Details of policies and procedures to bear in mind when recruiting additional carers for a foster care business.

1. RECRUITMENT & SELECTION
Growing Your Foster Care
Business
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www.tcipathway.co.uk

2. A guide to help you understand the correct
policies and procedures when recruiting
additional carers for your foster care business.
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www.tcipathway.co.uk

3. Recruiting Foster Carers
There is currently a shortage of foster carers, however, the key to delivering
an effective fostering service lies within recruiting and retaining high-quality
carers.
Your foster care agency should have a clear recruitment policy that should be
read and understood by everyone involved in the recruitment process.
To begin with, the following principles should be adhered to:
 Genuine equality of opportunity.
 All applicants must be treated with courtesy and respect.
 All employees must be committed to promoting the welfare of young
people, and ensure that they are protected from harm.
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4. Job Description
Before beginning the interview process, both a person specification and a job
description must be produced. Selection can then be based upon candidates
demonstrating the essential and desirable competencies relating to the post
for which they have applied.
Although there are several templates available online, it is important for you
to draft a specification that is unique to your business and its requirements.
For further clarity, you may wish categorise your documents under separate
headings such as ‘Specific Responsibilities’ and ‘Skills Needed’.
Consider outlining your requirements/ speciations under particular different
headings. For example: ‘Caring for a Child’, ‘Providing a Safe
Environment’, and ‘Working as Part of a Team’.
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5. Advertising
We recommend that you make a reasonable amount of effort for your job
advertisements to be widely publicised, to encourage applications from all
suitably qualified and experienced people.
Clearly state that your company is committed to safeguarding young people in
all your advertisements, and that as applicants will potentially be working
with vulnerable children, they will all be subject to an enhanced DBS enquiry.
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6. Shortlisting Applicants
If possible, your ‘shortlisting panel’ should include at least two professionals-
and be the same members of staff who will conduct the interviews.
Your panel must ensure that that the suitability of candidates is judged solely
upon the contents of their application form.
We advise that you reject incomplete application forms. Due to the sensitive
nature of the foster carer role, the employment history section should also
have no gaps.
Any periods between jobs should be explained.
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7. Interview Planning & Assessment Process
Applicants should be provided with a reasonable amount of notice of the
interview, as well as an outline of the process they can expect.
Where possible, both of their references should be available at the time of the
interview, although it is generally acceptable for applicants to request their
referees to be contacted until after this meeting.
We recommend that you follow up each of the written references with a
telephone call for further verification, due to the sensitive nature of a foster
carer’s role.
Please remember, The Equality Act 2010, does not permit the employer to ask
questions about the applicant’s health or disabilities until they have been offered
a post.
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8. The Interview
A face-to-face interview must be conducted, in order to explore a candidate’s
suitability for the role of a foster carer. We recommend that at least two
professionals conduct the interview (with a preferable gender balance).
As the post will involve applicants working with vulnerable children, the
interview process should explore issues relating to the following:
 Motivation to work with children and young people.
 Ability to manage appropriate relationships and to set and keep to
appropriate boundaries.
 Emotional resilience when working with challenging behaviours or people.
 Attitudes to the use of authority and maintaining a discipline.
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9. The Interview cont’d
Concerns or discrepancies arising from the information provided in the
application form or references should also be followed up within the
interview process (this includes any gaps in employment etc).
To ensure a thorough selection process for potential foster carers,
consideration can be given to other forms of assessment including
presentations, group work and so on.
It is recommended that you conduct a Warner/ Safe Care Interview in most
cases, though your interview panel may wish to agree on additional questions
that are unique to your business requirements.
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10. Final Checks During/ Post Interview
Qualifications: Original copies of certificates relating to academic
qualifications, professional registrations, and professional qualifications (for
example: a diploma in social work).
Driving Licence: To be viewed
Eligibility to work and live in the UK: Where an applicant is a non UK resident
or passport holder their eligibility to work in the UK must be confirmed.
In most cases, successful applicant of the foster carer role should be advised
that they will be subject to a probationary period which will be reviewed at
three and six months
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www.tcipathway.co.uk

11. Everything starts with a conversation, so let’s talk:
Safaraz Ali
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/safaraz
Twitter Handle: @SafarazAli
Tel: 0121 707 0550
Copyright © 2015 TCI Pathway
www.tcipathway.co.uk