Case study - a day in the life of a treatment foster carer

No two days are the same, this can be said in many a job; it is certainly true in fostering.

A Treatment Foster Care though is different again.

From the first day that I was introduced to the team, I was told how I was a professional and that I needed to view my role of a carer as professional. This was good advice, as the role of a Treatment Foster Carer requires you to be professional in all your practices.

Although no two days are the same the structure and procedures for daily routines, for carer and young person in placement, do follow a standard pattern. This pattern can quite easily be changed by behaviours and incidents that are not planned for.

A typical school day:

The young person will normally be going to school by taxi unless they are lucky to be in a school close by. I normally get up at six thirty and I a call for my young person fifteen minutes later. If my young person is up on time they will earn 10 points towards their daily total. A visit to the bathroom for a morning clean, then tidying the bedroom before coming downstairs will boost the points and the final points are earned by the young person going to school.

During this time I will get their school card ready, encourage them to have a good day at school and remind them to make sure that their school card is filled in for every lesson.

Parent Daily Report

When my young person has left for school I can get on with completing the Parent Daily Report (PDR). I do this by going over the points that the young person has earned for the previous day, hopefully they have earned more than a hundred points which means they stay on level 2. If they haven't they will have to go on to level 1 for the day, this means that they will have some of their privileges removed. The main privilege lost will be that they can not buy time out on their own; they will have to remain with me and do what I wish to do. Although if the young person returns from school and has had a good day I am sure I can find an activity that we both like to do together, swimming or walking somewhere.

Having completed the previous days PDR, I will contact the office after nine o’clock and pass on the information, which is then added to the rest of the information gathered from previous PDRs and analysed to see how the young person is responding to the programme. Recommendations to deal with any negative behaviour can be found from the analysis.

At about ten o’clock my Supervising Social Worker arrives. The regular three weekly supervision is good to pass on any concerns that I may have with regards to the young person’s behaviours, and how they are affecting me and my partner.  We also have good discussions on how the placement is going in general. These meetings are different to the weekly meetings that I attend with the rest of the team as it is about my placement as opposed to discussing all the placements on the Treatment Foster Care Programme.

I can book a weekends respite in this meeting if I need it (can be taken monthly if the placement needs it) or discuss any other business that may require action by my supervising Social Worker.

Weekly meetings

Weekly meetings are good for gaining knowledge on how to deal with certain behaviours that some of the young people in placements are showing. Most team members attend this informal meeting, chaired by the Treatment Foster Care Programme Supervisor.

We all deal with behaviours differently, but trying some of the ways other carers and team members deal with them may help you cope with a behaviour that you struggle to deal with. You may have advice to pass on as well. The team works well from these meetings. Also information is passed to me about how my young person is coping with the weekly skills session that they attend, and also any recommendations that the team Individual Therapist wants to implement from the weekly therapy session that the young person also must attend. 

Back to my day and so far so good, no telephone calls from school to tell me there is an issue and I need to collect my young person as they are being excluded for the day. I have managed to check my young person’s bedroom and it is tidy for a change. This is good as I can give 10 bonus points as the bedroom tidy up is normally a big problem for my young person to get right. I take the opportunity during the bedroom check to look in the young person’s hiding place for any unallowed things (cigarettes, lighters, aerosols). Today is a good day no points need to be taken as there is no defiance, everything is in order.

Back from school

Three thirty comes around quickly and in comes my young person brandishing a scruffy scrunched up school card. A big smile and loud hello tells me that a good day at school has been had. Confirmation of this quickly comes as I have the school card thrust in my hand and an excuse that the one OK lesson “wasn’t my fault”. Positively congratulating the young person on how many points they have earned from the completed school card I then add it to the rest of the week’s cards.

No skills session today so I ask what the young person would like to do, they would like to go out to the park, being on level two and having enough points banked I agree that they can go to the park for an hour and a half then return for dinner. I remind my young person before they go not to be late as they will lose a point for every minute late.

Returning five minutes late my young person is upset when I let them know that they have lost five points, not wanting to upset them more I suggest that I am thirsty and wouldn’t mind a cup of tea, as I am cooking dinner would they mind making the tea. As soon as the answer is yes I tell them they have just earned bonus points for good attitude, once I receive my tea the bonus points go up. My young person is happy again now as they are 10 points up with the 15 bonus points earned.

After dinner I wash up and my young person dries, points earned for daily job. Now it’s time to get ready for youth club. I drop them down and pick up as I need to know they are safe. Once home a quick shower and bed for my young person whilst I try and grab half hour rest in the living room before my shower and bed.

It’s been a good week for us, as I have not had to call out of hours, although I don’t mind calling as out of hours for Treatment Foster Care is just another part of being part of the team, the duty out of hours person will be a member of the team. This makes my life and my young person’s easier as the person on the phone will know us personally, this reflects in the advice and recommendations that are passed to help with any issues that we may have.

Having a positive attitude, helps keep my young person positive.

We are both doing the Treatment Foster Care Programme. Hard at times, never dull, always busy and mostly fun, definitely professional.

Please view our other case studies about fostering experiences.