Cheadle and Gatley Lib Dems are moving
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by Lib Dem team on 25 October, 2010
From Stockport Council:
Stockport Council has joined forces with 22 other local authorities from across the North West on an exciting campaign to find new foster carers.
The “You Can Foster” campaign will kick off on Thursday 28th October with a TV advert being aired on ITV Granada and radio adverts running on Smooth and Real Radio which features one of our local Stockport foster carer as well as other foster carers from the region. The TV advert will show the diverse range of people who already foster for their local authority and will direct enquiries to a central website or a central call centre. The campaign aims to highlight there really is no typical foster carer and hopes to attract over 150 new carers from across the region, to foster for their council.
The campaign has been supported by all Directors of Children’s Services in the region and is funded by the North West Investment and Efficiency Partnership (NWIEP).
Nationally there is a shortage of 10,000 foster carers, with the North West having the highest shortfall outside of London.
Can you help us to find new carers for the children across the region that need foster homes?
Please can you spread the word about the campaign and the need for foster carers to your friends and family – and help to find those 150 new carers!
Visit www.youcanfoster.org or call the freephone number on 0800 634 7052
15 Comments
As a former foster carer i can see why there is a shortage of carers.
The social workers are liars and will not inform prospective carers as to how little support they will receive despite all their initial promises.
If you complain about things you will likely be hauled up in front of a panel for an early review and be de-registered.
It will not matter how well you prepare yourself for the panel because the social workers will have been in colusion with the panel members and will turn everything against you.
You will be treated terribly and go through a living hell as well as losing just about everything you have–the kids, your career, and as well as your mental wellbeing.
It seems that if the social workers make an case against you and you argue back with them–you are seen to be unable to work as part of a team.
They are hypocrites beyond belief and they do not care an ounce about the children in their care.
They are happy for them to be passed around the system like little files and no matter how well a child has been in placement, that will not matter in the slightest if these people decide you are no longer in their favour.
Don’t believe a word about the benefits of fostering. You stand to lose a lot more and have your life totally ruined by the social work.
Hi Skeabost.
It sounds as if you’ve had a bad experience with fostering.
I don’t know about your personal situation, but I don’t think it reflects the general experience of foster carers.
If you fostered in Stockport, feel free to drop me an email and we can look into it.
I most definately have been through a bad experience with Social Workers.
If you scratch the surface of how the social services really operate, it would utterly shock you.
Perhaps people may be interested to hear of what other peoples experiences have been like in their dealings with social workers.
http://delphiusdebate.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-hate-social-workers.html
http://fwix.com/leeds/share/e588b91d40/crisis_of_the_foster_kids_where_have_all_our_carers_gone
i can only but agree with the last post as my recent experiences with Stockport social services when dealing with them about my elderly mother has been atrocious. Sad really.
Phil – I suggest you contact a local councillor as you feel social services have fallen short (you can drop me an email if you’re in Cheadle & Gatley ward).
However, your experience I assume has nothing to do with fostering. I’ve no doubt there are some bad social workers, and some things go wrong, but it’s a very difficult job and I do think it’s unfair to tar the whole profession with the same brush.
I really hope that this can be an oppertunity for people to know the truth about social workers.
They are heartless ‘know it alls’ who actually know very little about childcare.
They also cannot take any critisism whatsoever even if it would help the system to improve the care of looked after children.
It is no surprise that incidents like ‘Baby P , Brandon Muir, Jessica Randall, etc etc etc continue to expose their failings and yet they still come out and accept no responsibility whatsoever.
It was unbelievable how recently the head of the social work department who failed the little girl who was starved to death in Birmingham came out and arrogantly questioned why anyone , especially him, should be sacked over the issue.
My own experiences with these people has been an absolute nightmare.
I was a foster carer for a local authority for approximately 2 years.
It was a wonderful experience to begin with until i had to stand up to the social workers over a placement that was extremely damaging to another child we had in care.
We had looked after a little girl who had numerous problems with attachment, mental issues, confidence and education.
After many months of hard work, tears and encouragement, the little girl absolutely flourished and every aspect of her life improved dramatically. Everyone who was involved in her care could see how much she had improved.
Her teachers were amazed at how well she was progressing at school.
What happened then was that the social workers decided to give us additional children who the stated were a perfect match to help with the placement we already had.
They lied to us about the history of the additional kids and unfortunately for the social workers–we found them out.
These kids ended up beating the crap out of the girl on a daily basis.There were also sexual issues that we were extremely concerned about but again the social workers failed to take any interest in our concerns.
Her progress started to diminish and we constantly complained to them that this was absolutely not a suitable match whatsoever.
They promised help that never arrived. The placement with the new kids not surprisingly broke down.
We were called to an early review panel and deregistered as carers on the grounds that we unable to work as part of a team.
They lied and twisted information at the panel.
They couldn’t answer many of the questions we put to them at the panel.
They disregarded completely all the concerns that we asked them to address.
The early review panel was a farce because when i suggested to my social worker that the decision was made before we even got in the room, she couldn’t even deny it.
As a result of all that has happened, i am now receiving treatment for depression and having pschiatric councilling.
The little girl who we loved and did so much for has been taken away and passed round the system AGAIN. I haven’t been allowed to see her at all and it has utterly devastated me.
That is what social workers do to people and i also know that i am certainly not the only one who has suffered this fate.
I don’t think however that the social services promote their true colours when advertising for foster carers.
To be a succesful foster carer you must be able to keep quiet when things are clearly wrong.
Do not say anything that might show up the failings of the social workers.
Do not do what is best for the children because afterall–they are not your children.
Basically you must be able to put up and shut up.
That is the real story behind being a foster carer.
I would welcome any social worker who might read this to challenge my accusations because they too know the real truth.
Skeabost – I am sorry you’ve had such a bad experience, wherever in the country it happened. But I honestly think it’s unfair for you to claim that all social workers everywhere are at fault because of it.
Who gets harmed by that claim? Surely the very children we want to protect. The feedback on fostering in Stockport that I’ve had is overwhelmingly positive and children will be the ones to suffer if foster carers decide not to come forward.
I wish you all the best.
I fully understand where you’re coming from Iain and i am very appreciative for the fact that you have not deleted my posts.
I think it is important however to highlight the experiences of a wide range of people who have dealt with social workers in order to get a true picture of the way they operate.
It will be interesting to see how many other people respond with their experiences, good and bad and i honestly hope for the benefit of everyone that it brings to light the truth about their untouchable status.
I think you may find that they will always put themselves and their departments interests well above that of the childrens.
This always comes out whenever their failings are revealed through the death of a child because of the incompetence of social services.
It seems I am not the only one who feels betrayed. I was a social worker myself, and then a foster care licensing counselor when I finally was able to get cleared to be a foster parent myself. I was shocked at how horribly I was treated by the foster care system and their unreasonable, unrealistic, petty and ridiculous demands. The care manager sent a constant barrage of petty complaints about my home to the licensing counselor (my former boss, and the care manager was a former co-worker), things so ridiculous anyone else would laugh it off (my vacuum cleaner was plugged in, I made the childrens beds up, My fish tank looked a little cloudy today, the child had a runny nose, etc.) The constantly gossiped about me with my former co-workers and had me stressed out to the point I was having problems at work. I loved the kids so much it hurt me deeply and feared they would try and have them moved out of spite if I complained. And that’s exactly what they did! They cooked up a story between them and lied about my house being dirty (which is documented to be absolutely untrue) and had the kids moved to another home right before it was time for them to placed for adoption. I am so traumatized by these events I will never try and foster again.
After reading the above posts, it seems as if concillor roberts is not hearing what people are saying? I’m sorry to say, you do not fill me with any hope of changing how the social workers operate!?
I’m really not sure what you would want me to say, “grandmother”. People have posted about issues they’ve had in different local authorities about which I can’t possibly comment.
I hope at the very least, it has shed even the tiniest glimmer of what social workers are really like. Although these instances are not tied to Stockport, i sincerely hope anyone who reads these articles know what they are letting themselves in for when dealing with these people.
Strange how there is not one positive comment given the time that people have had to reply.
My own authority are being investigated at the moment on numerous points, which i sincerely hope will bring out what deceitful ,malicious and dishonest people social workers really are.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster/Depressed-foster-mum-found-dead.6655387.jp#5828308
I am disgusted that your reply to these peoples concerns are you ‘cannot comment’. Why dont you take the time look into these concerns? It seems you are shrugging them off. You’re telling people to contact this person or that person. If you cared or were that interested why dont you do it to show you want to help?? Your comment ‘I’ve no doubt there are some bad social workers, and some things go wrong, but it’s a very difficult job’
But its a very difficult job, is this an excuse? Are you defending social workers with this short and pathetic statement?
I have no faith in councillors you all lie and say anything to get to the position then when your there you sit back, smile and say ‘cannot comment’ to the questions.
Hi Steph,
I’m a councillor in Stockport. My responsibility is to my constituents and to the people of Stockport, and I will not be chasing down allegations about social workers in other areas where I’m not an elected representative and don’t have any authority to act.
If that disgusts you, so be it, but you might find it useful to find out a little more about how local government works in this country rather than throwing around insults.