At our heart, we are committed to providing safe, supportive, life-enhancing fostering families:
- for children and young people who cannot stay with their own parents or family either temporarily or permanently
- for those who would benefit from a short break
- treating children, their families and carers with dignity, respect and compassion
- keeping loved ones together wherever possible
- by including everyone who uses the service, to ensure we are responsive and supportive in caring for everyone’s wellbeing needs
We will do this by:
- valuing the views of children, young people, their families, foster carers and other stakeholders (such as our Champions’ Board of care experienced young people) when developing our fostering and adoption services
- providing clear and helpful information to potential foster carers and users of the service
- responding promptly to enquiries by potential foster carers
- the safe recruitment and assessment of fostering families
- the provision of a range of warm, nurturing care placements
- providing carers with quality supervision and the training they require to achieve the desired outcomes for the children and young people in their care
- doing all we can to ensure young people’s needs are met in high quality, stable placements, free from disruption, so that children are enabled to realise their full potential
- putting the child’s needs to the fore when identifying the right carers for them, and respecting and promoting his or her racial, cultural, religious and linguistic background
- seeking out, listening to and wherever necessary acting upon the child or young person’s views of their lived fostering experience
- gathering and acting upon the views of birth parents on the quality of care provided to their children
- seeing foster carers and their families as respected colleagues and vital members of the team around the child
- complying at all times with all legal and regulatory requirements, standards and guidance that underpin the service.