FOSTER carers and young people are helping to shape the future of fostering in Warwickshire.
Warwickshire County Council reviewed its fostering service to look at how it could better meet the needs of children and young people in its care and when placed with foster carers. The last review of its service was in the late 1990s which put Warwickshire at the forefront of best practice.
This time existing foster carers and young people in Warwickshire were given the chance to share their views about the support provided and what improvements could be made.
With their help the review concluded the fostering service met the needs of the majority of the children and young people.
But the recommendations for the future include developing a scheme where foster carers could receive both fostering allowances and fees from the beginning of their fostering career; to increase the frequency of support and supervision visits for foster carers; and to develop a scheme which uses the skills of existing foster carers to offer support to other carers as Fostering Service Ambassadors.
County council health spokesman Les Caborn said: “Warwickshire’s Fostering Service continues to strive to be at the forefront of best practice.
“The fostering service review provided the perfect opportunity for foster carers and staff to have their say on how we can improve outcomes for the young people we look after.”
Visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fostering for further details.
