We were getting on for six weeks looking after the one year old and visiting his sister, who was in hospital, as she was born ten weeks early and was, therefore, premature and in ICU. The only visitor the baby was getting in hospital was my wife and I and we were trying to get there a couple of times a week courtesy of British Rail. I was still nervous about doing too much with her as she was so small and I can be a bit clumsy. We had taken a number of articles of clothing up to the hospital as her Mum had left some dirty and very smelly baby grows and vests. We took these home, washed them, and put them in a small holdall as they were really not suitable to wear. We were in regular contact with both the Local Authority Social Worker and our own Supervising Social Worker with regards to future plans and actions. It was agreed that what was a short term placement was going to morph into a longer term placement. To be honest, we would have been disappointed if that hadn’t been the case. We had become attached with the little boy and felt similar feeling towards this tiny little baby girl. The Local Authority had attempted to contact Mum but with no success. There was no clues as to who the father was and, without talking to Mum and her family, it would be impossible to obtain any further information. A Social Worker had been allocated to the children and she was excellent. In fact I would have to say that she was the best Social Worker we had worked with. There were no grey areas with this Social Worker, she was quick to make decisions and she was very knowledgeable. For me having a great Social Worker to work with makes the job of being a Foster Carer so much easier. There is nothing worse than constantly chasing a Social Worker, not having calls returned or waiting ages for decisions to be made. This Social Worker ticked all the boxes. I cannot remember having to wait for her to decide on any major decisions that had to be made.  She visited regularly and was a regular caller to see how the two children were getting on. The boy was really flourishing with regular care and a proper diet. He had won the hearts of our own family and was looking fit and healthy. Obviously, given his young age, he was oblivious of everything else that was going on. We were at the hospital visiting the little girl, one day, when the Social Worker appeared. She was on her way to a meeting, regarding another young person, when she had decided to pop in and visit the little girl. She had wanted to know if there had been any contact with family and if there had been any visitors, other than us. We sat and chatted and then went to grab a coffee. She filled us in on what she had found out from previous cases with the children’s Mum. She confirmed that the Mum had another, older, child who had been in care and then was then looked after by his father. Mum had been diagnosed with various mental health issues and it was actually quite sad to hear about how she had been taken advantage of by various men in her life and how little support she had received. It seemed likely, from the discussions that were had, that the children would return to their Mum.

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