Thinking of transferring fostering agencies?
Are you thinking of transferring from your fostering agency or local authority?
First things first, it’s your right to foster with whomever you want to foster with, you should always expect to be well supported and have children placed with you, but if you’re reading this then something clearly isn’t working for you right now.
We’d love to talk to you about transferring, we think we offer fantastic support, a good financial package, and we do everything we can to make sure carers have placements – we see an approved carer who isn’t fostering as a failure on our part.
They say change is as good as break, and from our experience transferring fostering agencies can make all the difference to you. We’ve had carers join us who were thinking of quitting fostering, which would have been a huge loss to society, and because of joining us are successfully and happily fostering years later.
Our Carers Receive the following:
£450 per week to care for a child 0-10
£475 per child to care for a child 11+
No deductions for siblings
24/7 access and support from us
What are the right reasons to change
As we said before, it’s your right to foster with any agency or local authority that you choose, so you should never feel why you have to justify why you want to change.
That being said, changing agency takes time and energy, so make sure you that a change is really want you want. If you don’t feel you are being supported firstly talk to your current agency about what support you think you should be getting – you may find they put this in place. If you’re changing because you don’t connect with your current supervisor, then ask for a different one, this might solve all your issues and means you don’t have to be reassessed by the new agency. We don’t want to discourage you from transferring to us, we just want what’s best for you, and we’re open and honest enough to see if you can resolve your issues with your current agency first.
What is the process
If after really thinking about it, you’ve decided that changing is the right thing to do, then this is more or less the process – everyone’s unique, so you may find it’s faster, slower, or has more or fewer steps – we can give you a better idea after we’ve talked to you.
The first thing to do is have a telephone call with us. We’ll talk to you about your experiences of fostering and why you are looking to change.
Then the process will be very similar to when you first applied to foster, we’ll have to do an assessment on you including background checks – and we will then present this assessment to our fostering panel who will either recommend your approval or ask us to do some more work.
We aim to complete a transfer within 2-3 months, we find it’s generally a lot quicker than initial assessments, as a lot of the information is easily accessible.
Just a warning – never just resign as a foster carer if you’re thinking of transferring, as if you do this, the agency or local authority must withdraw your resignation 28 days later – and this can cause huge issues especially if you have a child in placement. Always tell your agency/LA that you intend to resign, until you are told it’s ok to formally resign.
The process is a it different depending on whether you have a child placed with you, so there’s a bit more info below.
If you have a child in placement
If you have a child or children in placement with you, then the process might be a bit more complex, as everyone’s primary concern is to ensure that the move is a positive one for them as well as you.
One of the first things that will happen is there will be a transfer protocol meeting. This is a meeting between yourself, your current agency, the agency you wish to move to and the child’s social worker.
Everyone needs to be in agreement that the move will not unsettle the child, we’ve never had a case where a move has been blocked by anyone, but it’s important that everyone’s on board as it makes things easier.
Then we’ll carry out our fostering assessment, which will include reading some of the information your current agency has on you.
Once the assessment is complete we will give you a date for our panel – at which point we will let you know to formally resign, so we can have an agreed date you become a SCF foster carer.
If you don't have a current placement
It’s a little more straight forward if you don’t have a child in placement. There’s no need to organise a meeting with your current agency, instead once you’ve applied to us, we will contact them for a reference and to view your file.
Normally people wish to change agencies becuase there has been a break down in the relationship between them and the agency. This means they are often worried about recieving a reference from them or what might be in their file. Don’t worry – from experince we know there are always 2 sides to a story, so the information we receive from your current agency is only 1 things amongst many things that we take into account. We will always talk to you about your experiences and understand if something went wrong in the past, why it did, what have you learnt, and how will you deal with a situation differently.
Meet Sally Our Registered Manager
Hi, I’m Sally SCF’s manager. I’ve actually been a foster carer, so know exactly what it’s like to walk in your shoes.
My team and I always respect you the carer and treat you as a professional.
I make sure we always treat our carers as we ourselves would want to be treated and will never abuse your good trust.
Having been a carer, and worked for several fostering agencies, I can give you my work that if you choose to foster with South Coast Fostering, you and the children you care for will be my 100% focus.
If you want to have a chat with me, then fill in the form below and I’d be happy to give you a call back.
book a call about fostering: Transferring
We’d be happy to give you a 15-20 minute call to tell you about fostering. Don’t worry, there’s no pressure from us – it’s honestly a chance for you to ask us any questions you have about fostering, and your suitability. Just complete this short form
What about?
Can I transfer if I've been previously deregistered?
There are many reasons why foster carers might be deregistered, from very minor things like a break down in communication, to very serious things like serious incidences of abuse. We know this, so we don’t have a blanket rule. We can honestly only say whether we could approve you if you’ve previously been deregistered after talking to you. We will always be open and honest with you, we know there always 2 sides to any story and the truth is generally somewhere in the middle. Our advice is talk to us, that’s really the best way of finding out, and keep in mind that we have recruited a number of carers who were previously deregistered where they have either learnt and grown from the experience, or in our opinion were deregistered unfairly.
Can I transfer if I'm currently facing an allegation or in the middle of a standards of care investigation.
When facing an allegation you’re natural reaction might be to run for the hills and see if you can transfer quickly to avoid it. Unfortunately this isn’t the best course of action.
You should always work with the agency to allow the process to conclude before deciding if and when to transfer. The allegation won’t necessarily go away just because you resign as a carer with that agency. You may find not having a result actually prevents you from fostering with a new agency.
