The fostering service provides the following types of care for children:

• Respite care for children who need one-off or regular breaks from their families
• Emergency placements for children who need a safe place to stay for a few nights
• Short term or temporary placements for children who need to be away from their families for a longer period
• Long term or permanent placements – where carers commit to care for  children for the rest of their childhood (and often beyond)
• Parent and Child placements – for families who need additional support together
• Family Care Worker Placements – for children with the most complex placement needs
• Remand Placements – for young people remanded into care by the courts following alleged criminal activity, or requiring a bail address.
• Occasional day-care to support families in the community or other foster carers

Apart from a few exceptional cases, the fostering service does not provide short breaks for children with disabilities – this service is provided on behalf of the local authority by the NCH organisation.

Within the fostering service, placements are provided for single children and sibling groups, and sometimes children from different families of origin are placed together (if matching allows).  All carers are rigorously assessed and prepared prior to approval as carers in order to try to ensure safe care for all children placed.

Family Care Workers Scheme

The Family Care Worker Scheme provides foster placements for young people whose assessed needs cannot be met by traditional foster care or residential placements.

The service is provided by approved DCC foster carers who have been assessed to meet Devon Carers Progression Scheme level 3 competencies, and who can undertake specific task-focused work, working to deliver an individual care and treatment plan.  

One carer must be without paid full-time, part-time, voluntary, or sessional work.  

The child/young person must have his/her bedroom.

The types of placement offered within the scheme are:

• Short/medium term task-focused placements (max. 2 years duration)
• Bridging placements to provide time-limited work focused on rehabilitation to parent, bridging to permanence via fostering/adoption, bridging to independence (14+).
• Short term assessment placements for children with complex needs following diversionary planning where there is an active care plan for move – max. 3 months duration.
• Respite/support placements to support children/young people in 38 week per year residential educational settings.
• Respite/support placements to provide for emergency breakdown within the scheme.
• Long term permanent placements for children whose assessed behaviour /emotional profile means their need for permanence could not otherwise be supported in a family environment – this request must be endorsed by agreement of Permanency Planning Chair.

Admission Criteria for the scheme

Children and young people who are looked after by DCYPD in the age range 8-15 years inclusive of admission.  The service users’ needs will include some or all of the following:

• Children/young people with complex behavioural and emotional needs.  They are likely to have experienced multiple placement breakdown and require specialist input to meet either or both their educational and psychological needs.
• Children/young people who have an assessed need for a family placement  with carers who have skills in delivering a multi-agency individual treatment plan.
• Children/young people who are assessed as posing a risk to themselves or others and will require a family placement where there are no other children being fostered.
• Children/young people whose needs for permanence in family care have been assessed through the Permanency Planning process and County Panel as requiring a FCWS type placement.

Other services for children

Children looked after by Devon can also access a range of educational and health resources to meet specific needs.  For example, specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services; post abuse therapeutic work through the Joint Agency Child Abuse Team.  

Educationally, it has been agreed for example, that looked after children will have priority for school places where it is necessary for them to move schools, and the Educational Psychology (125KB - pdf help) and Educational Welfare Services are also available to support looked after children and their carers.

A team of specialist nurses has recently been set up to manage the new process of health assessments for looked after children, in conjunction with paediatricians and GPs.

Carers and children can access help and advice about cultural or heritage issues through the ‘Excellence not Excuses’ group.