Recruitment, Screening And Training Of Potential Foster Carers:

• Initial assessment to make sure the person is suitable: of appropriate age (25), have a stable home environment, have not had a major illness or trauma in past 12 months, be physically, emotionally and financially stable, be able to provide young person with their own room and storage space

• Talk to potential carer about following issues to ensure they think they can handle situation: 1. your skills base to deal with difficult behaviours

2. identify potential issues in each scenario

3. personal preferences – gender, age of the child etc

4. your family situation, age of your own children, transport, space etc

5. if the length of placement suits you (consider holidays, family commitments etc)

6. consider other member/s of your family and their wishes

7. what info would you require from the departmental officer to enable you to make your decision?

8. how comfortable you feel to say to the departmental worker that you would not be able to accept the placement – consider if you would feel pressured to say yes when you really did not feel that you could accept the placement?

9. discuss how you could ensure that you did not accept a placeme

Volunteer programs set up by these workers and their agencies also lead to more positive outcomes. Volunteers are recruited by the agencies, trained in working with foster children and then matched to a child. The volunteer then works one on one with the child in whatever area the child and or foster family needs or wants. It is primarily activity based and can include such things as helping with homework, outings or day trips and sports. This gives the foster carer a break so that they can ‘unwind’ and also provides another relationship for the child that is different to any other they have in the system. Foster carers are often seen by the kids as too parent like and the kids can often resent them. S.W. are also often seen as the bad guys and even if not they are not able to spend enough time with the kids to develop much of a relationship. Another role of the volunteers can also be to help the carer by doing such activities as helping with shopping or providing transport for them to make the job a little easier for them to handle.

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