Newsletter December 2007

Feature article: Putting the standards into practice. The CWDC training, support and development standards pilot in Tower Hamlets

The Fostering Network and the Children’s Workforce Development Council have been holding a series of events this autumn looking at how the standards are going to be put into practice. But how are the fostering services piloting the standards coping? We look at the progress of one: the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Pilot authorities

All six of the fostering services involved in the pilot: Somerset County Council, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Cumbria County Council, Wirral Metropolitan County Council, Buckinghamshire County Council and Foster Care Associates Ltd, face very different challenges. Tower Hamlets is an inner city London borough, the only London borough to take part in the pilot, with a diverse ethnic community. There are 118 fostering households in the area as well as 12 kinship carers and hopes of recruiting a further 24 carers in 2007-2008.

Fourteen foster carers are taking part in the pilot in Tower Hamlets along with their supervsing social workers. There was an initial one hour session on the hopes and fears for the Training, Support and Development Standards. This was then followed at the end of November by a two hour session to review the progress to date. This session was attended by all fourteen carers to give them a chance to talk to each other as well as to the staff in Tower Hamlets about their progress so far.

Fulfilling the standards

One of the major undertakings in piloting the standards is making the materials accessible to all carers and to consider the ways in which the standards will be assessed. Tower Hamlets have foster carers for whom English is not their first language. This has been addressed for the carers in the pilot by translating the standards into Bengali. There may also be basic skills issues which are being addressed by linking up with a local further education college to provide basic skills classes two days a week and allowing foster carers to evidence the standards on audiotape rather than in a written format.

The workbook has been turned into a portfolio to make it easier to use and this will now chart their career beyond the standards. The issue of duplication of effort has also been considered so that foster carers' already limited time is not stretched further by having to replicate work that they may have already done as part of an NVQ or other qualification. There has also been the introduction of personal development plans and an existing mentoring scheme for foster carers, where all the mentors hold an NVQ level 3, has been extended to the standards. All future training is intended to link into the new standards.

There are many ways in which foster carers can fulfil and evidence the standards. These include reflective accounts, observations by social workers, professional discussions, question and answer sessions, testimonies from course trainers and attending training courses and support groups. It was found that foster carers were doing much of this already without reference to the standards. A monthly one day training session is being held on each of the standards in turn alongside a half day drop in session on a wider range of training issues.

Progress so far

A great deal of work has been carried out by the training department in Tower Hamlets to make the pilot run as smoothly as possible. So how has it gone so far? There have been some problems. Some of the supervising social workers have had time issues which has made it harder for them to work on the standards. The basic skills and language issues have lead to some foster carers not feeling confident in writing down their evidence and social workers fear that they may have to do this in addition to their existing work. The role and expectations of second carers has not yet been clearly defined. The status of foster carers and the incentives for them to undertake the standards have also not been laid out yet and there is no additional funding for this.

Are you involved in the pilots?

The final reports from the pilot fostering services are due to be presented to the CWDC in February before the wider role out of the standards in April 2008 and we look forward to telling you more about the final part of the pilot. Are you involved in the pilots? If you are, we would love to hear about your experiences, whether you are a foster carer, social worker or training officer. Contact Lucy Morgan on lucy.morgan@fostering.net to let us know your story.