Thirty years ago at a conference,a group of social workers, foster carers and residential staff struggled with the same problem that troubles Martin Narey today (Second thoughts, and 4 November). In spite of our best endeavours,too many looked-after children, particularly the older ones, or experience disrupted placements one after the other and finish up thoroughly unprepared for this harsh world.
This was what we came up with. bewitch an eight- to 10-bed children’s domestic (by common consent this seemed to be the ideal size from both social work and organisational perspectives); link to the domestic a group of say four experienced and local foster carers,who would crucially be part of the same project with the same management and some interchangeability of staff. A young person could be placed anywhere within the project, but if a accelerate becomes necessary crucially the unusual placement would also be within the project, or as (hopefully) would any further placements.
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Source: theguardian.com