The time had come for L, the older of the two, to have his appointment at our local general hospital, to try to ascertain why his development has been delayed. When L first came to us it was obvious that there was an issue. He was very unresponsive, was limited in his movement. His diet was appalling; he wouldn’t eat anything that you would consider normal for a child of his age. It was obvious that he was suffering from a lack of care from his Mum. Social Services were aware of the situation as there was also an older sibling that had been in Care and had ended up being taken away to live with his father. The Consultant carried out some tests on L to ascertain his capabilities she also watched him playing and asked us to interact with him as we would do normally. The whole process was about 90 minutes and we were told that a report would be made and passed to Social Services. We updated everyone involved about what had happened and updated our logs accordingly. It had been decided that no more contact would be organised due to Mum’s inability to keep to the agreed dates and times. So our placement became a nice easy day to day type of situation. For these two children there was no contact and no school so we were basically caring for them and fulfilling their needs on a day to day basis. They were both coming along nicely. T was putting on weight and no longer looking like a premature baby. She was visited regularly by medical people who would weight her and check her over. But everybody was satisfied that she was making progress. L was also making progress, although we were still awaiting the results of his appointment, it was obvious that he was thriving as he was putting on weight and you could see, just by looking at him, that he was in a healthier condition. When you have a placement like this it makes you wonder why more people don’t want to be involved in becoming a Foster Carer. It’s not an easy job by any means but, if you have had children of your own you have the experience to be a Foster Carer. So what puts people off? A lot comes down to people’s perception of what a Foster Carer of what the job entails. I know, from talking to friends, that people think that all children in care are going to be trouble and there will be Police turning up at all hours and that their house will be vandalised. Now this may happen in a very small minority of cases but it certainly never happened to us. You are also trained about dealing with such issues and not allowing situations to escalate. The only time the Police have visited our address is to deliver a child that they have removed from an address due to safety concerns. The main part of our job is no different from the task of being a parent. We organise education, appointments and the usual day to day caring for a child.

Web Support and Security by 39D Services LTD
Share This