Transfer Foster Care Services Medway Kent
Transferring to foster with The Hazel Project Request A BrochureGet In Touch
Foster Parents are the key professionals involved in the delivery of care to vulnerable children – living with the child and therefore knowing them better than any other, they need to be valued and respected accordingly.
This respect must extend to the fact that Foster Parents have freedom of movement and are themselves in the best position to judge where best their needs will be met.
If the Foster Parent have their needs met, they are in a much better position to meet the needs of the children they care for.
The welfare of the child at the centre of this process will be considered at all times to ensure a smooth and effective transition. We have streamlined our transfer process to make it as quick, easy and stress-free as possible – without compromising quality – and this can often be completed within weeks from the moment of application to transfer.
We are always happy to talk to existing foster parents, who for many different reasons feel the need to explore making a change and joining an organisation where they will be truly valued for the incredible work that they do.
What it is to foster with The Hazel Project?
You become our professional colleague; a professional parent, valued, respected, and paid well for the excellent work you undertake in caring for the young people placed with you. You will receive a generous fostering allowance – so that you can provide the life that children deserve. We will provide a bespoke training programme for each family, to help you to build on the knowledge and skills that you already bring, so that together we develop in this specialist area, and better understand the children who may be struggling, difficult to reach and who need you to want to figure out how to help. Thinking and feeling are both essential. A lovely lunch is provided!
There are extensive support and resources including regular monthly meetings; at home with your Fostering Supervisor, and in a group with the other foster families in your area, to share and discuss the challenges and to celebrate the achievements.
You will attend meetings about the foster children; with their social worker, school, and anyone else who may be involved and you will share what you know of them, in partnership with all of these others. If the children have scheduled time with their birth families, you will at least take and collect them.
We must keep detailed records for our children– you will complete daily logs, and submit online, and regular progress reports.
This helps to record the child’s journey whilst they are with you, and of course evidence of the amazing care you are providing them with.
Most of us at The Hazel Project have fostered, as adults or as children in a fostering family – we love to celebrate just how fabulous this work is… regular social events for children and adults abound!
Transferring, the Hazel Project’s way – our step-by-step guide.
We know it can feel hard to transfer, so we help at every stage and have made it as quick and easy as possible. The principle is that although we have to, by law, assess your suitability to foster, you’ve already been deemed suitable by your present organisation, so our assessment can include a lot of that prior work.
Diverse Care and Xcel 2000 are sister organisations working together under the umbrella of The Hazel Project. We have a team dedicated to supporting families who apply to transfer to us, and we can put you in touch with families who have experienced this so they can share their perspectives on their own transitions.
The first bits will take, typically, one to two weeks, depending mostly on how soon your organisation gives us access to your file. You will then transfer to us no later than 28 days after that. That’s it!
There is of course some detail to how that works, and how we have to work together, all described here – please do call if you have any queries.
Timeline
Initial enquiry.
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Family invited to meet with us. This is so important as you may have many questions and this is the perfect time to ask us and hear more about our organisation.
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Family submit intention to resign to current fostering organisation and give consent for checks. This is not a formal resignation, but it does let the current organisation know the family are considering a move.
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We request a file read from the current fostering organisation to see the Form F, latest Annual Home Review, any completed training and gain a reference.
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We contact the Local Authority Social Worker of any foster children living with the family.
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We instigate co-ordination of a Transfer Protocol meeting for any foster children living with the family to handover details of their needs and agree present fees and services. It’s so crucial that everything in place for the children currently remains in place following the transfer. NB, we pay two weeks in arrears, from 1st and 16th of each month.
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File read report is reviewed and any gaps identified.
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Family completes a Hazel Project application form and views and signs our policies.
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File read report is circulated to panel members for recommendation of reapproval – we do not have to wait for a panel to be held.
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Upon recommendation of approval, the family formally resigns from their current organisation, which gives us a date for the transfer of approval, no later than 28 days from receipt of resignation – sooner if the current fostering organisation allows.
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Training is planned and foster parent agreements are shared.
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New family Welcome Book is created.
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An assessor visits to begin to update the current form F.
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28 days from resignation – transfer complete!
Please do get in touch if you are interested in finding out more.
So many amazing foster parents are leaving the profession for reasons unrelated to caring for the children who need them. Things can be different. Get in touch to find out more about fostering with The Hazel Project, where foster parents are appreciated for the incredible work that they do and respected for their skills and expertise. Be part of an organisation committed to transforming the lives of vulnerable children through comprehensive, high quality foster care services.