Passed initial visit but need advice

[Wantingtohelp]

Hi,

We have passed the initial visit and now the social workers want us to complete the full assessment. We are the only people going through the process for 2 children (aged 1 and 2).

Social services have been involved for the last two years and we went to a family conference in March - no one else put themselves forward. We are really hoping they will stay with birth mum as she has made improvements but if this isn't possible, we will step in and raise the children until adulthood.

Since May, we have been honest with social worker and said we can only do kinship if they pay for full time nursery for the two children as we both need to work. We already have 3 children in primary school. During the initial visit, we said the same, we need them to agree to pay for full time nursery.

They now want us to do the full assessment but have said they can't say whether they would pay for nursery until after we have completed the 8 week assessment. They have also said it was borderline about us passing the initial visit so I'm feeling deflated. I feel like we could do the 8 week assessment and them saying we've failed or yes you've passed but we won't pay for nursery. If we passed and they said no to nursery it would be so frustrating and heartbreaking as we would have to say no. Do you think this is what normally happens? Are they thinking if we got to the final stage, we'd feel pressured into me giving up my job?

Thanks

[Robin D]

Hello Wantingtohelp and welcome here. My apologies that I was unable to respond to your post over the last two days.

Sadly if you look through the many posts here, you will find that promises of finance is possibly the biggest issues here and has been since the forum launched. We have seen cases where verbal promises have been made and then denied, or a change of social worker has brought a change in direction. It is absolutely vital in my opinion that, if this proceeds you, get the financial support agreed and presented to the court before the final order is made.

@Suzie, the FRG advisor, may disagree, but I suggest two things.
1. Contact your local councillor and ask for their support in getting reassurance that you will not be left holding the baby so to speak, and in doing so, put the financial security of your whole family as well as the permanent placement of the two children at the centre of this at risk because with five children under 11, you cannot afford not to work, (unless they want to pay you as a professional foster parent that they will not want to do).
If that does not bring a rapid response you can then:
2. Contact your MP and let them know what is happening and seek their support. Often a letter from an MP to the Chief Executive will move things along.
3. You could start an official complaint that the local authority are not considering the long terms needs of the two children or indeed the three already in your care.

I don't suppose this is going to be an easy path to tread, but having others on-side can make a huge difference. Contact details of your local councillor can be found on the local authority website. Those for your MP are at https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP. Five children is a lot to manage. We've been there. Hard work, extremely difficult at times, but great fun. I wish you luck.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Wantingtohelp

Welcome to the kinship carers’ discussion board. Thank you for your post. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser. I am sorry that I have been unable to reply sooner.

I am sorry to hear about the difficult situation in your family/network. You are prospective kinship carers for two young children. It is not clear what is the children’s current legal status. However, they have had social work involvement for a couple of years. You hope that the children will stay with their mum who has made a lot of progress. So, I think they may still be in her care, perhaps with a child protection plan in place or in a pre-proceedings process. It would be helpful to have clarity around this as it may impact on my advice.

It was agreed at a family group conference that you would be assessed as potential carers for the children if their mum is unable to continue to care for them. Unfortunately, no-one else came forward. You are willing to provide a permanent home for the children if needed but you have rightly made it very clear that you would need support to do so. You identify that you would want children’s services to fund full-time nursery placements for the children. You have 3 primary school age children and you and your partner work. Therefore, you would need childcare support for the children to make this placement possible.

You have had an initial family and friends care assessment so far. You have passed this as the social worker has recommended that you have a fuller assessment now. The local authority involved have a policy of completing kinship assessments in 8 weeks, but this is not a national policy. I would recommend that you ask the social work to provide you with written information about exactly what this assessment is e.g. if it is a special guardianship order assessment, a kinship fostering assessment or both concurrently.

The social worker said that the initial assessment was ‘borderline’ which has understandably left you feeling somewhat deflated. An initial assessment is a basic screening assessment to rule you in or out for further assessment. As they are recommending a fuller assessment any potential issues or concerns identified in the initial assessment will be explore more fully in the more thorough assessment.

Although you have stated from the beginning that you will need support i.e. full-time nursery places, the social worker has stated that they cannot make a decision in relation to this until the assessment has been completed. Part of the assessment would be to look at what support you would need so it is not unusual that they are not confirming what help they would provide at this stage. But you are right to be consistent and clear about what would be necessary.

Another poster has recommended that your support package needs to be identified, agreed, and presented to court before the court makes a court order such as an SGO. This is good advice. He has also suggested how you can flag your support needs with your councillor, MP, the Local Authority’s chief executive and children’s services’ complaints department, as needed. Again, these are all the right options to challenge if you are approved as carers for the children (e.g. as Special Guardians) but cannot reach agreement with children’s services about the support package needed. However, if you are going down the route of being assessed as special guardians then children’s services should pay for you to get legal advice from a solicitor. You could access this legal advice to ask the solicitor to negotiate strongly with children’s services for the support package you need.

The social worker assessing you will also encourage you to access any government or benefit support that you may be entitled to. So, you may want to familiarise yourself with the eligibility criteria for free childcare support here.

If you continue with the assessment, the social worker will need to consider what specific support you would need to care for the two young children involved, whilst continuing to care for and provide a financially stable home for your own young children. You will need to be consistent about what you need to be able to take on this responsibility. You may need to have a ‘bottom line.’

You are worried that children’s services may pressurise you into agreeing to give up your job. Sometimes, children’s services will recommend that young children who have been harmed may need the full-time care of their permanent carer to help them settle and integrate into their new home. This would also reduce the need for full-time nursery placements! However, you have the right to say what you are and are not happy with and to make informed decisions. You are potentially offering vulnerable children a safe home in their family/network so can also put forward how you would meet the children’s needs and advocate for what you believe would be best for the children and you and your family.

You can highlight to children’s services that paragraph 37 of Special_guardianship_statutory_guidance says that “Financial issues should not be the sole reason for a special guardianship arrangement failing to survive. The central principle is that financial support should be payable in accordance with the Regulations to help secure a suitable special guardianship arrangement where such an arrangement cannot be readily made because of a financial obstacle.”

I know there is a lot to consider, and it may be that your situation has progressed since you posted. It may be a good idea for you to call the freephone advice line to talk through the current situation with an adviser. The freephone line 0808 8010366 is open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Mon to Fri. Of course, you can always post back on this board or get advice via one of the online routes linked to here.

Please see our advice materials on kinship care and the relevant kinship carer advice sheets linked to here.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie