Achieving and Enjoying | Capstone Foster Care

  • Another criteria for selection of carers is their enjoyment of the company of, and activities with, children. Capstone expects carers to help their placed children have a broad experience of activities and to pursue the ones they like, whether or not they have perceived talent
     
  • Capstone asks that carers encourage children to have lessons, e.g. in sport or music or the arts, to enhance their interest, develop friendship groups and promote their self-confidence
     
  • Carers also share their own interests, as well as joining in with their child’s pursuit of an interest, so that there is a reciprocity which acknowledges the value of both the carer and the child and further stimulates the child’s capacity for attachment
     
  • Capstone organises a number of activity trips for children every year which provide respite for the carers and a quite different experience for the child or young person. Always included is a boat trip where the young people learn how to sail and work as a team to crew the boat for a week or longer
     
  • Adults – whether teachers, carers, or social workers – often have low expectations of children who are looked after, and where little is expected, little is achieved. Through the work of all our team members, we encourage carers to expect good and great things for their children, confident in the knowledge that, with carers’ close support, a child is likely to have a growth spurt in every area – whether emotional or cognitive. Safety in the placement and trust in carers is thus reflected concretely in other areas of the child’s experience
     
  • The Capstone team – carers and educational specialists and SSWs – work closely with placing authorities to ensure that children have the opportunity that is their right to embark on further education, or on any course leading to qualifications
     
  • Whatever a child or young person achieves is celebrated, whether at a Capstone panel, in team meetings or around the table in carers’ homes. The same spirit of celebration obtains when a carer achieves their NVQ or Akamas qualifications in foster care