Trauma and attachment informed family placements for children and young people with complex needs
Transfer Protocol
You can enquire about transferring to Phoenix with no obligation and no pressure. If after you have taken the time to consider your decision, you feel that you would like to transfer to Phoenix, you must notify your current fostering service before an assessment can begin with Phoenix.
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You can notify your current service in writing with an ‘intention to transfer letter’. Once your current service has received this letter, we can begin your assessment. (You must also inform the placing authority if you already have a placement).
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If you have a placement, The placing authority must inform the young person’s IRO that you intend to move to Phoenix, and also must convene a meeting within 28 days of your ‘intent to transfer’. This meeting should include you, the placing authority, the current fostering service, and Phoenix.
The length of the assessment will depend on many aspects, but will be a maximum of 8 months from enquiry to panel. If you give us signed permission to view your files and for your current agency to give us copies of your reports, this can be used to speed up the process.
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You have the right to almost all of the information in your assessment (Data Protection Act 1998) although the report is the property of the service who produced it. We provide all of our carers with a copy of their Form F Assessment. If your current fostering service have carried out detailed references from your previous employer and ex-partners, and the circumstances have not changed, then we can use those references again.
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You can refuse consent for us to view your files. This is not a problem, although it will make your assessment longer, and if your current service feels that there is information that is cause for concern they can share this information without your consent.
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We will request a reference from your current fostering service.
Once the assessment has been completed, and we make the decision to approve you, you can give your resignation to your current fostering service. At the end of the notice period your approval with your previous agency will be automatically terminated and you will be approved with us from that day (this is to ensure that you are always approved by an agency, a foster carer cannot be approved by more than one agency at a time.)
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Your Training, Support and Development Standards is yours, and you should have a certificate to show that you have completed this. If you do then you will not need to complete this again.
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For a more comprehensive overview of the transfer process, please see the Fostering Network’s Transfer Protocol (2015).