EMERGENCY

 We've got our first ever emergency placement arriving later today.  I'm as surprised as anyone that not only did we get plenty of notice, but that I'm so organised that I've got time to talk a bit about this particular strand of fostering.

Some fostering folk specialise in it, they prefer it to standard fostering. Some do it alongside having a foster child in the house. The fostering folk I've talked to about it say it's a good way to help the system and the child, and because emergency fostering is a short-term thing it doesn't mean too much change in the way a family home works. 

The 'but' is that the child is likely to need a lot of looking after, because the 'emergency' bit often relates to the gravity of the chaos they've been enduring.

The young person who is on her way to us will be with us for a minimum of one night and we've agreed that if it takes a few days to get her a fixed placement that'll last we'll continue to let her stay.

I can tell you a bit about her story.

Oh dear.

So, she's 8 years old and her father is a man historically convicted of GBH and ABH. He's been prosecuted for damaging police property, namely making a mess of the cell door he was locked behind. He has a string of other convictions including stalking, for which a Court Order was obtained preventing him from approaching a woman who he said had paid her less for the extension he built onto her home than was agreed. He has a charge of breaking and entering pending.

As foster carers we're provided information about our prospective foster children so that we know what we're getting into, and can help the child the best we can. I've heard from other people who foster that they sometimes think they don't get the full picture because the local authority or fostering agency don't want to scare them off. I can say hand on heart that Blue Sky has a golden rule that it never happens with them.

So, this girl; call her Rachael, was removed from the family home because there had ocurred an incident. The incident involved a knife. 

Police were called to the family home when the child's mother dialled 999 because the father was going toe-to-toe with the eldest son in the kitchen. They had both picked up knives, but although they were holding them, there didn't seem any likelihood of them doing any damage. But it was wrong, big time.

Now, that's nearly bad enough, probably enough for the police to consider calling in Social Services to make an assessment of the safety of the children.

However while the police were in the home they identified other things that were concerning. One of the younger children had bruises to his face. Another was unresponsive to human contact and spent her time rocking back and forth holding a blanket over most of her face. The father's builders truck (one of those trendy open back four-wheel drive jobs) had equipment stored in it that was associated with construction but also burglary. The burglary kit was found underneath the passenger seat.

So far, no overwhelming reason to take the children into care; the father is a bad egg, the mother cares, the childen are in self-defence mode and out of the worst of the firing line.

No, the reason is this; the son who confronted the father in the kitchen and alledgedly grabbed a knife is on the run. The father, who also alledgedly grabbed a knife remains at home. But the children have been taken into care because of the potential danger of further violence between the father and son.

The son is on the run from the police, could show up at the family home any time he chooses. That's why the children have been taken away. 

BTY, the father is a vastly overweight forty-somehting who claims he once led the Millwall (I have little idea what that means as a credential except it implies he was some sort of super-hooligan).

The son on the run is aged 13.