structure:
- Kath Hughes became the full-time manager for the South Team.
- Ruth Goodison remains the team manager for the Short Breaks Team but moved over as an additional manager to the Central Team.
- The Fostering Family Workers are now managed by the Family and Friends Team Manager.
And finally we would like to wish Rachel Tyler, from the Fostering Futures team, a happy retirement, who has retired this month after working for Nottinghamshire County Council for nearly 40 years.
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