Help Me Grow Fostering – EMPT London

Existentialism and Responsibility for Your Actions

Evans Management and Professional Training — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:13:05 +0000

Existentialism is a radical philosophy which takes our life issues as its central focus. From an existentialism perspective despite people being in this world without their prior consent – it’s up to us to create our life’s meaning.

According to Sartre, ‘existence precedes essence’ it means that people don’t have any predetermined purpose why they exist in this world. Sartre’s opinion is that people are radically free. Thus, existentialism claims that ‘If we are in a bad mood, for example, it’s because we choose to be. It suggests the external world doesn’t impose itself upon our consciousness and that we control our moods, thoughts, attitudes, and choices.

From Sartre’s perspective, freedom is something that we cannot avoid. Our ability to choose could either lead toward ‘sincerity’ or ‘bad faith’. To live in ‘bad faith’ is to let one’s being defined by social categories such as race, gender, disability, ethnicity, work position, and economic class etc. Therefore, from an existentialism perspective a person who lives in ‘bad faith’ is passive for accepting his current condition to define who they are and does not bother to transcend their situation; whilst negating themselves by the dictation of the crowd/group. Thus, a ‘person who lives in ‘sincerity’ is the one who transcends their current situation and not being a follower of public/group opinion and actively interacts and perpetually creates their own life’s meaning’.

Anxiety and Alienation

In a society influenced by systemic racism, sexism, Disablism/ableism, and where various forms of abuse may impact on behaviour people may have many internal conflicts whilst managing freedom and experience anxiety. According to Soren Kierkegaard “anxiety is the dizziness of freedom”. Knowing that we are carrying a huge responsibility of creating meaning for ourselves, people may feel a sense of burden, since there is no one who will help them in this course. It is up to us! People may well recognize that life maybe farcical and can become disillusioned from the beliefs they used follow and adhere to. Thus, such experiences may well make people feel alienated as it’s individuals who needs to move their own steering/Life wheel in whichever direction they choose!

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Children in Care Need Male Care workers Too!

Evans Management and Professional Training — Thu, 11 May 2017 12:00:06 +0000

Male care workers can often be the first positive male role models that children have met, and play a vital role. But male care workers can face their own challenges in roles traditionally considered to be mainly carried out by women. Children in Care invariably bring a history of their relationships with males to fostering and adoption placements. Thus, The Fostering Network and CoramBAFF have produced information around how fostering and adoption can be more ‘men friendly’.

In addition, the following research indicates some benefits related to involved fathers: www.emptlondon.com

The father’s education level is important (Yeung, 2004) and is of course linked to his income: better educated fathers tend to earn more. One study found that it wasn’t simply the father’s income but his permanent income that was most significant. Fathers’ education level tends to contribute substantially to permanent income (Chevalier et al, 2013). Also see the EMPT® promoting positive outcomes for children workbook (2014) Promoting positive outcomes workbook.doc Updated 2017.
Fathers with more education are able to provide more resources and learning opportunities for their children, and are also more likely to engage in positive interactions, such as reading, with them (Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2013).
Fathers’ sensitivity in interacting with their children is enormously important and sensitive fathers are not only found among better educated or wealthier fathers: the is enormous variation across social class. Sensitivity/supportiveness by fathers in interactions with their children, their engagement in literacy activities together, fathers’ use of wide vocabularies and strategies such as expanding on what children say, referring to objects and events, eliciting actions, directing attention, prompting play etc. have substantial positive impacts on child outcomes (Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2012).
The experience of becoming a father can provide a catalyst for making the transition to a more responsible masculine identity. Young men’s masculine identities are strongly defined by locality. Young men ‘at risk’ tend to be embedded in local cultures of hypermasculinity, often with problematic consequences. Many aspire to a ‘safer’and more responsible masculinity, with their aspirations again being largely shaped by local expectations (http://www.open.ac.uk/health-and-social-care/research/beyond-male-role-models/report ).

Some other useful male care worker resources:

https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/advice-information/being-foster-carer/men-who-care

Working with challenging behaviour EMPT_SEP_TRAINING_DIGITAL (1)

http://docs.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/fulltext/71496.pdf

https://carers.org/male-carers

CoramBAFF practice note 49 highlights the role of male carers in meeting the needs of fostered and adopted children. It includes discussion about gender in the family placement environment, the developmental needs of children, the experiences and perspectives of male carers, and the impact of allegations and abuse. Issues for agencies to consider and pointers for good practice are identified.

https://goodmenproject.com/families/a-single-man%E2%80%99s-adoption-story/

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-las-31-march-2016

The Fostering Network the State of the Nation’s foster care survey (2016)

Evans Management and Professional Training — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 19:18:38 +0000

The Fostering Network the State of the Nation’s foster care survey (2016) – What foster carers think and feel about fostering is now available.

The Fostering Network research involved in total 2,530 foster carers from across the UK completed the survey online: 1,942 of these fostered in England, 359 in Scotland, 122 in Wales and 107 in Northern Ireland. These numbers represent four per cent, eight per cent, three per cent, and five per cent of the total foster carer populations respectively.

Aspects of the Fostering Network reports findings are:

32 per cent of foster carers felt that children’s social workers do not treat them as an equal member of the team around the child
31 per cent of foster carers reported that they were rarely or never given all of the information about a fostered child prior to placement
46 per cent of foster carers said their fostered children were unlikely to receive information about independent visitors
Almost a third of foster carers had been referred children from outside their defined approval range
52 per cent of those who had taken children from outside their approval range had felt pressured into it
Three-quarters of those who had taken a child from outside their approval range said they received no additional training and support from their fostering service
Just under half of all foster carers (49 per cent) did not have an agreed training plan for the next 12 months and the same proportion of carers felt there were training courses they would have liked to attend but did not.

Ofsted (2015) published an earlier report about foster care that amongst other findings showed:

There were fewer fostering households overall, but more family and friends households: there were 36,890 fostering households, a decrease of 1% from the same date in 2014. In the same period, the number of family and friends households increased by 6% to 4,145
More children were recorded as missing from placements and going missing more often: there were 5,055 children recorded as missing in 2014-15, an increase of 19% from the previous year. The number of times that children were recorded as going missing increased by 29%

Whilst Ofsted (2012) highlighted the following:

67,340 foster carers were approved on 31 March 2012. Of these, a large majority of carers were White (84%). The next largest number was Black (8%), followed by Asian (4%), Chinese and ‘Other’ (2%) and Mixed (1%). This was very similar to the ethnicity profile of foster carers for 2010-11
There were a total of 40,842 fostering households on 31 March 2012. This is an increase of around 7% from the previous year. Of these, 67% were registered with local authorities and 33% were registered with IFS
Overall, there were 7,427 new fostering households approved during the year. This is an increase of 9% from the same period in 2010-11. Local authorities approved 63% (4,648) of new households and 37% (2,779) were approved by IFS. This compares with 60% of new households approved in 2010-11 by local authority and 40% by IFS

There are some similar findings in both the Fostering Network’s stateofthenationsfostercare2016 and their 2014 state of the nation’s foster care report findings. In the Fostering Network 2014 report foster carers also felt foster carers should be respected and treated as a skilled co-professional, and to be recognised as part of the team working with the child; often, in fact, they are the person who knows the child best.

The Fostering Network 2014 report showed that foster carers felt that not only should their experience and expertise be valued and listened to about day-to-day care, but also in long-term planning for children. This report also highlighted that foster carers wanted to be recognised and treated as professionals by teachers, health care workers, police and others involved in children’s lives. These working in partnership issues are consistent – The Fostering Network National conference way back in 2002 (Working Across Boundaries) raised similar issues concerning working together.

Click here for State of the Nation Report 2021_DIGITAL_FINAL_0.pdf (thefosteringnetwork.org.uk)

Managing Quality Outcomes in Health and Social Care Settings

Evans Management and Professional Training — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 22:37:13 +0000

Managing quality outcomes is an essential element of management competence. Measuring and assessing service quality in the social care sector presents some distinct challenges. However, indicators of service quality, including those of service impact on outcomes for children. Monitoring can mean ‘continuous or regularly repeated observations of important parts of service structure, process, output or outcome. In promoting the managing quality outcomes – monitoring performance against standards identifying non-conformance, eliminating non-conformance is another appropriate way of monitoring standards. It’s also useful if audits are based on scientific evidence. Therefore, appropriate practice research support making sense of monitoring care services outcomes. Click the following hyperlink for a free copy of the EMPT® Monitor and manage the quality of the provision of care services presentation PDF.

Some Leadership and Management Care criteria related to monitoring quality:

1.1 Analyse how legislative and regulatory frameworks inform quality standards that apply to the work setting

1.2 Analyse how quality standards influence positive outcomes for individuals

1.3 Evaluate a range of methods that can be used to measure the achievement of quality standards

2.1 Work with team members and others to

Agree quality standards for the service
Select indicators to measure agreed standards
Identify controls to support the achievement of agreed standards

2.2 Develop systems and processes to measure achievement of quality standards

2.3 Support team members to carry out their roles in implementing quality controls

2.4 Explain how quality assurance standards relate to performance management

3.1 Support team members to carry out their roles in monitoring quality indicators

3.2 Use selected indicators to evaluate the achievement of quality standards

3.3 Work with others to identify:

Areas of best practice
Areas for improvement

The Ofsted Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) 2017: independent fostering agencies highlights areas of good leadership

5.3 The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Some of the areas of required evidence are:

Whether leaders and managers show an ambitious vision, have high expectations for what all children can achieve and ensure high standards of care
How well leaders and managers prioritise the needs of children and young people
The extent to which carers are supported to ensure that children and young people continually make progress from their starting points across all aspects of their development, because leaders and managers have a clear understanding of the progress that children and young people are making in respect of the plan for them
Whether leaders and managers provide the right supportive environment for staff through effective supervision and appraisal and high quality induction and training programmes, tailored to the specific needs of the children and young people
How well leaders and managers know and understand the setting’s strengths and weaknesses, prevent shortfalls, identify weaknesses and take decisive and effective action
Whether the agency is achieving its stated aims and objectives
the quality of professional relationships to ensure the best possible all-round support to children and young people in all areas of their development
Whether leaders and managers actively challenge when the responses from other services are not effective
The extent to which leaders and managers actively promote equality and diversity

Training Support & Development Standards for foster care and the Social Model of Disability (5.8 a)

RISK_ASSESSMENT_WORKBOOK_DIGITAL_EMPT_Website.PDF

Diploma in Residential Child Care – A5_FLYER_DIGITAL. secure pdf

EMPT_TRAINING COURSES_