Voices of Fostering

Ben and Jasmine - Supporting Carers and Children

• National Fostering Group • Season 3 • Episode 24

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In this episode of Voices of Fostering, Helen hosts a discussion with Ben and Jasmine, supervising social workers from National Fostering Group. 

They delve into the unique role of supervising social workers and how they support foster carers, emphasising the importance of long-term relationships and stability. 

Ben and Jasmine also share insights into foster care recruitment, outreach efforts, myths about fostering, and the assessment process. 

Tune in to learn about the critical role of supervising social workers and their impact on fostering communities.

If you would like to find out more about fostering please visit our website here.

If you have any questions that you would like to be answered on our next episode email podcast@nfa.co.uk

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Helen:

Hello and welcome to this episode of Voices of Fostering. And today we're gonna be talking to a couple of very informative voices as we speak to some of our staff from the National Fostering Group. And I'm gonna be joined by supervising social workers, Ben and Jasmine, welcome to the podcast.

Jasmine:

Hi.

Helen:

Thanks so much for joining us. Um, so firstly, guys, uh, starting with you, Jasmine, can you just tell us a little bit about your role and, and how you support foster carers?

Jasmine:

Yeah, of course. So I think, um, one of the main points that we like to kind of iron out is that we, our role is slightly different to a child social worker. There's sometimes quite a bit of confusion there. Um, and the role of the supervising social worker is to support. Support primarily the foster carer. We do work within a group of professionals that, with the main aim of, of, of supporting the child or young person. But our direct role is to the foster carer. In terms of our role, we wear loads of different hats. Um, I mean with a social worker, with the outta the cur, with a confidants, with a friend at times. Um. Probably relationship counselor at times. We do lots of different things, but ultimately the main aim is working with that carer to provide the best level of care and to safeguard that child or young person. Um, we, we do work directly with, with the carers, but we do spend a lot of time with our children. And I think one of the main positive about working within the supervising social role is, is our, um. Opportunity to build really kind of deep and meaningful relationships with our foster carers and our children because it's, it's a long-term role. We don't just pop into households and, and, and pop back out. I mean, I've been working with my carers now for nearly two years and I know some people within our team have been within the role for 16 years. Um, so it's, it's, you really become quite a big part of, of, of their lives.

Helen:

Yeah. And you do really develop a strong relationship, don't you? Just in a, a recent episode, I spoke to somebody and she was talking about her, um, supervising social worker, or SSW as she said, and she's like, she's just so amazing. She's always there. If Anita, you know, they'd had quite a few challenges, but they'd got through them together. So it is a, a really crucial relationship, isn't it?

Jasmine:

Yeah. I think it's, it is about ultimately pro creating stability for that child. Yeah. And, and part of, and those foster carers are that that foundation of that stability and if, if we can support and advocate for them, we're, we're kind of halfway there already, but the, the, the, the main point is that we are still there for that child or young person in that placement. Yeah.

Helen:

And Ben, how does your role contribute to, you know, recruiting new foster carers?

Ben:

Uh, I, I think to begin with, what we look at is how do we support foster carers to make them feel emotionally and practically supported? How do we re retain our existing carers? Because I think what we've seen, like jazz, we've, we've both been in. The organization for two to three years now. So what we see is word of mouth is really key in recruiting new carers. And part of that is if we have happy and well supported foster carers to begin with, they're more likely to refer and recommend us to their friends, to people. Um, they come into contact with, um, such as through word of mouth. I think also in our, our roles, a big part of it is working in collaboration with other. External agencies. So we build those relationships. Again, we can spread the message about, um, the why we need to recruit foster carers, what opportunities are available, the training, the development that we can provide. I. And then we also, we have very, um, we have our own recruitment team, our recruitment officers who put on lots of events, lots of different activities, um, but specifically for myself and Jasmine and our, our other colleagues, we do engage in foster care or recruitment outreach programs, events. Uh, in particular last year, myself and Jasmine and some of our colleagues, we went to Glastonbury. Oh,

Helen:

wow. Which was an

Ben:

experience for a week. Quite an experience. Yeah. But, um, but off the back of that, I think what we, we realize is, again, just to reiterate, like that word of mouth, having those conversations with people developed a lot of interest and a lot of people have come forward since that point because having those informal conversations has really provided, um. Of opportunities for recruitment for the future. So

Jasmine:

yeah,

Ben:

again, it's very, uh, it's very open-ended, what we do.

Jasmine:

I was just gonna add in there that, um, the, the Glastonbury event, just as a headline, I think for, for NFA is, is been fantastic in terms of recruitment. I think last year we had 47 inquiries with one approval. Um, and then this year we had 33 with, um, which has resulted in four upcoming approvals and, and others still in the pipeline. So I think it's really important to kind of never underestimate the power plant and the seed in terms of the conversations that we had at the festival, not just at the stall, but out in the wider kind of community of the festival. But it's, it's, it's huge. It's the biggest festival in the world. Yeah. So we. Made our mark there.

Ben:

We noticed that, didn't we?'cause we had people who had come from Peru who were interested in fostering. We had people from Scotland. We were just like, we don't sort of cover Peru yet. But you never know. You never know.

Helen:

Yeah. So I think, you know, if you went to to Glastonbury you might be a little bit surprised to see, uh, an an NFA store at Glastonbury. But it's amazing to hear that you had such a positive response and it is such a family festival. Isn't it? There's so many kids there, so, so yeah. The, the perfect place and then we

Jasmine:

just got people talking about it. Yeah. I think that is, that is a huge part of this recruitment kind of drive is we spoke to people and then they said, oh, actually we spoke to someone that saw your stand, so it's. It's just that snowballing effect. Yeah. Which, um, that gets the word out there and ultimately helps to kind of, uh, inform people to then make a decision about whether fostering is right for them or not.

Helen:

Yeah. And as you say, get people talking about it. Um, and also maybe challenging some of the preconceptions that people may have because Ben, what would you say some of the main preconceptions are that people have that that might not be true about fostering?

Ben:

I think for myself, I still come across when I speak to people and they, they, they say things, there's a lot of preconceptions. Um, some of the more common ones is that you need to have, have the perfect home. Um, you have to have, you not have to have any other responsibilities, for example, any other work. But actually what we see a lot of the time is we have foster carers who have birth children that are. Placed alongside foster children that live together, they've become part of that family network. Um, people that have employment, whether that be part-time or full-time. Again, that's another common misconception that you have to be sort of ready to foster 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Um, I think another one that's become more. Sort of in the, in the eye of the community really. It's about same sex couples as well, that of they, I know myself and Jasmine, we both work with same sex couples who are foster errors. Um, so I think that they're probably one of the, the more common exceptions that people have about foster. And actually what we see is we look at everybody individually and look at are they gonna be suited to care? For children and keep them safe. Ultimately that's what we are looking at.

Helen:

Yeah, and I think sometimes people can rule themselves out, can't they, before they've even, you know, made an inquiry. Another one that I hear quite often is some people think if they've got dogs, you know, that they're, that they're not gonna be allowed. And, and Jasmine, that that's not necessarily the case, is it? You just sort of look at it on a case by case basis.

Jasmine:

Yeah, I think we as an agency really recognize that there are these myths and are these preconceptions and, and that's why, um, there's been a campaign around kind of faces of fostering and that, um, making sure that people know you don't have to fit in a certain box to be a foster carer. I think one of the. Um, uh, preconception is, is around age. I think there's a lot of conversation around that in terms of, I'm too young, I'm too old. But I think one of my, the young, one of my youngest foster carers that I marica, um, social worker to, they were approved when they were 25. Um, and then I know that a carer recruitment officer has recently gone out to complete an initial visit with an 82-year-old. So the, if you are able to meet the criteria, age doesn't really come into that. Yeah, I. There's, it's, it's about breaking that down and opening up that conversation so that people feel empowered to think, actually that doesn't need to be a barrier. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I think we're working on that and, and hopefully we're making progress.

Helen:

Yeah. Yeah. On the podcast. I think the, the youngest carer I've spoken to, I think was in his early twenties and the oldest was in her seventies. So yeah, like such a, you know, a, a, an eclectic mix of people. Um, you know, the, there definitely isn't any barrier there for your age really. Is there?

Jasmine:

And ultimately I think with the age, like, um, it, they both bring so many strengths with age. The younger you are, you can be more relatable to the younger kind of the young person. The adolescents, adolescent placements are particularly tricky. You've got a child navigating teenage life in this day and age, which. That sounds like hell for anybody. Um, and then so they are more relatable to that, whereas you've got maybe an older applicant who is able to. Kind of offer, maybe more experience, uh, that lived experience, that life experience. But it, it, it comes with, with pros and cons. Absolutely. But, um, everyone has got something to bring to the table. Yeah, definitely. There's a, there's a

Helen:

place for everyone, isn't there? And let's talk a bit about the, the, uh, assessment process now, because quite often we do hear the word intrusive batted around, and, and that can make people feel a little bit frightened. Uh, but there's a reason for that, isn't there? So, Ben, can you tell us, you know. Why does it have to be so thorough?

Ben:

Yeah, so I, I guess part of mine and Jasmine's roles is we also do undertake those assessments. And I think, uh, another word that I prefer to use is intrusive, but it's also holistic. We have to look at every aspect of somebody's life to make sure ultimately. That they are gonna be providing a safe and nurturing environment for these children and young people that need homes. So we don't want to set people up to fail, so we need to make sure that all the circumstances around their life, whether that be financial, whether it be their, their childhood, um. All aspects of their lives. We need to make sure that we can help them as well as helping the children and young people to be matched as well as possible. So it is openly intrusive, but that is because we don't want to place children or young people with potential foster carers. And then issues do arise, post that process. So we have to make sure it's, it's done as, as well as possible really.

Helen:

Yeah. And, and Jasmine, I do hear people say as well though, that it can be quite a therapeutic process, particularly for a couple to go through. They, you know, they learn things about each other and themselves mm-hmm. Uh, that they never have before.

Jasmine:

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's, it's, it's, it's a mixed, um. Mixed feedback in terms of how people, how that, how did the assessment process has landed with people? I think, uh, for, for a few of an applicant I've recently completed an assessment for, um, it made them, it gave them that opportunity to sit and think about things that in our busy lives, in our busy worlds, you don't get time to think about that. How do I feel about my childhood? How do I feel about my relationship? And actually. It's, it's an honor to be able to have a moment of reflection.'cause we do live such busy lives in this day and age that that doesn't happen. And actually from that can only come an opportunity to grow and to bat yourselves. And I think, um, it, it, it is certainly. It asks people to really dig deep and I, and I think it's about giving applicants time and being patient with them, which sometimes when there's timescales involved that can be tricky. But actually we wanna meet applicants where we're at and, and as Ben said, the main aim is to make sure that whoever's coming through our door is going to be able to provide an excellent level of care for our children and young people. And, and we are sifting out those who are potentially coming into. Abuse that position of power because sadly, those things do happen and, and that, that assessment process will hopefully those people out so that we are keeping children safe and ultimately fulfill our role as social workers.

Helen:

Well, it's been wonderful to speak to you both. You've been so informative. And if you are considering becoming a foster carer, uh, your supervising social worker will become a massive part of your life, as we said earlier on, and you'll meet somebody lovely like Jasmine or Ben, and they will literally, uh, hold your hand throughout this whole process, won't you? Yeah,

Ben:

we will.

Helen:

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, guys. Take care and speak to you again soon. Thanks. Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Voices of Fostering. If you'd like to find out more, head online and search National Fostering Group and make this the year you foster.