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Making decisions for a child in foster care

As the people who live with and look after children or young people in foster care every day, foster carers are often the only team member who knows and understands them best and have the most up-to-date information about them. This means that foster carers should be given all the information they need and the authority to make common sense, day-to-day decisions. This process of being given the authority to make certain decisions is sometimes called ‘delegated authority’. 

 

Foster carers should also be included in all conversations where decisions are being made for or about the child they care for. This allows foster carers to best fulfil their role as advocates for the children in their care, as well as allowing the rest of the team to hear from the person who may know the child the best. 

Foster Family Support

Decision Support Tool

Our Decision Support Tool is an aide to good practice and assists social workers, parents, foster carers and young people to talk to each other about decision making.
Brushing Teeth

The Foster Carers' Charter

The Charter
The Fostering Network has long campaigned for foster carers to be recognised as equal members in the team around the child. We believe that our Foster Carers' Charter will help to make this a reality. The charter has a whole section about decision making. 

What is delegated authority?

Delegated authority is the process that enables foster carers to make common sense, everyday decisions about the children and young people they care for, such as allowing them to go to friends’ houses for sleepovers, signing consent forms for school trips and even arranging haircuts.

Holders of parental responsibility (usually the local authority, health and social care trust or birth parents) can delegate authority to foster carers to make such decisions. Foster carers never have parental responsibility for a child in foster care, so they can only make decisions about them where that authority has been delegated to them by the local authority and/or the parents.

Clarifying who is best placed to take everyday decisions depends on many factors: the young person’s age, views, legal status and care plan, the parents’ views and the experience and views of the foster carers. Collaboration and consultation are essential for successful working partnerships. 

Which meetings should foster carers be invited to?

Foster carers should be invited to any formal or informal discussion, meeting or assessment that involves the child, the child's care plan or themselves. This is made clear in all government legislation, regulations, statutory and good practice guidance across all four nations of the UK.

We believe that foster carers should be involved in decision making at every stage to prepare for and support a child they care for. This means that foster carers should be invited to discussions or meetings about: 

  • Planning – for example, meetings about how best to protect and support a child they have been, or may be, matched with.
  • Welcoming – for example, meetings to plan a child’s care, or plan how to support a child to keep in touch with their birth family.
  • Monitoring – for example, reviews of a child’s care plan.
  • Support – for example, meetings to review a child’s mental or physical health needs; wellbeing; educational needs; discussions around safeguarding issues; or meetings to prevent or minimise relationships breaking down.
  • Changes – for example, meetings to plan a child's return home, adoption, special guardianship or long-term foster care (permanence); discussions about planning a move to a different foster family; or conversations about a young person’s pathway into adulthood and independence. 

Are there any meetings that foster carers should not attend?

In some cases, it may not be appropriate for a foster carer to attend a meeting about a child in their care. For example, if someone raised a serious safeguarding concern about a foster carer, or someone in the fostering household. In these instances, the fostering service should represent the foster carer in the discussion and keep the foster carer fully informed about what was said, what the next steps are, and why it is not appropriate for the foster carer to be involved.

There may also be some meetings where social workers and supervising social workers may represent the foster carers’ view as part of a wider discussion, for example, at local authority panel meetings about the allocation of resources.

What happens if foster carers can’t attend a meeting about the child in their care?

Meetings should be arranged at a time and place where key people in the team around the child, including foster carers, can attend. For this to happen, it’s important to understand and plan for any circumstances that might prevent foster carers from being able to contribute to discussions, for example, having other children that they care for during the ‘usual’ working day.

If foster carers are not able to attend a meeting, discussion or assessment about a child in their care, they should be invited to contribute in another way, such as through their supervising social worker. After the meeting, foster carers should be fully informed about what was said at the meeting, and any decisions that were made.

Decision-making legislation and guidance

Use the dropdown links below to see the legislation and guidance that underpin decision-making principles: 

England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

 

Wales

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