I provide consultancy to fostering services to:
Review and draft policies and procedures to reflect and improve practice
Develop new services and improve practice within existing services
Address specific challenges in relation to individual cases or with practice more generally
My recent consultancy work includes:
Policy development
I was engaged by an IFP to review their policies and procedures for parent and child fostering after some concerns had been raised in an Ofsted inspection.
After meeting with managers to understand their particular problems and identify what they wanted to achieve, I produced a draft set of policies and procedures for their consideration and sign-off.
Improving practice
I worked with an IFP to improve their foster carer review practices, which included developing a training element for supervising social workers and foster carers.
I suggested some areas where practice needed to be changed, agreed those with managers, and constructed a training programme to implement those changes.
A case review
An IFP approached me about a complex case that that involved allegations and some problematic historical practice by that fostering service.
After listening to the different perspectives I helped the service identify a way forward that acknowledged past failings, offered fairness to the foster carers and prioritised the safety of children.