Find a section

• Introduction to Foster Care
• Questions & Answers
• Short statement of purpose
• Our aims and objectives
• What we do
• Our commitments to you and your Foster Carers
• Complaints, concerns and having your say
• Complaints step 1 - IFCS Social worker
• Complaints step 2 - Service manager
• Complaints step 3 - Business manager
• Complaints against the Business manager
• Respecting your information
• Useful contacts
• Games links
• Complaints
• E-mail links
• Advice on Internet Security

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IFCS quick finder

How to find us

IFCS are based in Cardiff, South Wales, if you need directions just go to our directions page.

Short Statement of Purpose

We are called Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS). We are a group of Social Workers who work as an independent foster care agency.

The manager of Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS) is Adrian Wilson. You can contact him using the stamped envelopes addressed to Independent Foster Care Services which are in your pack.

You can phone him on 02920 837320 or email him at businessmanager@ifcswales.co.uk

Our Aims and Objectives

We aim to find, check out and support foster families who can provide excellent care for children and young people who need to be looked after away from their families.

We aim to support children and young people in foster care and make sure all their needs are met. We aim to make sure children and young people are healthy and safe, that they do well in school, that they see their family as much as is allowed, and that they are as happy as possible.

Our objective is to ensure that children and young people, their foster carers and Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS) all work together to make foster care a positive experience for all.

What we do

We find families who want to be foster carers. We find out everything we possibly can about them to make sure they can look after children and young people very well. We talk to them for hours, check them out with the Police, Social Services and even their Doctor. We even talk to their friends about them. This is called an assessment.

While we're doing this assessment we send the families to special classes, just to make absolutely sure they will provide good care for children and young people in foster care.

At the end of the assessment, and when the families have finished all the classes we've sent them on, we write a big report on them and send it to a panel of professionals to be examined. This panel will recommend whether or not the family can be foster carers.

Finally, the manager of Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS) will look at the panel's recommendation and decide if the family should be allowed to foster children and young people with us.

If families become foster carers with us they have to be examined by the panel every year all over again, just to make sure they are caring for children and young people very well.

Also, foster carers working for us will be contacted every day and visited every week by one of our Social Workers, and they will have to go back to special classes every two months, and they will have to have Supervision with one of our Social Workers every three months.

The point of all these assessments, classes and visits is to make sure the children and young people looked after by our foster carers are cared for very well.

Children and young people in foster care have a right to be looked after very well, and an organisation called the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) will make sure that we are doing everything we should to ensure our foster carers provide very good care.

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Our commitments to you and your Foster Carers

The Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) will not be pleased if we just stand back and watch our foster carers. They will want us to provide support to our foster carers and the children and young people they are looking after.

Listed below are the services we promise to deliver to children and young people and their foster carers:

• All our foster carers will be fully assessed and approved as described above.
• All our foster carers will receive ongoing training every two months
• All our foster carers will be contacted every day and visited every week by one of our Social Workers.
• All our foster carers will receive a formal and recorded supervision interview every three months.
• All our foster carers will receive Annual Reviews, which will be recorded, and the report submitted to our fostering panel for examination.
• All our foster carers will be paid expenses for looking after children and young people, which will cover all aspects of their care.
• All our foster carers will be able to have support from a qualified Social Worker seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.
• All children and young people in foster care will be visited every week by one of our Social Workers to ensure they are being looked after very well.
• All children and young people in foster care will be visited every two weeks by our Educational Support Worker to give any help that may be needed in school or with school work.
• All children and young people in foster care will be able to contact a qualified Social Worker from Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS) seven days a week, twenty four hours a day by phoning 02920 837320 and asking for the Duty Officer.
• All children and young people in foster care will receive pocket money from their foster carer.
• All children and young people in foster care can have their own bedroom if they wish.
• All children and young people in foster care will be financially helped as much as possible to take up or follow any hobby, interest, sport or activity, with the agreement of their parents and Social Worker.
• All children and young people in foster care will be helped as much as possible to have contact with their family if this is in their best interests, and is agreed by their Social Worker.
• The health and development of children and young people in foster care will be promoted as much as possible.
• All children and young people in foster care will be encouraged to have their say, and tell the right professionals and organisations their views, feelings, concerns, fears and complaints in a number of easy ways.

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Complaints, concerns and having your say

You can make a complaint by phone at any time (02920 837320), or by fax (02920 837321). This web site allows complaints to be made directly to anyone within IFCS, the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW), and the Children's Commissioner for Wales.

Making a complaint

You can make a written complaint to IFCS using a Complaints Form.

Either download the pdf, print it out and send it in the stamped addressed envelope provided in your pack to: Independent Foster Care Services, Solva House, Springmeadow Business Park, Cardiff CF3 2ES.

View IFCS complaints form (44Kb pdf)

or fill in the form on-line and e-mail it.

Fill in on-line IFCS complaints form

Your complaints, concerns and views are very important, and will help us do our job better. We want to hear from you.

You can make a complaint, express your concerns or have your say in a number of different easy ways.

If you wish to contact your Social Worker, or anyone within Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS), you can phone using the information on your Main Contact Card and Personal Contact Card, which are in your welcome pack. Alternatively, you can use the main contact card online.

Show me the IFCS main contact card

Your foster carer will have a computer and the IFCS Social Worker will have shown you how to log on to your web page on the Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS) website. From your web page you can easily e-mail anyone within Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS), or your own Social Worker, the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW), the Children's Commissioner for Wales, or even the NSPCC. There is an Internet Services Guide in your pack if you have forgotten how to log on to your web page.

To make a complaint use the Complaints Forms in your pack. Stamped addressed envelopes are also in this pack. Or alternatively you can get more Complaints Forms from this page, and either print them out to complete by hand and post, or fill them out on the computer and email to the professional or organisation you want to on your set contacts list. Please look at the Internet Services Guide in this your to see how to do this.

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The three steps to the Complaints Procedure are:

STEP 1

Your Complaints Form will be given to the IFCS Social Worker who, after reading it carefully, will talk to you, make an agreement with you on what should be done, and then do it. If this is impossible your Complaints Form will be passed to Step 2.

If your complaint is about the IFCS Social Worker or Education Support Worker it will automatically go to Step 2.

The first step will take five working days.

STEP 2

Your Complaints Form will be passed to the Service Manager, who will interview you, and others if that is felt OK. The Service Manager will decide on what should be done, and discuss this plan with you. If you do not agree with the Service Manager then your Complaints Form will go to Step 3 of the Complaints Procedure.

If your complaint is about the Service Manager it automatically goes to Step 3.

STEP 3

Your Complaints Form will be sent to the Business Manager of Independent Foster Care Services (IFCS) who, with our Independent Fostering Consultant, will read it carefully, talk to you, read any past action plans that were suggested, possibly talk to others if that was OK, and decide on what should be done.

The Business Manager and Fostering Consultant will write to you with their decision.

If you are not happy with their decision you can contact the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) or the Children's Commissioner for Wales, by email from your webpage on this website, or by post using the stamped envelopes and addressed labels in this pack, or by phone using the numbers written on your Main Contact Card.

Show me the main IFCS contact card

This third step will take five working days.

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Complaints against the Business Manager

All complaints against the Business Manager are investigated by our Independent Foster Care Consultant.

You can write out your complaint on one of the Complaints Forms in your welcome pack, and post it to the Independent Fostering Consultant using the stamped envelopes and addressed labels also in this pack.

Alternatively, you can email a Complaints Form straight to our Independent Foster Care Consultant from this website.

Fill in on-line IFCS complaints form

Our Independent Fostering Consultant will carefully read your complaint, talk to you, talk to others if OK, agree with you on what should be done and then do it. Finally, she will write a report on your complaint and what was done to the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW).

Show me the IFCS complaints procedure

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We respect the information you give us

We will learn to do our jobs better by whatever you say to us. We value what you say and listen extremely carefully.

Partly, because your views are so valuable, we write down a lot of what you say and do and keep all this information on a file. This file will be given to your Social Worker when you leave foster care with us.

Information on this file may also be given to other professionals who are directly involved in looking after you. We do not keep secrets, and will share information on the file if it is going to help a professional give you a better service or will help keep you safe. You can also see any information we record on your file at any time.

We will not give out information on your file to anyone who asks, but will respect this information as very valuable to helping you get the very good care you have a right to.

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