Fostering Panel: Bringing a Foster Carer’s Perspective to Panel

Having an experienced foster carer on the Fitzgerald Fostering Panel brings an invaluable perspective to the assessment and review process. Karen has been a foster carer for almost 10 years and joined the Fitzgerald Fostering Panel last year. Drawing on her own fostering journey, including fostering alongside birth children and caring for neurodiverse children, Karen helps bring warmth, insight and practical understanding to the panel process.

In the Q&A below, Karen tells us more about her role on the Fitzgerald Fostering Panel and what she looks for in prospective foster carers.

What experience do you bring to the panel?

The most obvious thing I bring is my current active status as a foster carer. I know what it feels like to foster children of all ages, and I’ve experienced a wide variety of fostering placements including short-term, long-term, short breaks and parent & child fostering. I know the realities, the joys, the challenges and what skills and traits can be helpful to prospective carers. I can empathise with current carers who come in for their reviews and with the journeys they’ve been on since they started fostering.

Importantly, I also foster with birth children at home. It can be reassuring sometimes to prospective carers to see that it’s very possible and incredibly rewarding for all members of the family. I believe strongly in ‘whole-family fostering’ and I understand the challenges and benefits fostering brings to all members.

Additionally, as a neurodiverse adult in a neurospicy family, I bring a lot of real lived experience both as a carer for neurodiverse children but also as a neurodiverse carer myself. This means I can support the panel members, the Fitzgerald Fostering team and their carers with any questions they may have relating to neurodiverse carers or children, and signpost them to local groups, charities and support options.

Being able to present the realities of fostering to other panel members is really important. The other panel members are extremely experienced and know a lot about fostering from different angles so it’s great to combine that with someone like me who’s currently doing it every day.

Based on your experience, are there particular things you are looking for when you meet prospective foster carers in the panel process?  

I like to see a sense of realistic expectation in prospective carers. Merely, having a spare bedroom and love isn’t enough to foster so I want to see carers who have shown resilience, perseverance and empathy in real life situations, not necessarily in connection to looking after children. Additionally, experience is less important than showing a willingness to listen, learn and understand what a child who has experienced trauma needs.  A carer who is open to learning how our looked after children need a different parenting style to others is likely to provide a safe, nurturing home for them.

Another important skill for a foster carer is the ability to advocate on behalf of a child and put their needs at the heart of everything you do. No two children are the same or will have the same needs  – so having the right approach to meeting their needs is more important than being able to show direct experience.

We know that there’s currently a shortage of foster carers.  What would you say to encourage people thinking about fostering to take the next step?

Sometimes people say they’d like to foster but then name some barriers that make them feel they’re not the perfect people to step forward. Most of the time these ‘barriers’ are not showstoppers – there’s no such thing as the perfect foster carer. Carers come from all walks of life and everyone brings something different. I’d advise them to do as I did, which was to speak directly to foster carers who have a similar situation to your own and ask them all your practical questions. In my case my birth children were very young so I was put in touch with a carer who had similar aged children. This helped me a great deal to visualise what caring alongside young birth children would actually look like.

Others often say they wouldn’t be able to say goodbye when children leave so that’s a reason why they don’t foster. This is a common myth about fostering. Yes, it can be sad to say goodbye but often it can be a very positive experience to see a young person ‘graduate’ into independent living, a baby move onto a forever family through adoption, or a child reunite with their birth family now that their circumstances have improved. Taking a first step can often be hard but it’s just one step. Give it a go and see if it’s for you. You won’t know if you don’t try.

Fitzgerald Fostering has been rated outstanding by OFSTED in its last three inspections.  In your opinion, what are the particular strengths of Fitzgerald Fostering?

Fitzgerald Fostering is small enough to have a really authentic family feel to it. I’ve seen first-hand support calls being answered immediately and sensitively. All staff, social workers and carers know each other and know the children in their care.

Also, much time and effort are invested into the matching process so that carers and children have the best start together possible. Quality matching is prioritised and backed up by appropriately targeted training and regular supportive therapeutic sessions where carers support and empower each other.

The support given to carers all year round is personalised, targeted and caring. Carers feel safely held by Fitzgerald Fostering and that then empowers them to be the best they can be in supporting the children placed in their care. The feedback we hear from carers returning to panel for reviews always reflects the confidence they have in the agency to support them not only on the good days but also on the days that bring challenge.

What do you enjoy about being part of the Fitzgerald Fostering Panel?

I have loved every minute of being a panel member for Fitzgerald Fostering!  As a group we are highly focused on making the panel experience enjoyable and empowering to the carers we meet – whether they are at the panel for approval to be a new foster carer, for a review, or to discuss a particular issue. We know how anxiety inducing the thought of panel can be, especially for new prospective carers. Having been in those shoes myself, I do my best to reduce those anxieties as quickly as possible. We look forward to meeting carers, greeting them with a smile and celebrating their achievements and the wonderful traits, skills and experiences they bring with them for the benefit of our looked after children.

On behalf of everyone at Fitzgerald Fostering, thank you, Karen for your valuable insights as a panel member and for sharing your experience.

If you’d like to find out more about fostering with Fitzgerald Fostering – and you live in  Guildford, Slough, Reading, Bracknell, Farnham, Maidenhead, Wokingham or surrounding areas – please contact us to find out more or call us on 01753550031. At Fitzgerald Fostering, we are with you all the way.