Foster a Future - Newcastle City Council

Foster a FutureStatement of PurposeWhat is a Statement of Purpose?The Statement of Purpose is the means of providing information about NewcastleCity Council's Fostering Service and Newcastle Shared Care as required by Standard 1of the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services and the Fostering ServicesRegulations (2002).The Statement of Purpose is a source of information for the families, foster carers,and shared care carers of children and young people cared for in foster placements,for people thinking of becoming foster carers, and for professionals and colleagueswithin the Children Services Directorate, the City Council, and from other agencies.A leaflet entitled “About Being Fostered” is provided to children and young peoplebeing cared for in foster or shared care placements. The leaflet has been designed bythe children and young people participation group in partnership with marketingprofessionals.Ofsted regularly inspects the Fostering Service and Shared Care Service to ensure thatthey achieve the aims and objectives set out in the Statement of Purpose.This is the Fostering Service's latest Statement of Purpose. It includes the views offoster carers, social workers, managers and other professionals working with childrenand young people. It is revised annually and the latest views of children and youngpeople in foster placements are also included.Mission StatementThe Newcastle Fostering and Newcastle Shared Care Service aims to provide a goodquality, highly regarded service that inspires confidence in children/young people,carers, staff, managers and partner agencies. They will provide and maintain fosterand shared care placements that enable looked after children to most fully achievetheir personal, social, developmental, education and employment potential.The Aims and Objectives of the Fostering ServiceNewcastle City Council's Fostering Service aims to:• Recruit and train quality foster carers who can then offer the highest qualityfoster care placements within the local community• Value diversity by recruiting and training carers who respect, promote and reflectthe ethnicity, race, culture and religious identity of the children and young peoplethey care for• Respect the gender and sexuality of children and young people• Listen to children and young people about their needs, wishes and experiences• Work together with the Placements Service to ensure that children and youngpeople are placed with carers who have the range of skills and experiences tomeet their needs• Work closely with the independent fostering agencies to ensure that there is arange of placement choice• Be wholly committed to children and young people cared for in foster and sharedcare placements and to be centred entirely on their needs• Advise children and young people in foster and shared care placements of theComplaints Procedure and assist them in making a complaint if they choose. Alsoto enable children and young people to contribute to the annual reviews of theirfoster and shared care carers and make any concerns they may have about theircarers known to managers.• Work together with the allocated social worker from the Area Children and FamilyTeam or Hospital Social Work Team to ensure that the child or young person'sviews about their foster or shared care placement are listened to and taken intoconsideration when decisions are made especially when there is a Looked afterChild Review• Work together with the Aspire Team to enable children and young people infoster care to maximise their learning and educational skills and opportunities,and achieve the best standards of health care and health awareness• Work together with the Leaving Care Team to ensure that young people aresupported as they make the transition from foster care to independent living andgain from training and employment opportunities• Train foster carers and post-approved carers to a very high standard by currentfoster carers and social workers. They will be assisted by a skilled TrainingCoordinator.23