EP40 Navigating Therapeutic Support in Fostering; and Interview with Jaid Bennett

Episode 39 – Navigating Therapeutic Support in Fostering with Jaid Bennett

In this episode, Philippa is joined by Jaid Bennett, Deputy Regional Manager at Fusion Fostering in the Southwest. Together, they explore what it means to be a foster carer, the challenges and rewards of supporting children who have experienced trauma, and the importance of embedding therapeutic approaches into everyday care.

Jaid shares insights into:

• The fostering application and assessment process
• How Fusion supports carers and children through therapy, reflective practice, and training
• The role of shame, guilt, and empathy in parenting children with big emotions
• Creative tools – including personalised therapeutic stories – that help children make sense of their experiences
• How young people are given a voice in shaping the fostering journey

Whether you’re curious about fostering, already a carer, or interested in therapeutic support for children, this conversation is full of inspiration and practical wisdom.

Website: https://fusionfostering.com/

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Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated and therefore they maybe errors.

EP39 Navigating Therapeutic Support in Fostering: Insights with Jaid Bennett

​[00:00:00] 

Philippa: So welcome to this week's episode of Pondering Play and Therapy with me Philippa. And this week my guest is Jade Bennett. Jade is a social worker and the deputy regional manager for Fusion Fostering, which is based in the Southwest. So welcome Jade to the podcast. 

Jaid: Thank you, Philippa. 

Thanks for having 

Philippa: me on.

You are a deputy regional manager what does that mean? What, does that mean for a fostering agency? 

Jaid: Okay, so at the 

moment my role is I look after a couple of social workers and a couple of support workers and work with our regional manager to have oversight of the agency, like the region down in the southwest.

And we have about. 60 households and about 70 young people that we make sure are safe and make sure are looked after in fostering households. 

Philippa: Okay. So [00:01:00] you have, so fusion fostering means that you have foster carers that come to you and you support them to look after children who can't be at home with birth family for whatever reason.

Is that right? 

Jaid: Yeah, 

Philippa: that's right. Yeah. And do what, do you, how do you support them then? Really? Do, can they, can anybody just turn up and be a foster carer or is they do you have to do stuff? 

Jaid: Yeah. I suppose in a way what, we'd say and what the kind of narrative isn't it?

Do you have a spare room or above the age of 21? And do you have a, heart big enough to welcome a child into your life and into your home? It's not as easy as that in, in terms of brilliant welcome aboard. There is quite an extensive. Assessment process that takes a period of time over kind of four to [00:02:00] six months where there's lots of training and there's some exploration into your life, your motivation to foster how you might respond to a looked after child who might come with some big feelings about being removed from their families.

It's a little bit more complex than anyone can do it, but certainly if you think you can apply with fusion. 

Philippa: So I'm guessing that as a foster carer, if you're looking after children who are cared for away from their birth family Yeah. That. These children have experienced some kind of adversity or trauma or neglect and maybe like you say, have big feelings or, maybe behaviors that we would think about as being typical for children who've ex who have had to survive in tricky households, but maybe are out [00:03:00] of, the realm or the scope that you would expect of typical developing children. So maybe you have to parent them or connect with them in a different way. Would that be right? 

Jaid: Yeah, that's what we'd be looking for.

And I think at the moment, infusion, especially over the last few years, what we have been moving more towards is being able to offer a therapeutic service for our children and our foster carers. So we have therapists that we work with. We've got some who are DDP trained trained in therapeutic life story work.

We have potentially have clinical reflective sessions with foster carers, with a therapist to, to be able to support young people. Who do have those bigger feelings and communicate that through more complex behaviors so that they can remain in a fostering or a family environment.

So we're working with local authorities more recently as well, actually to look at how we could step [00:04:00] down is the term, but move young people who run a residential setting perhaps out with lots and lots of support into fostering families. They can, they can be back in that environment.

That's what we'd hope for a young person. 

Philippa: Okay. So they're living in a family environment. And this family environment can be mixed of any kind of families. You can be a single carer, a couple, an extended family. Is that right? 

Jaid: Yeah, that's exactly right. So we'd we'd say anyone inquire none of those things limit you, obviously, LGBT.

That is, it doesn't limit you to fostering. Being a single foster carer doesn't limit you to fostering. All of those people say, oh, I'm too old for that. That's not quite right. Or even people who say, oh I've perhaps got a criminal record and it's from 30 years ago, so it would discount me.

Actually what we wanna do is hear from [00:05:00] people with life experiences and we'd be able to understand some of the, trauma that our young people have gone through and be able to empathize. If you do have it in the back of your mind oh, that would be something I'd quite like to do. We'd prefer people to reach out and explore that with us for sure.

'cause life experience that people sometimes thinks will count them, counsel them out, or Yeah, cancel them out will actually be really useful for a young person. Yeah. 

Philippa: Yeah. So people may be themselves who've been care experienced would they, be able to foster. 

Jaid: Yeah, absolutely. And that's when we get people who do that kind of full circle and are able to have worked through lots of their own stuff and, go on to care for young people who are going through that right now, that's incredible, isn't it?

What, an amazing journey for that person. 

Philippa: Yeah, because I'm guessing that what you need is a lot of empathy in order to carry you through [00:06:00] when children, young people, teens, or maybe displaying behaviors that are more than when I it's I think it's when you, when I do teenage, work with parents and that it's, I think it's like having a teenager with all the straps and that comes with teenager, but then there's a double a plus on top of it. It's like you've got that extra bit, haven't you, that can come through. Not all children who are gonna be in foster care have that, but there's generally some kind of behaviors that come from attachment and trauma that are gonna be present.

And I'm guessing as a foster carer, you. Need the empathy to be able to see that this is really about the child's hur life experience, rather than them choosing to do something now and misbehaving. 

Jaid: Yeah, definitely we'd, we want people to come in [00:07:00] with lots of empathy and acceptance, and that's what we'd hope.

And we recognize that doesn't always necessarily just come naturally. You apply to be a foster care and you've got all of this knowledge. And what we. Do is make sure that our foster carers have access to really varied training. And we do lots of training around pace. I don't know if you've talked about that in your podcast before.

We do lots of training around adverse childhood experiences and therapeutic parenting. And not every foster carer is up, for that. And that's and do other contra of fostering. Parent and child and, everything like that. But the majority of our fostering at the moment is supporting young people who communicate through their behaviors and, making sure that foster carers feel comfortable and confident to respond in a therapeutic way.

Philippa: Okay. And you talked about t one about DDP, which is Atic Development, psychotherapy and pace, which is playfulness, acceptance, and curiosity. And [00:08:00] those are kinda linked, aren't they? Can you just tell us a little bit more about that? What is, that? 

Jaid: Alright then. Pace, like you say, playfulness curiosity, acceptance, empathy in different order.

And EDP come from a therapist in America called Dan Hughes. And what. He has said, and what we'd really like our foster carers to be able to, do is feel empowered to offer a child some of these things. So playfulness, obviously you talk a lot about play in, your podcast. And being able to experience with a child who perhaps hasn't had a playful experience in their childhood and being able to move along with them in that way, or accept a child.

Where they're at that they could be having a, really terrible day and and they might do something. They might break something in the house. And for a foster carer to understand and empathize and accept a child [00:09:00] where they're at in that moment. And we recognize that people need training in that.

That's not something that comes naturally and that's certainly not the typical parenting strategies that you would. You would hear nowadays and perhaps from different generations as well. 

Philippa: Yeah, and I, suppose pace is that wondering isn't it that curiousness of, I'm wondering if, or your face is telling me you are really irritated with me right now.

Or you know that when you through that I can see that you are really cross. So it's that kind of wondering and being in the kind of trying to connect with that. With the experience or the feeling that young person's having at the moment and it's not really about giving consequences, is it?

It's about being with them in the moment, and often I find I I find parents, foster carers can find not giving a [00:10:00] consequence as in, you've broke this, so now you are going to have to pay for it or do these sorts of things. Quite difficult when we are saying naturally we just need you to sit with 'em while they, they are across and maybe give them a hot chocolate or a go and watch a movie with them.

And that almost feels the opposite of what most people's experience of being parented are. 

Jaid: Yeah. It can't it doesn't perhaps always come naturally, but I'm think, I'm thinking of an example of a child who had been playing the PlayStation and found it really, tricky to come off when it's the time to, to finish.

And what he did is through the PlayStation controller across the room and it smashed. So the, controller was then broken and and. Yeah, okay. We could say that's it. You could pay for that controller. I can't believe you've broken it. And all of that kind of stuff. But you're not really gonna get anywhere with that.

There's nothing that a child would perhaps learn from that experience other than adults are [00:11:00] angry people perhaps. But but there's already a natural consequence within that of. Now until another one is bought, whether that's by the adult or whether they contribute or whatever that looks like, they don't get to play the PlayStation anymore, which is really sad.

And I suppose that's what an adult would need to sit with is that big feeling of oh wow, now it's broken and, that's really sad for you. You're not gonna be able to play it for a little while we figure out a new controller. That's what we would supposed to be hoping for. 

Philippa: Yeah.

We co we aren't gonna make the child feel any worse than they already feel in that moment, are we? And actually, our job is to just be alongside them. 'cause we really don't want our kids to feel bad, whether they're cared for, birth children, your grandchildren. You really our job is not really to make kids feel bad.

It's to help them. Navigate all these feelings and experiences that they're gonna have along the way so that they grow into adults [00:12:00] who've got the resilience and the capacity to manage all the crap that life can throw at us, really. And I guess it's not really our job to put more onto them.

But Pace and DDP would be, would say you do this by sitting alongside them and like you say, empathizing with the. Oh my gosh. I'm so sad that you can't get your, you can't play the PlayStation today until we buy the controller on Saturday and then actually they can be mad about the not.

Not being able to play the PlayStation rather than being mad at you, and in some ways that diffuses that conflict. 

Jaid: Yeah, definitely. And like you said, with the not feeling bad you know that our children are more likely to be susceptible to feeling shame which is really horrible and comfortable kind of physical feeling.

And what we wouldn't wanna do is exacerbate that. So a [00:13:00] child perhaps who hasn't experienced trauma, they might break the PlayStation controller, feel really cross about that. And then move, be able to move on from that pretty quickly. Whereas a child who has experienced trauma and don't have those skills and are able to see themselves in a really positive light, they would probably think or possibly think, oh, I'm a bad kid.

I broke that controller, rather than, oh, I made a bad choice, but I'm still bad kid. I'm really loved. And it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. So we'd be avoiding that. Obviously want our children to feel good 

Philippa: about themselves. 

Jaid: And 

Philippa: Is, that's the difference between shame and guilt?

Is that right? 

Jaid: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I would say guilt is being able to think, oh I didn't make a very good choice there, but I'm a good person. Have that the inner working model of I'm a great person, but actually I don't make great choices sometimes. Whereas often our children, they have, [00:14:00] that inside voice of I'm a bad kid. And then when adults are reinforcing that by, that was a really bad thing that you did that just reinforces that for them. We've got a young person who the movie Inside Out. 

Yeah. They have u Used, I think it's in the second one actually, is they're able to think about their core beliefs as the string inside them.

From the, from that movie. Yeah. 

Philippa: Yeah. 

Jaid: And the foster carer can access that through oh, what is, what does your string ding like today in this moment? And they're able to say, oh oh, I don't feel very good today. I am worried about this. Or, and yeah, they've been able to access a bit of communication that way as well.

So creatively you can work around stuff like that. 

Philippa: Because it can be really hard once children and young people go into shame to get them out, can't they? Because Dan Hughes talks [00:15:00] about the shield of shame. It's that deny, minimize, blame, and then rage, isn't it? Where they I think Julie and I have talked about it where it's the first bit is, no, I didn't do it. The second bit is it was only a little bit. The third bit is it's all your fault. You did that, Jade.

If you hadn't done that, then I wouldn't have done this. Then we end up in that big rage, which is often where the behaviors can come from is that they're in shame and then they're trying to protect themselves. 'cause shame is a, like you said, is a really painful thing to have, isn't it?

Inside. Yeah. And you, so you support your foster carers with this knowledge. Do you, through training. 

Jaid: Yeah, through the therapists that we work with, they do lots of training with our foster carers to be able to give them enough confidence and knowledge to respond in what we'd hope to be therapeutic ways in the moment.

And. Then hold placement stability for young [00:16:00] people so that they can stay in their placements for a long time. Feel loved and cared for. 

Philippa: And then so is regional manager, where does that sit? 'cause I imagine that's lots of paperwork, Jade, lots of checking. People have done things they meant to do.

Checking that your paperwork is right and all that sort of stuff, which is from my perspective. Not the most interesting jobs for other people. They love a spreadsheet, don't they? I am not a lover of a spreadsheet. I don't know about you. 

Jaid: Yeah, no, you're right. I registered managers like that.

She absolutely loves a spreadsheet. I'm not overly like that and I'm very lucky that I work in an agency at Fusion who are really creative. And I have been very lucky where I've been able to go to my management and things like that and say, oh, like we've got a bit of an idea about how we can get young people involved there, or how about we can grow the therapeutic service here or, and that kind of thing.[00:17:00] 

And we're given creative license to do that. We, wanna empower our social workers and our managers to be able to have input into the service. So have been able to do. Some some things with our young people and we're starting to work more with AI and supporting young people as well and work creative like creatively like that.

Philippa: So AI is a bit of a scary thing and it's quite new. So how are you using AI then? What, how? How can AI support fostering? 

Jaid: Oh, I think AI's amazing. So I see people like you've just said, oh, it can be a scary thing and it can, and there are lots of limitations around GDPR and data protection and making sure that things are safe and and accurate as well when you are using ai.

But actually there's a really creative edge to it where it can support in therapeutic ways. So we've used it to create therapeutic [00:18:00] stories. I'm thinking of when you create a therapeutic stories, obviously at the moment you can buy a book on Amazon, just say and read through read through with a young person.

When you are creating something through ai, like a therapeutic story, you can match it to that young person's scenario. Far more accurately than any book would be that you'd buy online. I'm thinking of a family where the two children live with their grandparents and the story based around how mom.

For our own reasons can be quite inconsistent at turning it up to those family times and coming to see them at home. Now what we're able to do is that based on a family of foxes is make the little girl have the fox have nice curly fur and have the little boy have, glasses and, that's actually what they look like.

We were able to make the story quite accurate in the way that they experience. Things and the way that they found that work for [00:19:00] them and the Nan and Grand, how they support them through that. And I think that's really powerful. Yeah. If you can personalize things so much like that, and that's something that you can do with ai.

Philippa: Does it put images on though, or is it just words? 

Jaid: Yeah, so that's what you, that's what I've been able to do, is initially you ask it to figure out a little bit of a story. You feed some information, obviously avoiding names and things. You feed in some information. It can ask more questions, and then it can generate like a bit of a story, which you can edit as well.

It's it's not, in fact, I always say that to everyone I work with, make sure you edit and make up your own. We can't just rely on ai. But then alongside that, you can ask it for images, eventually pulling it together. And we've had books printed for young people and that's their personal story where they can read that over and over again and see themselves in the story.

Philippa: That's amazing. And I guess if you're doing life story work, [00:20:00] it can it's not gonna take the place of kind of actually doing the work, but actually adding an extra dimension to that is I guess can be quite powerful and quite, I wonder if you can if a young person could create an image or a.

Something themselves that they start to talk and that they can then add to their life story work, whether it's on the Richard Rose sheet or in a book that you are doing. I imagine that could be quite powerful for a teen or a a, child to do that. 

Jaid: Yeah. There was a child recently actually who when we did a bit of a social story about an incident that had happened in a tussle that they'd gotten with another child, when we did through the social story and we were wondering what people might have been thinking and feeling one of the things that he said was, oh, it's like curious times 10, because he knocked over the other child's tower. And I was like, oh, I don't really know. What that means. [00:21:00] I can you like, can we explain that a little bit more?

And we were able to put it into chat, GPT and it throughout this picture. And it was actually, it was about impulsivity. If there's astan sandcastle built, it has to knock it over. There's no real kind of thought process on that or a tower's gotta knock it over. And, that kind of visual representation of it and in a very comic book style, he loved that.

Philippa: Oh, that sounds great. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that's, I guess that going back to what we were talking about, shame, that's really holding them outta shame, isn't it? That is really the see and pace. It's that curiosity. It's that, tell me about this, and then you're writing and let's see what it looks like.

Show me this as well and, just often like with little. People I work with, they will say, do you know what's in my brain? And I think as a therapist, that's a really nice thing for a kid to say 'cause [00:22:00] it means I've really got them. And I think just having that is, is quite validating.

'cause I wonder if often children don't feel very validated in their own experiences. 

Jaid: Yeah, definitely. There's lots and lots of different ways that, that it can be used. We've done things like for young people who have, incontinence issues or swollen issues and things like that who have really struggled to do some of the a advice that the bowel and bladder clinics are offering like five minute sits on the toilet.

And that's been moments of really big dysregulation of slamming doors and screaming and shouting. And something that we've been able to use with AI is a fact on the throne. So whilst they're doing their five minute sit on the toilet, the adult's able to be outside and they can ask, shout out questions that are special interests for them, and you [00:23:00] type it into chat, bt.

And and what comes out is really funny, hilarious facts, or really interesting facts and and, now that foster carer is like, are you coming off now? Are you coming off the toilet yet? And it's really, helped them to feel safe in a moment where it really didn't feel safe for them before.

Yeah. 

Philippa: That's just such a, yeah, such a lovely way to use something that is just starting to develop, isn't it? And just judging, I've used it a little bit to do some of the thumbnails for YouTube, but some of the stuff, it spews out Jade, I have to say oh my gosh. That just like, if the picture isn't clear enough of me when I've put it in and I've come out looking a bit like a horse or something, I'm like, oh no, we need to, refine that one a little bit better.

So there is some mode. You do have to check it, don't you? But I think, yeah I am a fan of, chat g bt, apart from the. EE ecological [00:24:00] aspect of it and all. Yeah. So there's always the downside isn't the bot. I guess that's a really lovely creative way to and I guess hopefully anybody who's listening to this will be like going back and saying, I've had this great idea, and it'll all be yeah.

You talked about children being involved. So is, do you do participation in, in infusion. And tell us a bit about what participation is and how that works at, Fusion fostering. 

Jaid: Okay then, so I I would describe participation as young people having a voice wherever they are and within perhaps their own care plans, of course.

But within Fusion, what I really wanted to make happen is for young people to have a voice within the agency and decisions being made. So perhaps not just tokenistic. But actively, how do we make decisions as an agency? And we want children to be at the heart of that, in the center of [00:25:00] that. And over the past two or three years, that's really developed and is still developing.

So now our young people we're just now starting, the young people have panels miniature panels before. Applicants go to the adult panel is what I say. They go to the children's panel and that's been so useful. The way we do that is the family profile that's created.

We work with young people around that and they pull out that own questions, like individualized questions for that family. They come in like a panel would do, they ask their questions. It's all led by the young people. Usually me or a staff members there just to. Just in case things get a bit off track, perhaps stepping in and helping.

But usually one of the young people needs that. They the foster care, the applicants leave and then they make a [00:26:00] recommendation, but also offer some advice and guidance and all of that goes to that adult panel as well. And we've had some young people say things like. We just wanna make sure that the family think about their own children and making sure that another child is a good fit.

And what they're talking about is matching. 

Philippa: Like they 

Jaid: have the gr they have great ideas, young people have the best ideas, actually way better than adults. And that's been really helpful and Panel have really, appreciated that when it's been able to happen. So that's something we're rolling out a little bit more, but just in the trial stages at the moment.

Philippa: That sounds amazing. So let's just talk a little bit about that. So panel, what does that mean? So yeah, so tell somebody who doesn't know anything about fostering, what does a panel mean? 

Jaid: Okay. So going right back to the beginning when you're talking about how does someone become a foster carer? Yeah.

Like I said, there's an assessment process of about four to six months, and the assessment is called a Form F. They leave no stone [00:27:00] unturned. You talk about all aspects of your life that's written up into a report that you sign off and it needs to be something that you are happy with. And then it goes to panel, which is a panel of usually about eight people, a panel chair.

It's person who runs the meeting. And then you've got representatives, you'll have one from Fusion, you'll have a few independent representatives. Sometimes their care experience people themselves or professionals from other professionals like education and health. They all have read the Form F and the recommendations and all of the references.

They'll have questions. You go in, you answer the questions, and then they make a recommendation as to whether or not you can become foster carers. Okay. 

Philippa: And then, is that it? You become a foster carer? 

Jaid: No. Yeah. Another step. Oh, okay. 

Philippa: So what happens then? 

Jaid: All of that information alongside panel's recommendation [00:28:00] would go to the agency decision maker, which is someone who's independent of Fusion but sits under our umbrella and we commission to make sure that they make really good decisions, really good sound decisions.

As to whether or not, and that's who would approve you to become a registered foster carer. Okay. It's a registered profession. 

Philippa: Okay. And then you become a foster carer. And then is it just a cure kids that you can choose from and think, I'll have this one there, or what? What happens then? 

Jaid: No. At Fusion, we would wanna make sure that we're looking at matching, which is making sure that your family and a child would work well together.

'cause the last thing that we want is for children to move into family homes, things not work out. And then they and then that child need to move on to another home. Which foster carers often [00:29:00] then. Or they feel their confidence is really knocked in fostering, but also for the child that's really significant is yet another move in their fostering journey.

So what we do is come out and we do a matching interview with foster carers before we place. So we'd be looking at what does your lifestyle look like? So we can have a think about the type of child if your lifestyle is. You're out every day. You're out and about. You love going to the beach.

You love surfing. You go for hikes. And then we get a, referral from the local authority through. For a teenager who perhaps has autism and doesn't like the outside hates sand, that's a real sensory issue for them. And they like to stay in and play their video games. At that point, we know that probably wouldn't work out for the young person and out, out for the fostering family.

So we're just trying to make sure that [00:30:00] we can get things right for young people, really. 

Philippa: Okay. And then so then you, have a young person, or you, it might be more than one might, you can be matched with like siblings or or, you can have more than one child. Some families can, can't they.

Jaid: Yeah, definitely. If foster carers are coming in and really want to support siblings and brothers and sisters and things like that's absolutely fantastic. Philippa, you'll know that too many young people are separated from their siblings, 

Philippa: not because 

Jaid: that's what needs to happen, but because there's just not enough foster carers who can take.

Brothers and sisters. Which is really sad. So if someone comes in and they would like to foster siblings, that's something we'd really wanna support. Alongside that, you can have more than one foster child in the home that isn't related. There's up to, depending on how many bedrooms there are, obviously, [00:31:00] but you can app approve appro, be approved to have up to three young people who live with you at any one time.

Yeah, 

Philippa: but each siblings are slightly different, don't they? But if they're different, if they're not siblings they really need to have their own bedrooms, don't they? They can't, yeah. Can't share bedrooms like you. Maybe your own children might be able to share for, foster children, really? You want them to have their own rooms, don't you?

Unless they're very little. 

Jaid: Yeah. No, yeah. We're not able to. Children who aren't related are not able to share a bedroom. 

Philippa: Yeah. 

Jaid: And. Children who are so brothers and sisters, they are able to, but there needs to be agreements in place and and things that we need to be considering about how they get their own space and their own time still.

Philippa: Yeah. And then so once you've got a child in your house and you become this foster family, are you then left to it and you just crack on with it and treat them like you would any child or other, I'm [00:32:00] asking this flippantly 'cause I know there's a lot of, meetings and boxes around that also go with this.

Jaid: Yeah. No, there's a whole team around the, child a child in foster care. They have a social worker. They have somebody called a reviewing officer. Obviously they've got their foster carers, they have an identified person at the school an infusion. The foster carers would have a supervising social worker who supports the foster carers very heavily on as much support as needed.

So foster carers aren't just left on their own. There is a professional network. Things don't always work smoothly, and the local authority are under-resourced and sometimes there are changes in social workers in the local authority. And and we would just wanna. Support foster carers and young people through those changes.

But yeah, no, there's lots of support 

Philippa: and there's lot, some mandatory training as well is the foster carers don't just do that first bit and then that's the end of it. They, there is also [00:33:00] training and reviews and other things as though that goes on as well. 

Jaid: Yeah, definitely. We would be expecting our foster carers.

So there's standards that, oh, I dunno where to get into that. So foster carers have a set of standards that they would need to meet every single year. Understandably. They're looking after some of the most vulnerable young people in our society. And that means every year they need to do a certain amount of training.

They need to keep up with their safeguarding training. They need to keep up with first aid, making sure that they can keep children safe. They need to. Be a safer, caring households. All their medication needs to be locked away and and kept safe and, all of these kinds of things. So there are adjustments, although we want children to live in family homes and, be loved and cared for and treated the same as much as possible.

There are limitations to that as foster carers as to what, can be done. [00:34:00] But no. Every year they would go to a fostering review where the reviewing officer would have a little look at the year. They'd all have a good chat about how things have gone and make some recommendations if the foster care needs any more support.

Philippa: And I'm guessing that's your job then as Fusion fostering to help foster carers make sure that the training is available for them, that they can access it so they're not left on their own to find this for themselves. Your their, own kind of social worker from Fusion is their support. Is that right?

And, helps to guide them through these things? 

Jaid: Yeah. So we've got, we've got training programs that are set on and they're, every six months. And foster carers can book onto those training courses, like developmental training courses sits alongside that. We've got a training development team across the whole agency and it's nationally.

And that's about mandatory training courses, and that's things like [00:35:00] safeguarding quality and diversity. Pace we've got as a mandatory training course. But then also as part of the supervision visits where the social worker will come and visit the fostering household and have a look at all of the support that's needed.

Oftentimes we found really bespoke. Training for foster carers who are looking after children. I'm thinking recently we had a young person with FASD fetal alcohol syndrome and we found like a really specialized bespoke course and it was a whole 12 week course, I think it was and, they felt far more resourced and able to care for that young person.

So all different kinds of training we can offer. 

Philippa: And and that's your job, isn't it? Is Fusion fostering is for the foster carer, and the child has a social worker from the local authority. So although you are there to [00:36:00] over see and make sure that the, young person or the child is having everything they need from the family.

Your job is actually the family. Is that right? Which is, I think is quite hard to, get your head around, is that actually you are not the social worker for the child. 

Jaid: Yeah. I would agree. It, that's exactly what it is. And obviously a child is paramount that's. That's always who we're thinking of.

But I would like to think that some of the most important therapeutic tools that we have is our foster carers. So if you have really supported well-trained, well-resourced foster carers, that's when you can have that impact on a young person. They're the people that can make sure that the child is receiving like the most wonderful care if they're well resourced.

And that's our role at Fusion, to make sure that they feel supported. 

Philippa: Oh, that's good. What is the, kind of what the best bits of your job, Jade? What, are the [00:37:00] bits that you if you could do those bits all the time, what would they be? 

Jaid: It, would be the stuff around participation and making sure our young people have a voice within the agency.

It is all of this all these bits and bobs about making sure children have really bespoke packages of care around them, therapeutic packages of care, making sure that they're getting the therapeutic support that they need, but also the foster carers have access to that. Maybe support workers doing direct work and what that looks like and the resources that they need to do that piece of work and that kind of thing.

That's the stuff that really is the best fit. And looking after my social workers, I've got a really cool team and they're really nice, so yeah. 

Philippa: Yeah. And you are based in Devon, so you've got lots of, sea and sand and lots of nice spaces around you. Is that right? 

Jaid: Yeah. All across the Southwest actually.

We're, pretty lucky in that way that we can, [00:38:00] and support workers are doing that we're getting our kids out to the beach and doing some really nice activities on the beach. 

Philippa: Oh, that's fantastic. Thank you very much, Jade, for your time and ex telling us about fostering really, hopefully people might be interested.

I will put a link on the bottom of our description to Fusion fostering. So if people are interested in frustrating, can they just contact Fusion directly or is this another way that they have to do it? 

Jaid: No, they can contact us directly. Usually we can get someone out to visit within the first kind of four, eight hours.

Really responsive. 

Philippa: Okay. Yeah, I'll put that link on the bottom and so if anyone's interested in the Southwest and surrounding areas, they can just get in touch with you. So thank you so much for your time. It's been really interesting. Okay. Thanks for having me. It.[00:39:00] 

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