Support care
What is support care?
Support Care is the preventative face of fostering. It has proved to be of immense value to parents and an important resource for social workers who are trying to avert admissions to local authority care.
The term ‘Support Care’ describes any scheme that offers families in difficulties a series of short breaks with specialised foster carers who work alongside parents to help resolve problems and diffuse tension. Young people are introduced to new experiences and form positive relationships with the carers. All placements are part-time, and short term. The expectation, nearly always realised, is that families who were often on the point of breakdown at the time of referral will have worked out some problem-solving strategies and formed better relationships within a few months, and are ready to move on.
News
The 3 year Support Care Project in England came to an end in March 2007, with a well attended conference in Birmingham, which included workshops from some of the pilot projects. Birmingham Neighbourhood Care and Bradford Support Care/Crisis Care set up stalls for sharing materials and offering advice. A full report will be available shortly on the Network website; meanwhile a printed summary can be obtained from the Fostering Network.
The Fostering Network has currently dedicated a small amount of funding to the setting up of a Support Care National Network. Work began on this in early 2008. It is hoped this will prove to be a valuable resource for anyone either currently running, or planning to set up a short breaks service for children in need, or for anyone who would like to find out more about the principles and practice of Support Care.
The IFP National Forum hosted in London by the Fostering Network in November 2007 featured workshops on Support Care. Attendees were keen to look at ways in which their organisations could develop this service.
In February 2008 a conference was held in Cardiff to mark the end of the extremely successful 3-year Support Care Project in Wales. Workshops included a presentation by Voices from Care Cymru; four of the pilot authorities gave workshops on their progress, and a further workshop explored the uses of Support Care in the prevention of adoption breakdowns. More information, including the project report, is available from the Fostering Network Wales.
In March 2008 the Fostering Network hosted two seminars on Support Care, in London (12th March) and Leeds (19th March). These offered an opportunity to officially launch the new National Network. It is hoped that attendees will be among the first to actively engage in the development of the network website, so that a truly relevant, lively and up-to-date online hub can be established from the outset.
The Fostering Network and support care
The Fostering Network has been involved with support care since 1999 and for the last three years has been running support care projects in England and Wales / Cymru.
For information on the support care project in Wales, contact project worker Philippa Williams on 029 2044 0940 or by email at philippa.williams@fostering.net.
Joy Howard, who has worked in partnership with the Fostering Network throughout, is acting as consultant to the current projects in both England and Wales, and to other associated schemes.
Joy can be contacted on 01535 645711 or email joyhoward@supportcare.org.
For further background on support care and ideas about how it might work within your organisation, visit Joy's website at www.supportcare.org.
