Safe Care on Holiday or Trips Away

While many of the elements of a household’s safe caring guidelines will be about behaviour and therefore relevant at all times, some will relate to the environment in which the household is at a particular time. 

Safe care must always be at the forefront of foster carer’s minds, even at times when boundaries are more relaxed e.g. on holidays, trips away or leisure activities

It is important that carers inform both children’s and fostering social workers of their intended holidays or breaks away from home and the proposed sleeping arrangements. 

The Fostering Service bedroom sharing policy is clear that each child living in the foster home, whether they are a child of the foster family, or a child in care, should have a bedroom of their own. In some circumstances it may be appropriate for sharing to take place. For carer’s own children it is a matter for the family to agree, but for children who are fostered, (whose history we cannot fully know), any sharing must be risk assessed. 

The policy is clear that sharing may be appropriate in the following circumstances: 

• Siblings of the same gender and where sharing has been risk assessed, and in the case of older children, they are in agreement.
• Siblings of different genders up to the age of six may share, as long as the risk assessment indicates this is appropriate. 

In a foster carers home unrelated children should not share a bedroom, unless there are exceptional circumstances, e.g. children of the same gender and aged three and under; and where the placement has been matched and risk assessed; or there are strong supporting factors that indicate a significant benefit to the children for who the bedroom share is proposed. 

In exceptional circumstances such as holidays where children and young people are sharing a room or sharing a room with an adult, and this has not previously been risk assessed a risk assessment needs to be completed prior to the holiday. The risk assessment must be completed with the involvement of the Foster Carer, the child’s Social Worker and the Fostering Social Worker, and signed off by the relevant Team Manager. 

The Risk Assessment must detail any strategies proposed to minimise risks and indicate the foster carer’s views on their abilities to implement the strategies effectively.