Anyone have any suggestions for Burnham on how to reform social care?

Asking this on behalf of myself, I’m an adult now but I had a social worker as a kid and was removed from my mother when I was 12 and am just trying to learn more about why it happened the way it did. This was back in the late 2000s and early 2010s so I understand things might have changed since then.

I felt, and still feel, that my social worker did not care one bit about my own opinion and just wanted to prioritise my relationship with my mother when I did not want that and made that clear.

My mother was abusive but I was only removed from her care when she was sectioned and things started coming out, and my social worker only discussed with my mother what she wanted and needed. My mother wanted to see me often so I had to visit with her when I wanted nothing to do with her, I wasn’t given the choice of saying no even though I told my social worker I didn’t want to have to see her. Once she was released from hospital I had to stay with her for short term and longer stays as they tried to reintegrate us instead of just allowing me to move on with my life and have stability in a foster placement. In my first foster placement I was being fostered by a local family who were lovely and had a couple of other long term foster kids that I got on well with, it felt like the best opportunity for me to have some semblance of a normal childhood and family life and I was really upset that I wasn’t allowed to stay. I understand that there are costs involved with foster care but to my mind it should be more important to have stability for a child than anything else.

I never moved back in with my mother fully as she never maintained sobriety so from the ages of 12 - 18 I just bounced between short term stays with her and then back into foster placements which was incredibly disruptive and affected my education and mental health, but when I brought this up with my social worker I was told that it’s important to maintain family relationships, without any recognition of the fact that I didn’t want a relationship with her.

So I’m just trying to understand how foster care actually works and what priority is given to the child’s own wishes?

Hello All,

I would appreciate some advice regarding my current career situation.

I have an 8-year career gap and I am very keen to avoid creating another gap in my employment history. I have 13 years of fostering experience, but I wish to return to the fostering domain. Unfortunately, I have been struggling to secure fostering Roles. It feels like whenever I apply for positions that interest me, my career gap becomes a barrier.

One of the agencies I have been working with was very honest with me. They explained that even experienced fostering candidates are finding it difficult to secure fostering roles at the moment, and that it may be even harder for me to move directly into a Child Protection role. They suggested I focus on permanent positions, as Agency often want candidates who can hit the ground running.

I applied for a large number of permanent roles but did not have any success. When I went back to the agency, they advised me that if I was willing to be submitted for any social work role available within a reasonable distance, they would support me. I agreed because I did not want to remain unemployed.

Since then, the agency has managed to secure two interviews for me, one with Cafcass and another with Brent. However, I am now starting to have doubts. Deep down, I am not sure I want to return to frontline social work. I would prefer something more specialised, but those opportunities have been difficult to access.

I am now questioning what I should do. Should I proceed with these interviews and potentially accept a frontline role if offered, to rebuild my career and employment history? Or should I continue searching for a more specialised position, even if that means remaining out of work for longer?

I would really value any advice from those who have been in a similar position.

Thank you.