14); learning and development of foster carers (Standard 20); supervision and support of foster carers (Standard 21); handling allegations (Standard 22); and placements plans and their review (Standard 31).
Fostering Services (England) Regulations
These Regulations were published by the Department of Education in 2011 (Department of Education, 2011b; Dunster, 2011; Lawson, 2011a). They set out the regulatory framework for foster care in England and, pertinent to social work and foster care, cover: the assessment and approval of foster carers; foster carer reviews; termination of foster carers’ approval; and fostering panels. The Independent Review Mechanism's (IRM) relationship to foster carers’ approval, review, the fostering panel and the fostering service is also noted. These Regulations, as they related to assessment and approval of foster carers, were amended in 2013 by the Department of Education (Department of Education, 2013b).
Assessment and Approval of Foster Carers: Amendments to the Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations
The Amendments (Department of Education, 2013b) set out the new two-stage process for the assessment of prospective foster carers, which is elaborated upon in Chapter 4 of this book, as well as a number of miscellaneous matters including: the sharing of information for the purposes of foster carer or adopter assessments; the IRM; the usual fostering limit; reviews and terminations of approval of foster carers; and the role of the Agency Decision Maker (ADM).
The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 4: Fostering Services
The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 4 (HM Government, 2011), taken with the NMS (Department of Education, 2011a) and the Fostering Service (England) Regulations (Department of Education, 2011b), form the regulatory framework for fostering services in England (Dunster, 2011; Lawson, 2011a). Volume 4 provides the detail of what is expected of good quality foster care. Sections of this volume will be revisited in forthcoming chapters in this book, for example, what is meant by ‘delegated authority’, and what this means for social work with foster carers (HM Government, 2011, p15).
The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review 2010
HM Government's Guidance and Regulations Volume 2 were published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in 2010. They were part of the implementation of the Care Matters White Paper, and the Children and Young Persons Act 2008. Volume 2 provides Guidance and Regulations regarding care planning, case review and the placement of children who are looked after. In the assessment of prospective foster carers and their subsequent reviews, the careful evaluation of what they can be expected to, as well as want to, have as their terms of approval is noted in Volume 2 as follows:
Foster carer assessments are designed to identify the ages, number or needs of the children to whom the foster carer is most likely to offer the best care. Research evidence consistently shows that placements outside the terms of approval are significantly more likely to result in placement breakdown, often if there is a foster child already in the household. Where the responsible authority wishes to amend the terms of approval to enable the child to remain with the carer, careful consideration must be made by the fostering panel to ensure that the carer has the capacity to meet the child's needs in the context of the needs of other children in the household.
(HM Government, 2010, p57)
A social worker's assessment of a foster carer's capacity to care for particular categories of children at the approval stage, and re-assessment of the appropriateness of a foster carer's terms of approval, as time goes on, is particularly important. This re-assessment is part of the foster carer review process and should be carefully considered at each review (Brown, 2011).
Importantly, the Guidance and Regulations Volume 2 sets out what is expected of children's social workers in respect of placement planning. This was further strengthened through the 2013 amendments (Department of Education, 2013c).
Delegation of Authority: Amendments to the Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review
The amendments (Department of Education, 2013c) helpfully firm up the expectations placed on local authorities and fostering services in respect of the delegation of authority from those with parental responsibility to the foster carer, to enable foster children to live as ordinary lives as possible. The amendments note that delegated authority should be clarified in the placement plan for each foster child.
Regulation and Guidance Relating to Specific Areas of Foster Care
The following Regulations and Guidance relate to particular types or aspects of foster care, as well as requirements placed on local authorities to sustain enough foster carer placements for children needing foster care, and lastly training and development requirements for foster carers.
The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review and Fostering Services (England) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations
These Regulations were published by the Department of Education in 2013, and cover the temporary approval of prospective adopters as foster carers (Department of Education, 2013a). The Coram Centre for Early Permanence and the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) have since published helpful guidance for social workers and local authorities about fostering for adoption (Simmonds, 2013).
Family and Friends Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities
The Department of Education published this Guidance in 2010 (Department of Education, 2010a). The Guidance sets out what is expected of local authorities regarding the temporary approval of a ‘connected person’ to care for a child looked after. It also covers the requirements of the full assessment of a family and friends foster carer (connected person), which should be completed within sixteen weeks, and in exceptional cases a further eight weeks can be allowed once the local authority's ‘nominated officer’ has consulted the fostering panel and the independent reviewing officer for the child.
The Guidance has a more generally useful Annex A, setting out the legal framework for: private fostering; family care (informal); family and friends foster care; unrelated foster care; residence orders; special guardianship orders and adoption. For each of these the following are considered: route into the caring arrangement; parental responsibility; approval basis; duration; placement supervision; review of placement; support services; financial support – entitlement; and financial support – discretionary (Department of Education, 2010a, pp41–3).
Private Fostering
This book does not look specifically at private fostering, but for the benefit of the reader I have included here references regarding private fostering Regulations (Department for Education and Skills, 2005a), Guidance on private fostering (Department for Education and Skills, 2005b) and the National Minimum Standards for private fostering (Department for Education and Skills, 2005c), for information.
The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 3: Planning Transition to Adulthood for Care Leavers Including the Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010
The Guidance and Regulations were published by the Department of Education in 2010 (Department of Education,
