Social workers, foster carers and children’s services teams looking for a printable foster care feedback form may find this helpful for capturing an older child’s or teenager’s views. It focuses on the child’s experience of a foster family, the end of a placement, moving to a new foster home, and how they are settling in afterwards, using simple prompts and child-friendly rating choices.
At the end of a foster placement or during a move to a new foster family, the form gives an older child or young person a clear way to share what life in foster care has felt like. It begins by recording whether it has been completed by the child with their worker, by the child alone, or by the worker alone, followed by basic name details.
The first section looks back at the previous foster family. It asks for the date, how long the young person lived there, and uses heart-based feeling choices to help them describe whether the placement felt unhappy, average, good or excellent. Prompts cover why they feel that way, what they liked, activities they did together, whether they kept a memory box, and what the foster family, child, or service could have done differently.
The next section is designed for the period before moving to a new foster placement. A five-point scale explores how much the child is looking forward to the move, from definitely not wanting to go through to feeling excited. It also asks about worries, questions, support needs, and what the new foster family could do to help them feel safe and happy.
After the young person has lived with the new foster family for a little while, the final section supports a settling-in conversation. It asks what has been good, their favourite thing, what could be better, how they are getting along with the family, and who they can talk to if something cannot be discussed with foster carers.
Children’s social workers, supervising social workers, independent reviewing officers and foster carers could use it in direct work, placement review meetings, transition planning or supervision to strengthen the child’s voice in care planning. The form is branded Wigan Council.
