Whilst children coming into a fostering family are likely to have an initial risk assessment that has been developed by the placing local authority, in order to support the matching process, it is unlikely to be sufficient to understand, monitor and respond to ongoing and changing risks.
It is essential that fostering services consider the importance of having a framework for the identification and delivery of risk management. This aids foster carers to understand the risks, provide strategies to support children being safe and, fundamentally, develops a shared understanding and accountability of what is required to reduce risk for young people living with families.
A robust risk framework will enable the fostering service, foster carers and the child to work collaboratively to assess, monitor and reduce risk. This framework should be capable of identifying new emerging risks, as previous risks lessen or increase once the child has become more familiar with their family environment and experience.
Foster carers should be supported to be part of the creation and delivery of plans, be part of knowing their role, and that the interventions those often ‘impose’ are realistic, with carers feeling held in this live and ever-changing ongoing process.
We will discuss the importance of triangulation and the important supporting documents and interventions.
Children should be part of their own safety plans and we will spend time exploring how to capture the voice of the child.
Could an effective risk framework lead to less unplanned endings, reduce the risk of allegations, and help young people to understand how they are placing themselves at risk?
Together we will consider:
- The fundamentals of assessing risk
- Children’s own perception of risk and the choices they make (including understanding vulnerabilities vs resilience)
- How foster carers can be supported to take the “risk” to support risky behaviours
- Creating Risk Reduction Plans - and safety plans for children
- Expectations in relation to working in partnership - a shared duty of care to children and also fostering families - “we’ve got this together”
- Reviewing and monitoring on a practice level and for strategic management
This event will be hosted on Zoom - accessibility; delegates will be emailed details of how to join a few days beforehand.
