Responding to Enquiries about Fostering

POLICY

Recruitment Policy

Calderdale Fostering Service aims to recruit and approve sufficient foster carers to meet the range of needs presented by children of different racial, cultural and religious heritages, different ages and children with disabilities and to offer a choice of placement.

Calderdale Fostering Service will pro-actively seek foster carers from a range of racial, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. It will not discriminate on grounds of race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, sexuality or age but will make an assessment of each individual or family based on their ability to meet the needs of Children Looked After.

While the Fostering Service will not preclude people from fostering on grounds of health or disability, they have a duty to satisfy themselves that foster carers with whom a child is to be placed have a reasonable expectation of continuing good health and will consider:

Links between age and health and the continuing good health of the carers for the duration of a placement;
Health conditions or disabilities which may limit foster carers in providing children with a range of beneficial experiences and opportunities or place children at risk through an inability to protect the child from common place hazards.

Calderdale Fostering Service will not preclude people from becoming foster carers on grounds that they smoke but it will take into account the adverse effects of passive smoking when considering the age and type of children who may be placed with them, especially babies and very young children, or children who have heart or chest complaints or a history of asthma.

In accordance with current CoramBAAF Guidelines, the Fostering Service will not approve foster carers for children under the age of 5 any household in which a smoker resides.

Where a placement is with a Connected Person Carer, the service may agree to waive this part of the procedure in the best interests of the child/children remaining with their extended family.

SCOPE

These procedures should be followed for all enquiries from people wishing to become foster carers.

Please refer to the Placements with Connected Persons Procedure, if the enquirer is a relative, friend or other person connected with a child and wishes to be assessed to care for this child.

Placements of Looked After Children with Connected Persons who have not been approved as foster carers can be made under Regulation 24 of the Care Planning, Placement and Review (England) Regulations 2010.

Relative is defined as "a grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt (whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership) or step-parent".

AMENDMENT

In January 2023, this chapter was reviewed and updated as required to reflect current processes.

1. Enquiries about Fostering

NOTE: The enquiry stage of the process is defined as: From the point of contact/enquiry with Calderdale Fostering Service until receipt of the application form by the Fostering Service.

An enquirer may contact Calderdale Fostering Service to express interest in fostering in the following ways:

Completing the online enquiry form at calderdale.gov.uk/v2/fostering/registration-of-interest
Email: fostering@calderdale.gov.uk
Phone: 01422 266020

Should a member of the public make contact with any other section of Calderdale Council in respect of a fostering enquiry they should be re-directed to the Fostering service. This should be either by forwarding the enquirer's name and address to the Fostering service via emailing fostering@calderdale.gov.uk or by advising the enquirer of contact details for the Fostering service as shown above.

If the enquirer has made their first contact other than directly to the Fostering recruitment and assessment team, their name, address and contact details must be supplied to the Fostering recruitment and assessment team on the same day in order to enable them to contact them within 2 days of the first contact.

The fostering recruitment and assessment team will check the CASS database for previous information regarding the enquirer.

The fostering recruitment and assessment team will monitor and track all enquiries and their outcomes.

Unless a Fostering information pack has been requested, the fostering recruitment and assessment team will contact the enquirer in person within 1-2 working days of the first contact. The aim of this contact is to discuss any questions the enquirermay have encourage the enquirer to progress to the next stage where appropriate.

If the fostering recruitment team is unable to make contact by telephone or email after 3 attempts, a standard email or letter will be sent to the enquirer by the fostering recruitment and assessment team noting that their enquiry will be closed down if they do not respond within 7 days.

If the enquirer decides not to proceed, the fostering recruitment and assessment team will establish the reason why, update the Enquiry dashboard and note the reason on the CASS.

2. Application to Foster

The application stage of the process is defined as: From receipt of the Expression of Interest form - held in the Enquirer Information Pack - by the Fostering Team until withdrawal, turn down or approval. (It should be noted that although this is described as the application stage, it is also a stage of initial assessment).