Parent and child placements keep families together

Our South East Social Worker and Parent and Child Champion, Jennifer, shares her thoughts on the importance of parent and child placements and how you can help.

"Parent and child placements aim to Keep families together which is the most rewarding part.

"While parenting experience is important when considering to become a foster parent for parent and child placements, willingness, commitment, availability, patience and ability to work in multi-disciplinary setting is key since the role is to support young and vulnerable parents who might find parenting a daunting task.  As a foster parent for a parent and child placement (this can be mother and baby or father and baby), you will be required to support and guide the parent to develop routine and the necessary parenting skills, while monitoring the development of the baby. You will therefore be passing on wisdom and knowledge until these individuals have acquired reasonable skills to parent and look after their children independently. 

"We have young parents who feel completely overwhelmed, therefore your home will offer a safe place in which they will take their first steps, bearing in mind that we all learn and develop at different paces, therefore different placement will require different levels of your input. It will be your duty to ensure and support attendance of appointments and professional meetings with the health visitor, social workers, parenting assessors etc.  Most importantly, you will be required to monitor and record the progress of the parent and the development of the baby. Please note that you will not be in this alone as you will have a team of professionals to support you and to support the parent and their child/ren. You will also be offered specialised training and be linked/paired with our experienced parent and child foster carers."

If you are interested in fostering a parent and child placement or would like to learn more, please get in touch with the friendly team here.