Fostering News | February Update

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Fostering News

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A very warm welcome to our February edition of Fostering News! We have lots of exciting updates and opportunities for you this month so grab a cuppa and a biscuit and sit down for five minutes while you enjoy reading our newsletter!

A BIG thank you to you all

I want to say welcome and a big thank you to all of our newer foster carers who were approved at Panel over the last year. So many of you have agreed to care for teenagers and children with complex needs with the support of STARS or the youth service and are providing a high standard of care for these children. One of our new carers agreed to care for a teenager that we couldn’t find a residential home for nationally after her previous residential home had refused to allow her to return, she settled quickly and asked to stay for a longer period of time until an appropriate home had been found. She successfully transitioned after Christmas and seems really happy. Two teenagers have moved from residential homes to live with two of our newer foster carers and other children who we have agreed child specific payments for have moved to new foster carers. I am blown away by your enthusiasm, resilience and care for our looked after children and hope that you continue to foster for Nottinghamshire for many years!

I also would like to say thank you to all of you who were able to attend the last virtual FLAG meeting, it was great to see so many carers from different fostering teams. I especially enjoyed hearing you share positive stories at the end, I think we all agree that this should now be a regular agenda item. I have asked the Service Managers for all of the childcare Social Work teams to make sure that they discuss My Bag at their team meetings and we have also sent this information out to all workers via email. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the next FLAG meeting.

Sophie Eadsforth, Group Manager for Children’s Social Services

Fostering Liaison Advisory Group

An online meeting with lots of smiling faces on a laptop screen

Thank you to all the staff and carers that attended January’s FLAG meeting. We had an excellent turn out and it was a really positive and productive meeting. The minutes from the meeting can be found online.

The next meeting has been scheduled for 25th April at 7pm via Microsoft Teams. We will share the link to join the meeting closer to the date.

At the last FLAG meeting there was a query in relation to the number of days a weekend of support care will count as from a mainstream carers 28 day allowance.

Ty Yousaf and the locality team managers have discussed this and agreed that there has been no change to the existing protocol which is that the number of nights the child is away is equivalent to the number of days which will be taken off the allowance.

For example; if  a child goes to support care on a Friday and they return to their mainstream carers on Sunday, this will count as 2 days of care.

The support carer will get paid for three days of care but the mainstream carer will only have used 2 days out of 28 as the child has been away for 2 nights.

Read the latest minutes

Service updates

A warm welcome back to Lucy Andrewartha who has returned from maternity leave to her post as team manager in the Central and Short Breaks fostering team, alongside Jayne Ripley.

Andrea Dore is acting as temporary manager for the Fostering Family Support Team while Ruth Goodison continues to cover the South Team and Rachel Taylor-Murray is the new manager in the Family and Friends Team as Alison Hardy takes up new post in the Leaving Care Team.  

Online Blue Light Card

A person holding their Blue  Light Card towards the camera

Did you know that foster carers are now entitled to a Blue Light Card giving you access to hundreds of discounts on retail and activity destinations across the UK?

Apply for your card online

Training opportunities

The following courses still have some availability. Please book on now via My Learning My Career to avoid disappointment!

FC Reporting and Recording - Zoom Webinar: Foster Carers Reporting and Recording (learningpool.com) 15 seats available for 1st March 2022

Foster Care Youth Mental Health First Aid: Foster Care Youth Mental Health First Aid (learningpool.com) – 1 seat available for 23rd March 2022

See more training options

Half Term and Easter Holiday Clubs

A hand with a guitar and notebook open

You should have received a letter in the post from the Youth Service in relation to the fantastic activity days they are offering over February half term and the Easter break. Children aged 8 – 16 can participate in performing arts (Drama/Movement, Sing/Song writing) workshops with professional artists held at Mansfield Library in February, and in April they will be running activity days at the Mill Adventure base for children aged 8-17 years.

Email emma.betteridge@nottscc.gov.uk to request consent forms and book

Opportunities for your young people

The Achievement Service is pleased to announce the next employability briefings for 2022!

Boots
A focus on retail, marketing, customer service, logistics and warehouse etc at their headquarters in Nottingham and will include a tour as a great workplace inspiration for our young people , plus enhancing their steps towards EET.

Home - Boots Jobs - Career Opportunities with Boots on Wednesday 9th February 2022, 10:30am to 12noon, D90 Building, Thane Road, Beeston, NG9 IBS

Cerealto
An introduction to Cerealto, how to access career pathways, a factory tour and an opportunity to ask questions.
Cerealto Siro Foods – Cultivating the future on Tuesday 22nd February, 11am – 2pm, Claylands Avenue, Worksop, Notts S81 7BQ

Your young person’s Achievement Adviser can arrange transport on the day (arrival and departure).

Email richard.pincott@nottscc.gov.uk to book a place

Son’s and Daughters - save the date!

An inflatable activity course on water

We are really excited that we’ve been given the go ahead to book this years’ Son’s and Daughter’s Appreciation Day event! It’s always a really fantastic day where we get to take out the birth children of our foster carers, aged 7-17, and do something really fun together, as a way of saying thank you from the Service for everything they do for the looked after children of Nottinghamshire. We know that fostering households foster as a whole family and birth children play a huge part in supporting our looked after young people, so please keep Wednesday 24th August free for a fun filled day of activities. We will release further details nearer the time so watch this space!

Can you help us recruit new foster carers?

Do you know anyone who is interested in becoming a foster carer? Our carers receive £250 for each enquirer they put through to us who go on to be approved at panel.

Feel free to share the details of our next information events with friends and family if you think they would also make a great carer.  

We have an informal, virtual information event coming up on 24 February 2022 at 10am 

Click here to join the 24 Feb meeting

If you would like to support us at any of our upcoming events and talk to applicants about the realities of being a foster carer for NCC then please email us at fostering@nottscc.gov.uk We are always extremely appreciative of having a carers expert information at our events and you will receive a sessional payment as a thank you for giving up your time.

And finally,  we are hoping to run a campaign in March to highlight the need for more LGBTQ foster carers in the service as part of The New Family Social’s adoption and fostering week 2022. If you are from the LGBTQ+ community and would like to be involved in the campaign by providing a quote or being a part of the media campaign then please get in touch at  fostering@nottscc.gov.uk.

Read more about the campaign

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