Posted on Friday 24th April 2020
Foster carers are receiving extra support from the county council to help the children and young people they care for.
Hundreds of foster carers are receiving extra help during Coronavirus lockdown to help them look after the young people in their care.
Staffordshire County Council is giving its 450 foster households an additional allowance to help them cope with the extra costs of having children and young adults at home all the time, as well as providing lots of practical and emotional support.
Carers have access to online training, are still having their regular scheduled conversations with allocated social workers and use virtual support groups to keep talking to each other.
Mark Sutton, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Children and Young People, said:
Our foster carers do a remarkable job at the best of times providing a loving, stable home for those in need of support at a vulnerable time.
At the moment it’s tough for everyone – and that includes our foster carers, who can face extra practical and emotional challenges at a time like this, so we are doing all we can to support them and the children and young people they care for while they stay at home.”
Staffordshire County Council currently has more than 850 children and young people placed in foster care; around 500 with its own households and another 350 through independent placements.
As well as front line support, essential work is continuing behind the scenes with annual reviews and approvals.
At the same time the council is still recruiting new foster carers and is currently processing new inquiries and providing initial online training for those currently being accepted into the system.
Mark Sutton added:
A wide range of people are able to offer foster homes and there is no such thing as a typical foster carer - we need people from all kinds of backgrounds and we always have a particular need for those who can help older children and larger sibling groups.
We are still seeing people expressing an interest and it’s important that we keep the wheels turning so that when this difficult time passes we still have the right number of carers to help vulnerable children and young people and we won’t be in the difficult position of trying to manage a backlog.”
The last Ofsted inspection of children’s social care rated both the service overall and the experience and progress of children in care as ‘Good’.
Inspectors said that foster carers were well supported by social workers and receive help and advice from mentors, as well as individual training suited to their own circumstances.
Anyone interested in becoming a foster carer can find out more here or call 0800 169 2061.