Mum had kicked off regarding the LA’s decision to break up the sibling group and place two of the siblings with another LA Foster Carer. It was actually working quite well and the eldest and the only girl, who was with us, was thriving and seemed very happy with life. The eldest boy seemed relaxed without the responsibility of looking after his younger siblings and appeared settled in his new school. He had made good relationships with our own children, who were of a similar age, and was well behaved, polite and fun to have around. The little girl was loved by everyone and had made friends at school. She was well behaved and a pleasure to have around. We spoke to the LA Foster Carers regularly and the siblings spoke a lot on the phone. They also appeared settled and happy. The first contact was organised by the LA Social Worker and it was to be hosted by the LA Foster Carers. It was quite a drive to their home as it was completely the other side of London. But we hit the M25 and actually got there in good time. It was lovely seeing the four of them together again and they seemed genuinely happy to see each other. The contact lasted all afternoon and we eventually left late afternoon and took two very tired young people back home.
There was no ‘after effects’ from the contact with out two but, apparently, there was from the other two children, the eldest of who had been hyper and rather rude to his Foster Carers. He had told them that he wanted to come back to us and didn’t like their house or them. It took him several days to calm down and it took a phone call from his brother, at ours, to talk him out of the mood he was in. I felt sorry for the LA Foster Carers, they were relatively inexperienced and had taken on the two ‘difficult’ children from the siblings. They had not yet had the ‘pleasure’ of dealing with Mum and we had broached the subject during contact. A few days after contact we had a support group, organised by our agency. It was held in a local pub/restaurant and it was very successful. There were about 20 people in attendance as well as two Supervising Social Workers (SSWs) and the Area Manager. We all sat and chatted, initially, and got to know each other. The SSWs and Area Manager then updated us on training courses and other updates that were occurring within the Agency. They informed us about a Newsletter that was coming out soon, on a monthly basis, and the fact that the allowances were increasing. We all left at the same time as most of us had young people to collect from school and we all had a few new phone numbers in our Fostering diaries.
When we arrived at the school to pick up the little girl we were approached by a teacher who asked if she could have a word. Apparently both her, and her best friend, had taken up hairdressing and had cut each other’s hair during an arts lesson. When they came out of the classroom it was very hard not to laugh. Our little lady, who had long hair, resembled Dave Hill from the 70s pop group Slade, as she had cut her fringe completely. She looked very anxious as if she was expecting a telling off but we settled for a warning for using scissors. Her brother, and our own kids ribbed her a few days but it grew out pretty quickly.
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