4.7.11 Bedroom Sharing Guidance

Introduction
Recruitment of Foster Carers
Fostering Household Safe Care Policy
Bedroom Sharing and Risk Assessment
Foster Carer's Child Household Members Including Permanent Foster Placements
Children who Abuse Other Children
Foster Carer's Bedroom Sharing With Looked After Children
Bedroom Shares by Children of Different Genders
Bedroom Space
Temporary Placements
Short Term/Respite Break Placements
Permanent Placements
Family and Friend Placements
Fostering fee and Assessed Capacity

1. Introduction

Most of the children and young people who are Looked After by Dudley Council's Directorate of Children's Services live with foster carers.

As for any fostering service, our ability to place Looked After children within a family environment depends entirely upon the willingness of families and individuals in the community to share their homes and their lives with the children and young people whose parents are temporarily or permanently unable to care for them.

Although sharing their homes and lives with others of any age can bring foster carers joyous times and the feelings of personal satisfaction from helping others, it can also bring many misunderstandings, annoyances or serious conflicts. For many of our Looked After children their lives before being placed with foster carers have been traumatic and many children have experienced abuse. Many Looked After Children will be experiencing feelings of separation and loss. Certainly, few of our Looked After Children will immediately understand or be able to respond to how their foster carer's home "works" for every one who lives there.

For foster care to be successful for the Looked After Children/young people and the foster families who care for them, foster carers must provide a home environment that promotes the emotional well-being and physical safety of every person within the household.

Dudley's Fostering Service's Bedroom Occupancy Policy and Procedures have therefore been developed with the aim of providing a basis for good practice for foster carers and involved social workers to use together, to ensure that the diversity of families and of differing individual needs are recognised and furthermore that everyone within the fostering household is protected and valued.

The procedures also apply to any possible changes that may occur in sleeping arrangements through family holidays; whether this be camping, rented accommodation, hotels, caravans or second homes. When arranging holidays of any duration, an overnight stay, a weekend or longer, consideration must be given by foster carers to the sleeping arrangements and the management of any risk.

The Fostering Service National Minimum Standards (NMS) and the Fostering Services Regulations 2011 set the framework for practice, compliance and achievement of appropriate outcomes for Looked After young people in Foster Care. NMS 10 Providing a suitable physical environment for the foster child and NMS 4 Safeguarding Children, apply to the occupancy of bedrooms and bedroom sharing.

NMS 10.6 states;

In the foster home, each child over the age of three should have their own bedroom. If this is not possible, the sharing of a bedroom is agreed by each child's responsible authority and each child has their own area within the bedroom. Before seeking agreement for the sharing of a bedroom, the fostering service provider takes into account any potential for bullying, any history of abusive behaviour, the wishes of the children concerned and all other pertinent facts. The decision making process and outcome of the assessment are recorded in writing where bedroom sharing is agreed.

The DfE guidance issued in June 2011 clarifies what in practice this standard means. The guidance states:

It is preferable for children to have their own room but it is recognised that this is not always possible. In these circumstances an assessment prior to sharing should be undertaken to advise on the suitability of the arrangements. This assessment must include consultation with the children involved, and their wishes and feelings must be established. Any assessment should also include reference to any behaviours such as evidence of bullying or sexualised behaviour which may indicate bedroom sharing may not be appropriate.

Conversely, an assessment may conclude that sharing is the best way to promote the welfare of the child. The child has indicated that that they want this and will find it comforting to share with a sibling, or in an existing settled placement where they have shared a room.

Furthermore, where a Foster Carer is identified as being the most appropriate carer to meet the needs of the child albeit they may have less space than an alternative carer, then the match may well be assessed as appropriate.

The critical consideration is that the Fostering Service can demonstrate they have properly considered any risks and have concluded that sharing is in the best way to safeguard and promote the child's welfare and to meet the outcome published in Standard 10 of the National Minimum Standards 2011 in conjunction with the placing Social Worker.

In addition NMS 4.1 states;

Children's safety and welfare is promoted in all fostering placements. Children are protected from abuse and other forms of significant harm (e.g. sexual or labour exploitation)

NMS 4.6 refers to foster carers being trained in appropriate safe care practice, including skills to care for children who have been abused.

2. Recruitment of Foster Carers

When recruiting prospective Short Term/ Respite break carers for children with or without disabilities, Dudley's Fostering Service will consider applications from people who do not have an unoccupied bedroom fully available for fostering purposes so long as they can ensure that the bedroom will be available for the sole purpose of fostering for the duration of the proposed Short Term/Respite break periods.

Naturally the views and consent of the bedroom's main user will need to be discussed by the applicants and by the assessing Social Worker. For the purpose of providing Short Term/Respite break placements, bedroom shares with children already in the household will not be considered.

Dudley's Fostering Service will only consider applications from people wishing to provide Temporary Placements where there is at least one bedroom fully available for the purpose of fostering. Potential bedroom shares with children already within the household will not be considered (see Section 10, Temporary Placements and Section 11, Short Term Breaks.)

When recruiting prospective foster carers who are wanting to offer Permanent Placements only, bedroom shares between the Foster Carer's birth children and permanently placed children will be discouraged.

However, the Fostering Service will consider bedroom shares between the applicant's birth children and a Looked After Child/young person subject to extensive exploration of the issues during the Foster Carer assessment and preparation process. The applicants and the child whose bedroom is being proposed for sharing must be given the opportunity to discuss the proposals with approved foster carers and their children prior to approval. The Fostering Service recognises that all permanent placements are planned and that a detailed risk assessment must be undertaken prior to a placement match being agreed.

3. Fostering Household Safe Care Policy

Even before the very first looked after child comes to stay, every foster carer should have developed a general Safe Care Policy for their home and family. The policy should be written and drawn up in consultation with every member of the household. It should take into account the differing needs, views and lifestyles of every household member and consider the potential impacts of fostering on every one both inside and outside of the home. It is advisable that the policy be written only after reading Fostering Networks "Safe Caring" publication which the foster carer's assessing social worker or supervising link worker will provide.

The Safe Care Policy should include bedroom occupancy and usage. It should consider how household members view and use their bedrooms, how fostering might change how bedrooms are used and the things each person is able and willing to change and those they are not. Only after doing this important exercise will the household be able to identify how much space their home and family have for caring for other children or young people.

Guidance can be sought from the foster carer's assessing social worker or supervising link worker, and a copy be added to the foster carer's file held by the Fostering Service.

When any Looked After child is to be placed, the fostering household should review its Safe Care Policy to include the known needs of the child who is coming to stay. The Fostering Service and foster carers will always need to take into account that especially for unplanned or emergency placements very often there is little reliable information regarding the child's care needs and therefore should aim to maximise protection of the child and the household members.

The policy should then be reviewed again within a few weeks when the foster carer and the looked after child have got to know one another better and if necessary to update the Placement Plan. Dependent upon the looked after child's level of understanding and emotional ability, they should be involved in reviewing the Safe Care Policy with the foster carer and be encouraged to contribute to it.

Guidance can be sought from the child's social worker and the foster carer's supervising link worker.

The household's Safe Care Policy should be renewed at least once per year ideally at around the time of the foster carer's Annual Review and/or every time there is a change in the household composition or in the needs of any household member, (e.g. significant changes in health or the amount of time household members spend in the home or if caring roles of household members change, new children being placed with the family etc.).

For newly approved foster carers the Foster Carer Review will be 6 months after approval and from then on and for all other carers at a frequency of not less than every twelve months.

4. Bedroom Sharing and Risk Assessment

Any bedroom share by children, related or non-related, should only be agreed following a detailed assessment of the potential risks and benefits of the share.

When considering bedroom shares the fundamental questions that should be asked are:

Why consider the bedroom share?
What are the benefits and to whom?
Do any risks outweigh the benefits?
How realistically can any risks be minimised?

The assessment must include the needs of all of the children it is proposed could share. Equal emphasis should be given to foster carer's existing child household members as to the looked after child.

In undertaking the assessment, where appropriate the children it is proposed could share a room should be consulted and their views or concerns taken into account. The foster carer, supervising link worker (or their Service Manager) and the child's social worker must be consulted.

Where other involved social care or health professionals have relevant information their views on the proposed share should be sought and taken into account.

The assessment should detail any strategies proposed to minimise risks and indicate the carer's views on their abilities to implement these strategies effectively.

The Placement Team Referral and Risk Assessment pro forma includes an initial Risk Assessment. The Placement Team Referral and Risk Assessment Form should be used when any bedroom share is proposed in any emergency or unplanned placement situation The Risk Assessment component of the referral should be completed in detail and should cover potential risks to/from all household members. A copy of the referral should be given to the carer if the bedroom share is agreed.

Having regard to the assessment, the Fostering Service Manager will make the decision on whether the bedroom share should or should not be agreed.

5. Foster Carer's Child Household Members Including Permanent Foster Placements

Ideally child household members, including children permanently placed, should not be asked to share their bedroom with other children or young people. Generally, bedroom shares between child household members and looked after children will be discouraged by the Fostering Service.

When considering the management of bedroom shares, the main consideration is of the need to ensure that all children are protected from abuse by other children. However whilst this must be a central consideration, it is not the only issue to consider.

Children who foster are an important part of the fostering family and the significant roles they play in the fostering task are often not fully acknowledged. When they share their family and home with other children, they also take on the needs and life experiences of the other children.

Whilst fostering can help children develop better understanding of themselves and others, it will only do so if they feel listened to, supported and valued too.

The research "How do children who foster perceive fostering?" [1] concluded that foster carers and fostering services should take into account the many issues and dilemmas the children who participated identified; the importance of having your own space to retreat to and of being able to ignore and walk away from arguments, were clearly emphasised. The research highlighted the sense of responsibility children who foster develop, in relation to the looked after children and the fostering task. Many of these children talked of the need to have the opportunity to not always have to think about the other children all of the time and of being able sometimes and somewhere to put themselves first. For many children, in a busy home and with the structure of school, the only space to do this is often their bedroom.

For children placed permanently with foster carers, being required to share a bedroom with others can convey the message that they do not truly belong and are not as important as other household members.

However, Dudley's Fostering Service also recognise that some children and young people enjoy and benefit from sharing their bedrooms with others and would not prescribe a lifestyle choice for a young person where no significant risk to them or others is existent.

Therefore, for planned placements only, bedroom shares between a foster carer's child household members, including permanent placements, will be considered only following a detailed risk assessment. The child/young person whose bedroom it is proposed to share must be consulted about the proposed share by the family's link worker from the Fostering Service. The bedroom share arrangement should be regularly monitored and at the end of each placement the child's/young person's views on continuing to offer the bedroom share should be sought directly from them.

[1] W Spears & M Cross BAAF, Quarterly Journal volume 27 in 2003

6. Children who Abuse Other Children

Every child has a right to be protected from abuse and harm. This includes protection from emotional, physical, sexual abuse, neglect, bullying, intimidation, coercion and exploitation. Including abuse and harm from other children or young people. Foster carers and the Fostering Service have a duty and responsibility to ensure that all avoidable risks of abuse or harm are removed or minimised.

Where a child or young person is known to have abused or harmed another child, young person or adult they should not be considered to bedroom share with another child or young person.

Where the risk assessment indicates that the child's or young person's behavioural presentations are likely to be harmful to others they should not share a bedroom with other children. This can include children whose harmful behaviour is not directed to another person and confined to themselves, but which can be harmful for other children witnessing the behaviours, e.g. children who self-harm, children who masturbate excessively.

It is important to remember that it is not necessarily the case that a child who has experienced a particular form of abuse will go on to repeat this abuse. This will depend on many complex and variable factors.

A child or young person who does abuse others needs to be given the opportunity to learn how to manage the abusive behaviour and to satisfy the need that drives the abusive action in other ways.

Every fostering household should work on the basis that very often we do not know all that the child has experienced in their lives and that where bedroom shares are to be considered they should be only when detailed, substantive information about the children to share is available.

7. Foster Carer's Bedroom Sharing With Looked After Children

The Fostering Service recognises that on occasion the care needs of looked after babies can be better met by the baby sleeping in a cot in the foster carer's room.

Some babies who have additional health care needs, or who have sensory impairments or who are severely traumatised, will often require very high levels of physical contact and constant monitoring.

Only babies aged between 0 and 18 months at the time of placement should be accommodated in a cot in the carer's bedroom. By a maximum of 24 months the baby should be transferred to their own bedroom.

By this age children are more able to identify what is happening around them; therefore the carer's ability to ensure that their own privacy is maintained becomes increasingly compromised.

Children of this age need to be learning that they are and can be safe without their main carer being within their immediate sight or hearing. They need to be learning that they can be safe within themselves and their main care giver will come back and will respond if they need them.

If it is known that a baby's placement duration is likely to be for approximately 12 months, Family Placements will not place a baby older than 6 months with a foster carer who is only able to provide a cot in the carer's own bedroom.

8. Bedroom Shares by Children of Different Genders

In determining whether it is appropriate for children of different genders to share a bedroom not just the age of the children, but the children's developmental stage and life experiences need to be taken into account.

Girls and boys should not share bedrooms with one another beyond the oldest child being 5 years of age. At this stage children, whilst always aware of gender difference, are more likely to begin to experiment with what the difference means to them and other people. They often start to become shy and to feel less comfortable with others seeing their bodies and or knowing about their bodily functions and to feel acute embarrassment if they think they have done something that others will find not OK or funny.

However, many looked after children will have also experienced abuse. Some children may have been sexually abused themselves or have been exposed to adult sexual behaviours. Some children may have been the victim or have witnessed repeated acts of violence. This can mean that they sometimes re-enact or mimic behaviours to which they have been exposed, that can be harmful to the emotional and behavioural development of the other child sharing the bedroom.

For any room share a risk assessment must be completed. If the assessment indicates that risks which cannot be minimised for a share between a male child and female child both below the age 5 years is existent then the room share should not be agreed.

For children placed with Family and Friends Foster Carers or Connected Persons, where the male and female children aged 5 years or above who are sharing a bedroom have an existent, significant relationship, the Fostering Panel can exercise some discretion in relation to agreeing the room share. However, agreement is subject to the outcome of a detailed risk assessment and needs to incorporate an action plan to cater for each child's developing needs.

9. Bedroom Space

In considering bedroom shares, the space available in the room needs to be given very careful consideration.

Whilst the Fostering Service have not set specific amounts of space required for each child, the immediate and predicted usage of the bedroom by the children to share needs to be taken into account.

Each child needs to have their own bed. Each child needs space to store clothes and personal possessions. There needs to be space for children to store toys or items connected with hobbies or interests. Each child needs to have wall space to be able to display pictures of importance to them. Each child needs to be able to store securely items they regard as valuable.

Children should have space for quiet, reflective time within the bedroom.

Each child needs space to be able to do home work and to store school books and work safely. If this is not in their bedroom another space in the home should be identified and respected by all household members as a place to study.

10. Temporary Placements

For unplanned/emergency Temporary placements undertaking bedroom share risk assessments at the time of placement is only rarely reliable. Very often little information is known or available about the child.

Very often the child to be placed is in crisis or is traumatised. The child themselves has no emotional space to be able to take on the needs of others. They are unlikely to have had any opportunity to be prepared for being looked after.

For these reasons bedroom shares with either other looked after children or foster carer's household members children with children placed in an unplanned or emergency situation will not be considered.

Where siblings are to be placed together in an unplanned or emergency situation, bedroom shares with one another will be considered subject to the outcomes of the child/ren's social workers and their Team Manager's initial risk assessment. The child/ren's social worker must share their initial assessment of any potential risks as a result of the proposed bedroom share with the Placement Team and Fostering Service before the placement can be agreed to proceed.

Within eight weeks of placement, an updated Risk Assessment of the bedroom sharing arrangement will be completed by the supervising social worker from the Fostering Service. Foster carers, where appropriate the involved children and the child's social worker will be consulted. The foster carers will be given a copy of the Risk assessment.

Where risks are identified, strategies to minimise the risks will need to be developed by the foster carers and involved social workers and implemented by the foster carers and their household members immediately. Where there is a risk that is not possible to realistically minimise, then a strategy or planning meeting will be convened immediately to make a decision on whether the placement is to be ended or whether it is possible to provide additional supports that will assist the continuation of the placement.

Bedroom shares for planned Temporary Placements will be considered following a detailed risk assessment being completed.

11. Short Term/Respite Break Placements

All short term/Respite break arrangements are planned.

Children and young people utilising this service often require high levels of help with their physical or personal care needs, some require invasive care or treatment whilst being looked after. It is vital that their needs for privacy, their abilities to maintain their dignity and their opportunities to maximise or develop their independence are respected.

Bedroom shares during short term breaks will therefore only be considered in exceptional circumstances and where a detailed risk assessment has been completed and the child and the child's parent or guardian have been consulted and given consent to the arrangements.

12. Permanent Placements

As for foster carer's child household members, looked after children placed permanently should not be asked to bedroom share with other children apart from their siblings, and any sharing arrangement should be subject to risk assessment and regular monitoring. Generally bedroom sharing between permanently placed children and those children placed temporarily will be discouraged by the Fostering Service.

Children placed permanently need the opportunity to develop a sense of belonging in and ownership of their home and family.

By virtue of being placed with a view to remaining permanently, new and threatening issues may arise for looked after children. They will now have to incorporate new intimate relationships into their world and existing family relationships. Their view of themselves and others and the strategies they developed to survive their circumstances will all be challenged by this significant change. This can lead to previous difficult to manage behaviour re-emerging or new challenging behaviours being displayed. Children who have previously not felt safe enough to be vulnerable to others can often begin to release previous trauma and will need to work through this. All of these issues will impact on the child's ability to share a bedroom.

Therefore, for planned placements only, (including planned respites) bedroom shares between children placed permanently will be considered only following a detailed risk assessment. Both young people will need to be consulted about the proposed share, by the family's supervising link worker from the Fostering Service. The bedroom share arrangement should be regularly monitored and at the end of each placement the child's/young person's views on continuing to offer the bedroom share should be sought directly from them.

13. Family and Friend Placements

Many, but not all, Family and Friends and Connected People who foster are providing children and young people with a permanent home. In ensuring the safety and protection of all children and young people within the household the bedroom sharing policy is to be applied equally to all fostering households.

The only exception to this is where children are placed in an emergency with Family and Friend Carers/Connected Persons under Regulation 24 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010. It is not uncommon for bedroom sharing arrangements in such circumstances to have to be made.

For these placements, the placing social worker will have completed an initial assessment, including a rudimentary risk assessment of the proposed sleeping arrangements.

However, the nature of the placement will mean that a detailed risk assessment of the bedroom sharing arrangement will not have been completed. Very often neither the foster carer nor the placing social worker have complete information regarding the child's needs and are not in a position to be able to accurately determine the implications of the bedroom share beyond the placement date.

Within eight weeks of placement, the Viability Assessment documentation including a detailed risk assessment of any bedroom sharing arrangement will be completed to contribute to the Foster Carer's assessment. Foster carers, where appropriate the involved children and the child's social worker will be consulted. The foster carers will be given a copy of the bedroom sharing risk assessment.

Where risks are identified, strategies to minimise the risks will need to be developed by the foster carers and involved social workers and implemented by the foster carers and their household members immediately. Where a risk is identified as not being possible to minimise, then a strategy or planning meeting will be convened immediately to make a decision on whether the placement is to be ended or whether it is possible to provide additional supports that will assist the continuation of the placement. Where appropriate, the prospective Family and Friends (Connected Person) Foster Carers attend.

It is important to remember that whilst priority must always be given to supporting a child to remain with Family and Friends/Connected Person Foster Carers, especially where there are already existing significant relationships, that the placement will only be safe and successful for everyone if avoidable risk is minimised. A child's safety cannot be compromised and the already difficult fostering task will be made much harder for the carer to manage where substantial risks are not addressed.

14. Fostering fee and Assessed Capacity

Foster carers who are on the Household Scheme receive a fee for the number of placements they are approved to be able to care for at any one time; for their placement capacity. This will sometimes include the capacity for them to take children who can bedroom share.

In situations where foster carers are asked to take a placement of a child or young person where because of the child's needs a bedroom share is not possible, then the carer continues to be paid at their approved capacity number and not the actual number of children in placement. For example, if the foster carer is approved for three placements but can only take two because a bedroom share for the children in placement is not possible then the carer will continue to receive a fee for three placements.

Carers on the former fee per bed scheme continue to receive a fee for each child or young person in placement.

Fostering allowances are the maintenance allowance for the child and are only paid for each child in placement.

Those carers who have been approved for three placements but under the new Directorate Policy and Procedures for Bedroom Occupancy only have physical space for two placements will be returned to Fostering Panel for their approval numbers to be reviewed.

End