Putting You in the Picture: Foster Carers Speak

By Mohammed Lahrichi and Sharon Lahrichi

Foster carers, also called foster parents, invest invaluable time and energy in providing a safe home environment for foster children. Fostering is frothed with challenges of various kinds. Yet, generally, foster carers affirm that fostering is the most rewarding work. Putting You in the Picture: Foster Carers Speak is a small-scale research project that provides readers with insight into the foster-care experience as seen from selected foster carers’ perspectives. It highlights inspiring experiences of how foster carers are able to make positive, life-changing differences to foster children’s lives. The book also reports on participant foster carers’ views on the staying-put initiative and makes practical suggestions to social workers and local authority (LA) officials. These two groups, as well as teachers, head teachers, foster-care professionals and concerned citizens will find this book quite informative. It is clear from all the research conversations undertaken that fostering is a demanding work of selflessness and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Sep 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524682392

Mohammed Lahrichi

Mohammed Lahrichi has been in the foster-caring field for more than ten years. His work with The Adolescent and Children’s Trust (TACT) and Parents for Children (PfC) over the years, together with his loving concern for children’s wellbeing, have adequately prepared and equipped him to foster-care in a masterful way. Mohammed continues to volunteer and participate in a variety of community activities. Sharon Lahrichi has gained foster caring experience from working with two organisations - TACT and Parents for Children (PfC). Her support-worker experiences with private companies and charitable organisations such as Leonard Cheshire and Jays Agency, have certainly complemented her foster-caring career. Dr Gertrude Shotte continues to show an engaging interest in fostering and foster carers’ matters. She is especially interested in the ‘Staying Put’ initiative that Local Authorities introduced in England in February 2014. Linked to this, is the Department for Education (DfE) statutory guidance, which provides added context for further research work in the fostering field.

Book preview

© 2017 Mohammed Lahrichi, Sharon Lahrichi, Gertrude Shotte. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Cover Illustration by: Lepasha Gowdie

Published by AuthorHouse 12/30/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8238-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8239-2 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Dedicated to all the foster carers who work tirelessly to make a positive difference in foster children’s lives.

Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgement

Preface

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Chapter 1   Setting the Scene

Chapter 2   Grounding the Inquiry

Chapter 3   Gathering Information: Methods and Praxis

Chapter 4   Responses and Reactions

Chapter 5   Experience, A Great Teacher

Chapter 6   Inferences and Implications

Chapter 7   More than Supportive Child-minders

References

Appendices

Abstract

T his book reports on a small-scale study that explores foster carers’ experiences. It relates what inspired them to become foster carers, how Local Authorities (LAs) and other foster-care officials assist them in their dealings with difficult and challenging situations. The book also presents foster carers’ views on the ‘Staying Put’ arrangement that was initiated in February 2014. Additionally, it describes what the participants identify to be their best and worst moments experienced during their time in fostering.

The study adopts a qualitative approach, with elements of case study and phenomenology as the investigative strategies. The eight foster carers who participated in the study are employed by two different LAs and have a total of 98 years of fostering experience among them – ranging from 3 to 32 years. Interviews are the main tools employed to collect data. From an analysis of the data collected, fostering is shown to be as challenging as it is rewarding. The support from LAs and other foster-care officials is adequate but much more can be done to make the fostering experience an even more satisfying one. While the ‘Staying Put’ initiative is generally seen to be a good one, its implementation is a ‘troublesome’ phase because of the lack of specific guidance on how some issues would be dealt with. ‘Rite of passage’, financing, changing roles and end-of-agency support for foster carers are the main issues identified. The book concludes by suggesting ideas for future research and offering some recommendations for LAs, social workers and foster carers.

Acknowledgement

T he authors wish to express sincerest thanks to the participants who willingly scheduled their family and work affairs to accommodate the research fieldwork. Thanks are also due to all the other people who gave needed encouragement and support throughout the entire writing period of this book.

Preface

Foster carers’ lives are decorated with dichotomies – satisfaction and frustration, discouragement and hopefulness, joy and sadness, success and failure; and from the core of these incongruities grow fortitude, patience, tenacity and the enduring love that they have for foster children - Gertrude Shotte.

‘P utting you in the Picture: Foster Carers Speak’ is the second publication from the authors. It comes off the back of the general reactions to the first book ‘Family Matters: Carers and Children Tell their Stories’, whose content focused on fostering narratives from one source, the Lahrichi household - husband, wife, three biological children and two foster children. Some readers from the ‘care’ circles expressed a desire to learn about what other foster carers had to say about their experiences and how these compare to the Lahrichi’s fostering experiences, hence this small-scale research work.

Fostering is a noble undertaking and foster carers are equally apposite since it requires a self-sacrificing spirit to do this challenging and demanding job. The need for foster carers is dire because there are so many children who are unable to live with their biological parents for one reason or another. Foster care is the means by which care is temporarily provided for these children while parents try to sort themselves out. Some foster children do return home, some become long-term placements, some get adopted and others take the step to independent living. In any case, foster carers do a sterling job in providing stability in a safe, attentive and loving family environment. Obviously, foster carers are of different calibre and therefore possess varying levels of competence. This implies that their fostering experiences will also be of differing kinds. Herein lies the timeliness and relevance of this book since it helps readers to get a fuller understanding of the foster-care experience straight ‘from the horses’ mouths’. It is also an informative text for teachers, head teachers, social workers, Local Authority (LA) persons who are associated with fostering and other foster-care professionals.

I feel privileged to be able to share in presenting the foster carers’ side of the fostering storyline, albeit from a small sample of carers. Learning about how foster carers make inconceivable life-changing differences to foster children’s lives is indeed an enlightening and stirring experience. The foster carers’ narratives become even more poignant with the recognition that the number of foster-care placements keeps on increasing. Statistician Adam King reports: Between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015, there were 85,890 children and young people in foster placements, an increase of two percent from 2013-14 (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED), 2015). The same source notes that this increase reflects the trend of previous years. Based on this trend, any attention paid to documenting the experiences of foster carers is warranted, given that the National Minimum Standards (NMS) for fostering matters emphasises the need to value each child:

Each child should be valued as an individual and given personalised support in line with their individual needs and background in order to develop their identity, self-confidence and self-worth.

Children in foster care deserve to be treated as a good parent would treat their own children and to have the opportunity for as full an experience of family life and childhood as possible, without unnecessary restrictions (Department for Education (DfE), 2011).

An analysis of the findings of this small-scale study has shown that the foster-care participants do value the foster children in their care. This revelation gives more impetus to my commitment to championing foster carers’ cause. It also impels me to encourage readers, especially foster-care personnel, to use this medium to listen to foster carers’ voices, with a view to supporting them in their quest to give foster children a ‘full experience of family life and childhood’.

Dr Gertrude Shotte

Middlesex University, London

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Chapter 1

Setting the Scene

There is little that gives children greater pleasure than when a grown-up lets himself down to their level, renounces his oppressive superiority and plays with them as an equal — Sigmund Freud.

You’ll never forget the one who saw something in you the rest didn’t… the one who didn’t quit on you – Rob Hill Sr.

Introduction

For centuries, for one reason or another, there have been children who are cared for by families who are not their ‘flesh and blood’. The people who ‘officially’ care for these children for given periods of time are known as foster carers. The work of these people as we know it today has undergone many changes over the years. The fostering experience that foster carers have had over time has drawn their attention to the problematic circumstances that the children whom they foster had undergone. The situations ranged from a variety of ‘mild’ and moderate abusive situations to severe incidences with drug-related elements. By any measure, whatever disadvantaged situation that foster children come from, it is critical enough to merit ‘formal’ managed intervention.

Undoubtedly, separation from blood relatives will cause emotional damage of some sort. Foster children are no different. In fact, it is highly likely that the difficult position from which they come, can add to their anxieties, hence the tantrums, withdrawals, mistrust, non-communicative attitude, mood swings and other unacceptable behaviours. These are the sort of challenging behaviours that foster carers deal with on a daily basis. This book narrates some foster carers’ explanations on how they deal with suchlike behaviours. It also reports on how the same foster carers perceive the United Kingdom’s ‘Staying Put’ initiative, as well as what they think about foster care in general. The book intends to be the literary channel for selected foster carers who have expressed their views about their foster-caring experiences.

Framing the Issues

For almost forty (40) years, the Fostering Network has been championing the cause of foster carers. The organisation has even played a part in influencing policy with regard to securing the most appropriate living arrangements and related circumstances for foster children and foster carers. This is possible because of the key decision workers that the Fostering Network works with; these include Government Ministers, civil servants and elected representatives in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (The Fostering Network, 2014b). What Fostering Network’s focused and continued attention on foster carers has shown, is that challenges and problems experienced by foster cares are real, and that they should be always under ‘official’ consideration. Three