Moving on

A child’s placement may end for a variety of reasons:

• return home to family
• move to another placement, including adoptive family, or long-term fostering or special guardianship
• move to independence
• placement disruption

The aim of all involved is for children to move on in a planned and positive way with minimum disruption to the child. You may be involved in a variety of meetings such as life appreciation meetings, introduction planning meetings, maintenance and disruption meetings.

If children are moving on to permanent placements i.e. adoption or long term foster care you will play a key role in the process of introducing the child to a new family. This will involve the carers spending time in your home getting to know the child.

A child may have to move, for a variety of reasons, before the care plan has been achieved. Where it is identified that the fostering home is under pressure and may come to an unplanned end, a Stability meeting will be held to explore the strengths and difficulties within the family, along with the supports that are in place. This meeting should be held at an early stage in the placement getting into difficulty in order that supports can be identified and put in place promptly. The meeting will also explore what would assist in maintaining the child in your care. Over the course of a child being in your care, there may be a number reviews of these meetings held. It is often possible to work through the difficulties and, with additional supports, continue to care for the child/ren with a positive conclusion. Wherever possible supports should be identified to enable a child to move on from you in a planned and positive way. The stability meeting will usually be held either in your home or virtually. It will involve yourself, your Fostering Social Worker and the child’s social worker. It will be chaired by the senior practitioner in the Stability and Sufficiency team or in their absence another senior practitioner from within the Fostering Service. It is sometimes helpful if the young person participates in the meeting or if others involved such as school are also invited. It is expected that a stability meeting will have taken place prior to any unplanned move for a child unless there are exceptional reasons why this has not been possible.

Where it has not been possible to identify support to maintain a child in your care, an unplanned endings meetingwill be held. In some circumstance, this meeting can occur immediately after a Stability meeting. The unplanned endings, meeting will consider the reasons why a placement has come to an unplanned end along with planning for how the child will be moved to a new home. Reflections on the ending will inform future planning for both the young person, professionals and the carers.

Do share any challenges or concerns you may have with your Fostering Social Worker and the Child’s Social Worker at an early stage. This may avoid an unplanned ending.