What is therapeutic parenting, and what does PACE actually mean?
Everyone in fostering says PACE, and almost nobody explains it. Here is what playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy each mean, what they sound like at your own kitchen table, why acceptance has nothing to do with dropping your house rules, and what the fostering standards and NICE actually say your agency should be offering you.
What is it like to foster a child with a disability or additional needs?
You do not need to be a nurse to foster a disabled child. What the week really involves: appointments, the EHC plan and the SEND reforms, broken nights, finding a way to talk together, Disability Living Allowance, the equipment the standards say you must be given, and looking after yourself.
What is it like to foster a child with ADHD?
NICE names children in care as one of eleven groups more likely to have ADHD. Here is what ADHD actually is, how an assessment works and how long it takes, what helps at home, and the question that catches carers out: who is allowed to consent to medication.
What is it like to foster an autistic child?
Autism is something a child is born with, not something that happened to them. What you might notice at home, what the NHS and the school are supposed to do, how long an assessment really takes, and what actually helps day to day.
What is continuing care for a child with complex health needs?
“Continuing care” turns up in a child’s paperwork and nobody explains it. Here is what it means in England, who decides it, the six-week timescale, the personal health budget most carers are never told about, and the questions worth asking.
What do trauma and attachment actually mean in foster care?
Two words get used constantly in fostering and explained hardly at all. Here is what attachment and trauma actually mean, what the National Minimum Standards and NICE really say about them, the questionnaire you will be asked to fill in every year, and the training your agency should be offering you.
How do you teach a young person about money?
Pocket money, bank accounts, the Junior ISA for children in care and the first wage packet. A practical guide for foster carers on building a young person’s financial capability, from primary school to eighteen.
What happens in the first two weeks after a child arrives?
Almost every guide for new foster carers stops at the first night. This one starts on day two. What the first fortnight actually involves, the four statutory deadlines that fall inside your first twenty working days, and why a calm two weeks is not proof that it has worked.
What do foster carers have to write down?
Foster carers keep a short, dated note of how each child’s day went, and those notes end up in supervision, in court, and sometimes in the hands of the child themselves years later. Here is what to write down, what the National Minimum Standards actually require, why fact matters more than opinion, and how long the records are kept.