Are we really ever neutral as an assessor?
As an assessing social worker, you are interpreting and analysing the information received, family life witnessed, and discussions around applicant motivation to determine whether the family is suitable for Fostering, and vice versa, is Fostering right for them. Yes there is management supervision and support, and the recommendations are scrutinised by a Fostering Panel and Agency Decision Maker (ADM) so do not sit solely on your shoulders. Yet the fact remains that you are the one forming these recommendations and bringing information to these experts through your lens and understanding and so have a big impact. Rightly so, you have likely worked with Foster Carers and Children in Care for some time and have been well trained for the task! However this is a big responsibility we want to complete with best practice.
Neutrality, why do we strive for this?
Often assessors will aim to be as neutral as possible to offer an ‘unbiased outside perspective’. Systemic social work theories argue that we must move away striving for Neutrality and move towards a state of Curiosity, Cecchin (1987). It would be unrealistic to think that applicants will behave in the same way whether or not we are present in the home. Even with the best intentions to be as open and transparent as possible, the applicants are aware you are there, that fostering standards exist, and that what is happening will be recorded into the assessment, inevitably influencing their behaviours.
Using our curiosity and roles to explore this with applicants can tell us a lot about how they may view your role, what expectations they have about what you are looking for and how they may be feeling about this level of intervention in their home. All very helpful information for considering how they may manage working with social care professionals in their home and how they view intervention overall. It can also aid discussions about perceived barriers or assumptions about fostering that could be challenged.
It is essential of course to consider how prejudices are formed, to be neutral in your work can undermine the reality of inequality, we do not all have the same experiences and opportunities in society. Through this exploration you may find yourself challenging some uncomfortable assumptions and biases you held that you may not have considered. We must think about our own experiences, the applicant's experiences shared with us, as well as considering positive and negative societal perceptions and prejudices that exist. If we do not challenges our own prejudices and privileges within our own Social Graces, we risk adding to these issues rather than challenging them.
Considering safeguarding, many wish to achieve Neutrality to reassure that we are not being given false information by someone who may wish to Foster for harmful reasons. Curiosity and scrutiny is important, and it is essential you follow the regulations and guidelines to assess safely with this in mind, however reassuring ourselves we have been ‘neutral’ and so we are offering an objective assessment could lead us to close our mind to this possibility more than remaining curious. Ensuring we maintain safeguarding standards regardless of objectivity, e.g. unannounced home visits, thorough reference checks with previous agencies is key.
What can help us to achieve some variation of perspective and avoid our biases impacting the assessment negatively?
Owning what we bring to the assessment ourselves.
Burnham’s concept of SOCIAL GGRRAAACCEESSS (2013) explains the multiple characteristics that are visible or invisible to others. Burnham states that depending on our own personal experiences, we zoom into certain graces more than others when working with other people. Therefore taking some time to think about what social graces we own and which are more important to us will aid our understanding as to whether we are focusing a lot on someone else’s characteristics for this reason. This is referred to as self-reflexivity (Burnham, 2013).
We can also use Burnham's concept of Social Graces in a simple way with applicants, which do they view are important and why? This will aid our understanding of their beliefs around their identity and what they may view as important for children they may foster.
An additional method that is helpful is to have an assessment session completed by another assessor, this would be planned ahead with the applicants and could provide an alternative perspective. It also give the opportunity for the applicants to discuss any challenges they have have had so far, which could help improving your working relationship for the future.
Seeking thorough feedback from pre-approval training.
The feedback from pre-approval training can sometimes be limited, and so asking for a discussion or for more depth in certain areas of the training could help to add further perspective to your assessment. Perhaps there was a lively conversation about their experiences of gender, and this could be an area you could depend your understanding of with them.
Including care experienced young people or children in the assessment of carers.
Not all agencies do this directly, however Local authorities will have a Children In Care Council (CICC) that can be called upon to consult on decisions made for Fostering practices, and this could include the assessment of Foster Carers. Even if not directly meeting, what does the CIC say is important about a Foster Family? They may view emotional and practical elements of a Foster Family more essential than you, as you may be directly linking more to the National Minimum Standards rather than a lived experience if you don’t have this yourself as a care leaver.
How does Fosterli support a curious approach to assessment?
Fosterli enables direct uploading of materials created by applicants, where this is appropriate and analysis is still offered by you as the assessor in addition to this, it enables panel members/managers to consider and interpret the information through their own lens as well as considering your analysis and understanding of the information. This can help bring the reader closer to the applicants as a family, and empowers the family to own some of the assessment and engage in this alongside you. Of course everything is authorised by you as the assessor as your name is on the assessment and you need to be happy with it’s content, however so many times we re-write the words of Foster families because we feel we should professionalise everything, even when this may not be necessary.
We would love to hear your ideas and tips for striving towards Curious practice in Fostering!
References:
Hypothesising, Circularity, and Neutrality revisited: An invitation to Curiosity. Checchin 1987.
Burnham, J. (2013). Developments in Social GGRRAAACCEEESSS: visible-invisible, voiced-unvoiced. In I. Krause (Ed.), Cultural Reflexivity. London: Karnac
Safeguarding Children living with Foster Carers, Adopters and Special Guardians: Learning from case reviews 2007–2019, Cleaver and Rose, 2020.
