The Council's Supporting Employees Who Wish to Foster policy demonstrates its commitment to improving the recruitment and retention of foster carers from within its own workforce and to making a real difference to children’s lives.

What support is available to employees?

For employees who become approved foster carers for Brighton and Hove City Council a comprehensive package of support is already provided. In addition flexibility at work can be enhanced to improve the balance of your job and foster caring responsibilities by:

• offering more flexible working arrangements
• granting special discretionary leave to deal with emergencies
• granting up to a maximum of 5 days paid leave (pro-rata for part-time/part-year or job sharing employees) in any leave year to enable you to attend the required training courses, review meetings or other key meetings in connection with the child(ren) placed with you.

Where a couple are both employees of the Council the leave entitlements referred to above will apply to each partner.

Where can I get a copy of the Policy?

If you have access to a computer at your Council work place you can see a copy of Supporting Employees Who Wish to Foster on the Wave by going to the HR Work site. If you don’t have access to the Wave you can request a copy from the People Centre on extension 1307 or from the Fostering Team on extension 5444.

Who does this Policy apply to?

It applies to employees who are either applying to become a foster carer or are already an approved foster carer for Brighton and Hove City Council or Barnardo’s Link Plus Service with the exception of:

• those employees who work in the children and families social care service and who have direct involvement in the planning and decision-making for looked after children
• those employees based in schools unless the school formally adopts the policy locally.

Further advice

If you have any queries about this policy please talk to your supervising social worker or your manager or the Council’s Human Resources Department.