When a foster child arrives in placement Foster Carers have no automatic right to make decisions on that child’s behalf: for instance, can they have a tooth removed, can they stay overnight with a friend etc. These rights remain with whoever has parental responsibility for the child – usually the local authority and/or the child’s parents.
The child’s social worker early in the placement, will give the Foster Carers a written list of all the sorts of decisions which the Foster Carers can make. This is called delegated authority. All of the arrangements for ‘Delegated Authority’ must be discussed, agreed and written into the Initial Placement Agreement at the initial placement planning meeting, however, where it is not possible to complete these agreements at that meeting, written agreement must be obtained from the child’s local authority social worker.
Delegated authority is never a one-off decision, therefore the issue of ‘Delegated Authority’ should be revisited at the child’s review and discussed during Foster Carer supervisions and with all the relevant parties in between reviews.
