As foster carers the children and young people who come to live with us face loads of challenges. Often their experiences are vastly different to anything that we have lived through. The challenges are made all the more difficult if they have been affected by FASD, especially if no one has realised.
As foster carers our role is to make a positive difference to their life chances. In England, in 2011 the Government urged us to advocate for their children that we live with ‘as if we were a pushy parent’[1]. As far as raising the issues of FASD this is quite appropriate.
In all of the countries of the UK fostered children do have some advantages over and above their peers who aren’t in the care system. After 25 years of fostering I am realistic. There are huge barriers to overcome and as foster carers we need to use every opportunity to allow those that live with us to reach their full potential. This includes those with FASD.
Be under no illusion, it is not easy, it will be frustrating, but if we can turn the challenges faced into opportunities then things can be a little easier.
Opportunity 1 – you will have noticed that there are many more adults involved in the lives of looked after children. Now at first glace that may not seem to be much of an advantage, but if you can join the team around the child up and get planning moving in the same direction then you can achieve a very critical mass. Things will get done.
It will often be down to you to galvanise that team. Let’s face it you probably know the young person better than anyone else and sadly at the time of writing, you will also be the person who know most about FASD. Hopefully in the near future this will change.
This is going to require all of your diplomatic skills, but your research and training will also count towards your personal development plan. Counting to 10 will also help!
Opportunity 2 – A looked after child has many more medical assessments. As a minimum, annually for 5 and older and every 6 months for under 5’s. Each of these is an opportunity to raise FASD. You have the chance to present your evidence to illustrate your concerns. Ask for assessments or other support that will help them
In England for over 10 years there is a statutory requirement to consider whether a young person has been affected by prenatal alcohol consumption at every medical assessment. [2]
As foster carers we are regularly formally supervised, and our performance is annually reviewed. Maybe 12 times a year we can discuss the challenges a young person faces and their achievements. At least twice a year the care plan for the young person is reviewed by an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO), who is independent of the child’s planning.
These meetings afford more opportunities to make the case about either identifying FASD or planning to meet the needs of that young person.
Opportunity 5 – taking a child or young person into care is expensive, but corporate parenting responsibility means that when this happens then everyone should strive to make a difference.
I am not suggesting for a minute that this is easy, but with the critical mass alongside you plans can be funded that change lives. In our case this has allowed us to sidestep exception funding panels in the NHS when looking for assessments.
Spending is quite rightly scrutinized and therefore it may take longer than we like to appear, but considerable resources can be accessed in a way that is not possible for a non-looked after child.
In school there is also the advantage of Pupil Premium Plus, significant additional funding over and above that available to a typical student, so once again there is less of a struggle to get things done.
We do not know how many children and young people are affected by FASD within the care system. Logic tells us that it is likely to be higher than in the general population. In Peterborough in 2013, 34% of all the Looked After population were noted as having prenatal alcohol consumption that needed to be considered as a major factor in their assessments. A figure that jumped to 75% for those who had adoption medicals.[3] This means that in your fostering career you are quite likely to share your house with someone who has been affected.
The Fostering Network has recently produced information for Foster Carers who live with affected children
© Field of Enterprise & National FASD 09-09-2020
[2] Health assessments should ….pay particular attention to health conditions that may be more prevalent in looked-after children (such as foetal alcohol syndrome or attachment difficulties) and which may otherwise have been misdiagnosed.
[3] Gregory et al Adoption & Fostering Coram / BAAF October 2015
