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Support Breaks Swansea logo

Support Breaks Swansea logoDuring the summer, the Support Breaks Swansea team held a competition to design a logo to encompass what their support care scheme was all about. An article appears on page 2 of the latest copy of Attracting and Keeping Carers.

Skills to Foster for support carers

From 19-21 September potential support carers from Bridgend, Swansea and the Vale of Glamorgan attended the 4th "Skills to Foster for Support Carers" course, organised by Philippa Williams and hosted by the Vale of Glamorgan fostering team. One of the highlights of the course was the presentation by Denise Hughes, an experienced Support Carer from Swansea. All participants found the course valuable and enlightening - comments included ""On the course I learnt all the skills I will need to be a support carer", "Current support carer visit was invaluable!", "I learnt that support breaks can be very rewarding and that I do have the qualities to be a carer", "Very informative and answered any questions we had regarding support caring.", "I learnt about appropriate behaviour and lots of information about support care ways of working with all different types of children and families", "I gained more of an insight into the need for support care, the need to work with the family and how enjoyable support care can be".

Support carer support groups

Support Breaks Swansea is following in the footsteps of the support care team in Rhondda Cynon Taff and setting up a dedicated support/training group for Support Carers. The Swansea group will meet for the first time on 4 November and Philippa will attend the meeting. The Rhondda Cynon Taff group last met on 9 September when they heard a presentation by the specialist LAC nurse and a teacher from the team supporting children in foster care with their educational needs. Several carers who offered short breaks to children with disabilities also attended. Philippa is hoping to arrange an annual, Wales-wide event to give support carers from across Wales the opportunity to meet up. Watch this space!

Other developments in 2008-09

Blaenau Gwent and Anglesey have joined the Vale of Glamorgan Fostering and Adoption Team in setting up Support Care schemes. One of The Fostering Network Wales Support Care Project key aims for 2008-9 was to work with 3 new Support Care schemes. We are therefore delighted that these three authorities have decided to come on board. Philippa Williams, Project Worker, has also been asked to work with another 4 authorities who have all expressed an interest in setting up Support Care schemes.

Following the success of the 3 year Support Care Project 2005-8 funded by The Four Acre Trust, The Fostering Network Wales has secured funding from the Welsh Assembly and The Four Acre Trust to extend the Project for a further year to April 2009.

A key focus of 2008-9 will be assisting 3 additional fostering services to set up Support Care schemes. These 3 new schemes will join Barnardos Gwynedd, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Rhonnda Cynon Taff and Swansea in developing local Support Care programmes.

The Fostering Network Wales Support Care Project offers:

  • Project Worker to visit family placement/family support teams to give presentation(s) on Support Care
  • advice and guidance on how to set up a support care scheme
  • free copies of “Support Care – The Preventative Face of Foster Care” – a practical guide to setting up support care schemes using evidence from the 5 original 2005-8 Support Care schemes
  • free places on Skills to Foster for Support Carers training course for potential carers taking place from 19-21 September 2008
  • attendance at 2 Support Care Forums taking place on 19 November 2008 and 25 March 2009
  • access to various materials designed by existing support care

If your team would like to get involved, please contact us as soon as possible in order to benefit from the above opportunities. Contact Philippa Williams, Project Worker – Support Care, The Fostering Network Wales, Bay Chambers, West Bute Street, Cardiff, CF1 5BB, telephone 029 2044 0940.

Download the flyer on new pilots for support care in 2008-09

Launch of support care project report

On 27 February 2008, a support care dissemination conference was held announcing the findings of a report, Support care: the preventative face of foster care that marked the end of a three year project in Wales.

The event attracted 65 delegates and saw 16 of the 22 authorities in Wales represented alongside several IFPs.

What we have achieved

Over the course of the project, the Fostering Network Wales worked with five pilot Support Care Schemes, three of which are now established and taking placements. Links have been established with 11 other authorities and support care presentations given to adoption and fostering forums in north and south Wales. In a communicative effort, the project has helped facilitate the sharing of information – leaflets, policies, procedures, protocol and children’s guides – between support care schemes across Wales.

Practical advice has been set out to help agencies hoping to attract support carers, through training and the distribution of literature such as Hints and Tips For Recruiting Support Carers. Further assistance was provided in the design of advertisements, job descriptions and person specifications for support carers.

Skills to Foster for Support Carers courses and a seminar on Competency Based Assessment of Support Carers, ensured that help has been given to prospective support carers.

The project has addressed the entire support care process and sought to help schemes develop accordingly. This has all been very well received. A support care worker told us: “We attended Fostering Network Support Care events and found these particularly useful in terms of learning from other local authorities…we have used the ideas to influence our current practice within respite and short term care.”

It seems that the support carers themselves have responded well to training:

“I would like to attend some training to give me ideas on appropriate activities to do with the children even though my link worker reassured me that I was doing a very good job of this already.”

Further information on support care in Wales

For more 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.