Our Service to Children and Young People in Foster Care

Being An Individual
Cornerways believes each child is unique in their experiences, their needs and their potential. Our Carers are focussed on the importance of building each child's self esteem, identity and social skills, their relationships with peers and family and helping them achieve their educational potential and to be physically and emotionally healthy.

Keeping Children and Young People Safe
Cornerways Foster Carers are assessed by qualified and experienced fostering social workers. This includes CRB and Local Authority checks, medicals and references. All assessments are considered by the Cornerways Fostering Panel before any decision to approve a foster carer.

Our Foster Carers are provided with training about child protection and safe care. Each family develops its own written safe care policy and fire plan for the home. A risk assessment is completed before any young person is placed into one of our foster families.

Our Foster Carers receive regular supervision, support and monitoring visits from their allocated fostering worker. Training to NVQ and foster carer groups are also provided as well as support groups for the foster carers children. Our Foster Carers are required to work to placement agreements and keep records for each child in placement.

Location
Our Foster Carers are located in Surrey, Sussex and South London, they are therefore in close proximity to London and nearby Counties for travel to contact or school. Some of our Foster Carers offer a home environment within a town while others are placed more rurally or by the seaside.

Foster Home Environment
All our Foster Carers have their own unique family lifestyle, however they all are expected to provide a safe, comfortable, healthy environment for children. Each child will have their own bedroom (unless sharing with a sibling, or are a baby sleeping in a cot in the carers room), and the bedroom will be decorated in a clean, fresh and comfortable style. Children and young people will be encouraged to develop hobbies and enjoy leisure activities as well as independence skills appropriate to their age, development and needs.

Our Foster Carers are expected to build caring and appropriately affectionate relationships with children and young people, so that children experience being welcome, belonging, feeling respected, having choices, being listened to.

Diversity for Children and Young People
Our Foster Carers come from different backgrounds and walks of life, this can offer variety to children from different backgrounds. Our Foster Carers are either single people or couples, some with children at home, some without. We are able to place brothers and sisters together and also mums and their babies.

Our Foster Carers come from a variety of religious or ethnic backgrounds and we would aim to place a child within a family of a similar background to their own. If a child has a disability or special needs and our Foster Carers can meet the child's needs appropriately then we will offer a placement.

Education
Education is a very important part of a child's development. Where it is practical Cornerways will work with the child's social worker to maintain a child within their existing schools, however this may not always be practical because of the distance, the child's age, travel times or the care plan. We will work with our Foster Carers, placing authorities and local schools to achieve local schooling as quickly as possible.

Our links with Cornerways own Cornfield School provide opportunity to negotiate supplementary educational opportunities for children not attending full time education. Cornfield School may also be a suitable school for some girls placed with our Foster Carers.

Our Foster Carers will support each child with homework and reading, and will attend school events and meeting according to care plans and placement agreements.

Therapy
Where this is commissioned by the child's social worker, Cornerways can arrange an assessment of a child's therapeutic needs and to access therapeutic services such as play or art therapy or counselling.

It is also possible for a psychiatric assessment to be arranged by a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist if this is commissioned by the child's social worker.

Children and young people placed with Cornerways Foster Carers are referred to CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) if they need particular help with their emotional needs.