Assessment process

What is the assessment process and how long will it take?

The assessment process enables Fostering Solutions to find out about you and your family and to make a decision about whether or not you should become approved Foster Carers. It is an extremely important process to ensure that all children and young people placed in foster care are safe and secure.

Once you have completed and returned your Registration of Interest form to us we will arrange for a qualified Social Worker to contact you by telephone. Following this, an initial home visit may be arranged to discuss your application further. This is called a 'screening visit'. It is a two-way discussion to help you understand more about fostering and the assessment process and to enable the Social Worker to gather information about you and your family.

If the outcome of the screening visit is positive, Fostering Solutions will assign a qualified Social Worker to undertake an assessment. The Social Worker will need to visit your home a minimum of eight times to gather information about you and your family to and to provide you with information about fostering.

The Social Worker will produce an assessment report that we refer to as a Form F. Amongst other things this provides information about you and your family of origin, significant personal relationships you have had and your current family, your health, education, employment and finances, support network, accommodation and lifestyle, the reasons you wish to foster, your understanding of fostering and the way it will affect you and your family.

During the assessment, Fostering Solutions will undertake a variety of statutory and non-statutory checks including an Enhanced Criminal Records Bureau Check/Scottish Disclosure Check, employer and/or current fostering organisation/voluntary work references, school/health visitor reports (in relation to your children), medical reports and personal references. The Assessing Social Worker will also need to see evidence of your financial circumstances, including income and expenditure.

You will also be required to attend a three day course called 'Skills to Foster', which is fun and informative. It is part of the assessment process and the trainers will produce feedback which will be considered as part of your assessment.

At the end of the assessment, the Form F report and outcome of all the statutory and non-statutory checks will be presented to the Fostering Panel. You will need to attend the Fostering Panel to meet with the Panel members. They will consider your assessment and will then make a recommendation about your approval as a Foster Carer; the final decision is made by the Agency's decision maker.

Whilst each assessment is an individual process and the length of time an assessment takes varies to some extent, we endeavour to ensure that from the point at which applicants submit their Registration of Interest form, the whole process is completed within six months.

Throughout the assessment process, qualified and experienced members of our agency will be available to advise and support you to help you take a full positive part in your assessment.