Safeguarding Children in Foster Care

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN
An Introduction to What You
Need to Know
Copyright © 2015 TCI Pathway
www.tcipathway.co.uk

A guide to help you understand the
importance of safeguarding children and
young people in foster care, and how your
business can always ensure it.

The Importance of Safeguarding in Foster Care
As a fostering agency, your first priority must always be to safeguard
children and young people.
Your foster care agency should have a clear safeguarding policy that
should be read, understood and followed by all workers and foster
carers.
We recommend that you monitor your team’s awareness of the
safeguarding policy during their induction, and then at regular intervals
in the workplace.

Legislation & Guidance
It is important that your foster care business has the correct sources at hand,
when trying to understand, and deliver training about safeguarding.
• NMS Standards 4, 22 and 29
• Reg.12 Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011
• Section 11 Children Act 2004
• Working Together to Safeguard Children – A Guide to Inter Agency
working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children – HM
Government 2015
Any child protection concerns should be referred to the Local Authority,
children’s social care, or police if necessary.

Responsibilities for Safeguarding
Safeguarding procedures are written to provide guidance across a range of
circumstances where it is believed that a child may be at risk of significant
harm, or has been harmed by a worker or foster carer.
The responsibilities of safeguarding may vary for each group of individuals
who are associated with your foster care business.
The following slides will explore this.

Local Authority: Duties & Responsibilities
Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities have the duty to
safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their care.
They also have a duty to investigate and take necessary action to
protect children who have suffered, or are likely to suffer,
significant harm.

Since the implementation of the Children Act 2004 local authorities have also
had the lead responsibility for the establishment and effective functioning of a
local safeguarding children board (LSCB).
The LSCB is a key tool mechanism for agreeing how the relevant organisations
in each local authority will cooperate to safeguard and promote the welfare of
children in their locality.
Local Safeguarding Children Board: Duties &
Responsibilities

The Fostering Regulations 2011 require that the welfare of children placed (or
to be placed) with foster parents is safeguarded and promoted at all times.
Before making any decision affecting a child, your fostering agency should
give consideration to the child’s:
• Wishes and feelings having regard to the child’s age and understanding.
• Religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background.
Fostering Agencies: Duties & Responsibilities

The Management: Duties & Responsibilities
Produce clear policies and
procedures.
Write and review the procedures at
least annually by the designated
person responsible for safeguarding
Ensure all employees and foster
carers at the agency receive training
appropriate to their role.
Maintain the safeguarding of all
children, to carefully recruit and train
workers who are responsible for all
venerable young people.
Ensure that the foster panel is fully
supported in terms of carrying out its
functions.
Maintain ongoing supervision and
training of all new and existing foster
carers.
Where necessary, share information
with other agencies (for the purpose
of safeguarding young people).
Monitor the quality of safeguarding
work and ensure that all notifications
are completed as required by
regulations.

Workers & Carers: Duties & Responsibilities
• Should ensure that risk assessments are completed on every
new placement and reviewed as necessary.
• Foster carers maintain accurate records of the child’s time in
placement; this will include circumstances where there might
be concerns about the child’s behaviour, any bruising injuries
must always be recorded and reported to the supervising
social worker and child’s social worker.

SAFEGUARDING: The Voice of a Child
In respect of the safeguarding processes, children have been recorded to
have asked for the following:
• Vigilance: To have adults notice when things are troubling them.
• Understanding and Action: To understand what is happening – to be heard
and understood.
• Stability: To be able to develop an ongoing stable relationship of trust with
those helping them
• Respect: To be treated with the expectation that they are competent.
• Information and Engagement: To be informed about and be involved in
procedures and decisions.
• Support: To be provided with support in their own right as well as a
member of their family.

Everything starts with a conversation, so let’s talk:
Safaraz Ali
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/safaraz
Twitter Handle: @SafarazAli
Tel: 0121 707 0550

Safeguarding Children in Foster Care

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