Fostering Support
Always on hand
“Fantastic commitment from the foster care support workers to our young people, giving them the opportunity to have experiences they may not normally have had access to. Well done everyone.”
Andrea – Swiis Carer
Our fostering support promise
Choosing to become a foster carer is a life-changing experience and we fully appreciate that you need a range of information to help you make your decision. Swiis are on hand to help support you through the decision-making process and should you decide to apply to become a foster carer, we will guide you through each stage of the process. Once approved, Swiis will provide ongoing mentoring and exceptional support via a local team of fostering specialists to help you succeed in your new role and in making a difference to a child or young person.
Supervising Social Workers
Social workers provide ongoing support to Swiis carers and are available 24/7 to ensure that someone is always ready to help whatever the problem. The Swiis Social Worker also acts as the liaison with the Local Authority social workers responsible for the child and will be the conduit for all other professionals linked to the placement.
Health
Our Health Advisors (who are all Registered Nurses) are responsible for monitoring the health needs of children placed with our foster carers and liaise with other health professionals to ensure all information is available to meet the health needs of children. They offer expert advice and support to Swiis carers around subjects such as emotional health, hygiene, self-harm and sexual health as well as working directly with children and young people to support their physical and emotional development.
OF CHILDREN LOOKED AFTER BY SWIIS CARERS ACHIEVE OR EXCEED EXPECTED OUTCOMES IN RELATION TO THEIR HEALTH
Education
Each foster care office is supported by education experts who work closely with children and carers to understand their individual needs and help them with any issues they may face in their education. This may include support with specific topics the child is struggling with or potentially sourcing a school near to the foster placement.
Education and health advisers also play a key role in foster carer training, ensuring you have all the necessary resources available to meet children’s needs.
AVERAGE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF SWIIS CARED-FOR CHILDREN
Placement Support Workers
Our placement support workers play a key part in transforming and raising aspirations of our young people. They are available to offer practical help, whether it is accompanying children and carers to appointments, providing assistance with transport or taking young people out for activities or one-to-one work.
Placement Support Workers offer a flexible combination of practical and emotional support to children, young people, carers and families to ensure they thrive on their journey together. They routinely arrange for the foster children to meet collectively to undertake joint activities and workshops, these include funs days out to the zoo, museums, theme parks. We also listen to what the children want and recently one group wanted to learn First Aid! Activities and workshops also give us an opportunity to ask the children and young people we look after, what they think about Swiis and their placement and how we can do better. We listen to what our children and young people have to say and adapt the way we work to make sure they get the best from us.
Behaviour Management
Swiis believe that supporting our foster carers well is essential to ensure the stability of the children and young people you care for and our social workers do an incredible job in providing that support to all carers.
Research and experience have however shown that children who experience trauma and separation in early childhood can have a turbulent and challenging adolescence and this may be a possible reason a placement can, at times, become unstable.
Swiis believe that our foster carers on occasion require additional support in understanding and learning techniques which would further assist in the management of difficult or challenging behaviours and have introduced an additional programme of support which our carers will be able to access
directly. The programme has been specifically designed to offer support and guidance to carers who experience behaviours from the child or young person in placement which they are finding difficult to manage.
The team consist of specialist training personnel who are responsible for delivering the Challenging Behaviour training as part of the mandatory foster carer training programme (or for new carers, this is undertaken as Day 4 of the preparation training), both cover MAPA based Challenging
Behaviour as part of the course content.
Foster carers can access The Behaviour Management Team directly to request support for individual carers who are experiencing problems with behavioural issues in placement. Calls from carers requesting support are managed via a dedicated admin team who will schedule a call back between the
carers and a member of the BM team as a matter of urgency.
Jordon Murdoch
Jackie White
Start Your Fostering Journey
With thousands of children coming into foster care in the UK everyday, we urgently need foster carers more than ever.
Refer a Friend
Do you know anyone who would be a fantastic foster carer who has the skills and compassion to support a child or young person in need of a loving home?
