Positive Relationships and Behaviour Support

This chapter provides guidance for carers on supporting behaviour, which includes supporting positive behaviour, de-escalation of conflicts and any consequences to behaviour.

Children learn how to behave by watching, listening and talking to the adults who care for them. Children develop their morals and values from what they observe of how adults treat others.

Children need to understand what the rules, rituals and routines are in your house, so they understand what is expected of them.

You are expected to understand, manage and deal with children and young people’s behaviour including encouraging children to take responsibility for their behaviour and helping them to learn how to resolve conflict.

It is important that you as the foster carer follow a multi-disciplinary approach to understand and support children and young people placed with you. As a foster carer you cannot and should not be expected to manage what can be very challenging behaviour in isolation in the absence of guidance and a shared understanding and agreement with regards to the strategies of support available.

The Fostering Service should gain and share a robust assessment of need that determines the approach to be taken and ensure that the placement should be a good match with you and your family. The referral information, Placement Plan and reviews are central to the ongoing planning and evaluation of the support in relation to behaviour. The Fostering Service should ensure that, in relation to any child placed or to be placed with you as a foster carer, you are given such information, which is kept up to date, as to enable you to provide appropriate care for the child, and in particular you should be provided with a copy of the most recent version of the child's care plan. You should have all the necessary information available to the Fostering Service about a child's circumstances, including any significant recent events, to help you understand and predict the child's needs and behaviours and support the child within your household. The Fostering Service should follow up with the responsible authority where all such necessary information has not been provided by the authority.

When your foster child is new to your home, they will not know or understand your rules unless you explain them. You will need to be mindful of the child’s background and early life experiences when setting boundaries and expectations. The safer caring plan should be in place, which the child should be aware of.

It is important that the child is treated consistently by everyone who is caring for  them, particularly when there are two carers.

As the foster carer your role is to:

• Aim to create a safe, caring environment;
• Ensure that all children have opportunities to become confident and achieve their full potential;
• Encourage the child's consultation and participation in setting rules and consequences;
• Recognise that some behaviours can present as aggressive, violent or destructive at times and that you will be supported to regulate, understand and support the child with these behaviours whilst providing the child with continuing acceptance and emotional support;
• Focus on building a good relationship with the child based on mutual respect, trust and an unconditional acceptance of the child;
• Establish house rules and boundaries with the child which are consistent, explicit and where possible,  applicable to all children in the household;
• Understand and acknowledge the past life experiences which children bring into the home;
• Use age and developmental stage appropriate consequences but only as necessary and not as routine. Consequences will be logical and linked to behaviour (natural consequences). Children will be supported to complete these consequences;
• Celebrate success with the child so that the child can experience joy in their relationships and reward the child  appropriately;
• Accept the individuality of children and young people and celebrate the diversity of their backgrounds.

You play an important part in the day-to-day life of a child, therefore good parenting, supported by training on managing behaviour will enable you to achieve and develop a more positive relationship with the child and a more harmonious life and will enable the child to feel good about themselves.

Positive behaviour support is about everyone playing their part in the child’s care and support and it should be a multi-disciplinary approach.

Things that need to be in place to support a positive behaviour approach:

You should provide an environment and culture that promotes, models and supports positive behaviour. The culture of the household, generated by you as the foster carer, is crucial.

Children must be enabled to build trusted and secure relationships with you and your family, who know them well, listen to them, spend time with them, protect them and promote their welfare. Children must be enabled to develop an appropriate sense of permanence and belonging and be fully included in your family life.

The care and help from you assists children placed with you to develop a positive self-view and to increase their ability to form and sustain attachments and build emotional resilience and a sense of their own identity. This care and help also supports them to overcome any previous experiences of neglect and trauma.

You will be, and should feel, well prepared and supported by the Fostering Service to manage the behaviour of children placed with you and situations arising from and leading to this behaviour.

You are expected to understand, manage and deal with children's behaviour including encouraging them to take responsibility for their behaviour and helping them to learn how to resolve conflict. You should have positive strategies for effectively supporting children where they encounter discrimination or bullying wherever this occurs, such as discussing the issue, counteracting the negativity and how to manage it, whether to involve others and when.

Children should be supported to develop and practice skills to build and maintain positive relationships, be assertive and to resolve conflicts positively. Children are encouraged to take responsibility for their behaviour in a way that is appropriate to their age and abilities. This may include you modelling positive behaviour to repair a temporary rupture in the relationship between you and the child, following challenging or significant incidents. 

You should respect the child's privacy and confidentiality, in a manner that is consistent with good parenting.

You should receive training in positive care and behaviour support of children, including training in de-escalating problems and disputes.

You will have clear, consistent and fair boundaries, to enable children to feel safe, encouraged and appropriately rewarded, to help ensure that they will thrive and do well and to contribute to a feeling of well-being and security for children.

As a foster carer you should think about the following in your practice:

• Listen to and empathise with children, respect their thoughts and feelings and take their wishes into consideration;
• Look for things that are going well, or any step in the right direction, and appropriately reward it;
• Use rewards in a creative and diverse way, specific to children's needs, capabilities and interests. This may mean that children are rewarded with activities or rewards that they enjoy. But all 'tangible' rewards should be accompanied by use of 'non tangible' encouragement and support – by you demonstrating to children that they have done well. Such 'non tangible' rewards include smiling and praising children;
• Make sure that children are aware of the things that they have done well, however small. This should involve prompt verbal feedback, along with clear recording in the child’s file. All ‘tangible’ rewards should be clearly identified.

Children usually benefit, early on, from rewards which may appear to outweigh what  is expected. This is normal; over time rewards can be more relevant as children's self-esteem and skills improve.

For example:

• Children who have few social or life skills and whose self-esteem and confidence is low may require forms of encouragement and reward which are intensive, frequent or even excessive in order to help/remind them that they are doing well and appreciated;
• A child who has previously been unable to get up for school may be offered an incentive for getting up on time for a few days.

Over time, as children achieve what is expected, such rewards should be reduced or children should be expected to achieve more for the same or a similar reward.

The PACE model can help you work successfully with a child.

PACE stands for:

Sometimes 'L' for Love is included, making PLACE.

You should have house rules, routines and rituals which set out your expectations for how things are managed within the home. Helping the child understand these rules, routines and rituals helps the child have a sense of understanding, belonging and safety.

These house rules should be recorded on the placement plan and in the safe caring document.

You will receive training in positive care and support of children, including training in de-escalating problems and disputes.

The use of restorative practices can help improve relationships, increase children's sense of personal responsibility and reduce the need for formal police intervention. This approach to care is designed to minimise the need for police involvement to deal with behaviour that challenges and avoid criminalising children unnecessarily. Proactive and effective working relationships with the police help to support and protect children.

Children should be encouraged and helped to develop skills and strategies to manage their own conflicts and difficult feelings through developing positive relationships with you.

Children should receive help to manage their behaviour and feelings safely.

Positive behaviour should be promoted consistently. You should use effective de-escalation techniques and creative alternative strategies that are specific to the needs of each child and planned in consultation with them where possible.

You will receive support on how to manage your responses and feelings arising from caring for children, particularly where children display behaviour that challenges, and understand how children's previous experiences can manifest in this behaviour. It is important that all foster carers keep their training in this area updated, so that support is ongoing and as needed.

Difficult behaviour in children can occur for a number of reasons, for example:

• As a way of expressing emotions;
• As a result of developmental delays or learning disability;
• As a result of attachment/relationship difficulties;
• Learned behaviours/past experiences in which challenging responses have become habit in the face of frustration or anxiety.

It is important that you have information about the child’s history and can understand the causes of the child's behaviour and provide the child with help and support.

When working with, or caring for, children with behaviour that challenges, it is useful to bear in mind the following:

• The age and emotional maturity of the child, including understanding of behaviours and any disability issues;
• That the aim of any positive behaviour approach is to help the child learn how to behave more appropriately and not to punish or to purely keep the child under control;
• Difficult behaviour should not result in emotional distance between the child and you;
• No matter how difficult or challenging a child's behaviour, you should never resort to similar behaviour;
• The more you are able to understand a child's behaviour and are able to meet their needs in a consistent manner, the less likely they are to encounter difficulties in the future.

Children need consistency and acceptance and to know what is expected of them to keep everyone safe.

The key points of a positive behaviour approach are:

• The rules are discussed with the child and their family/carers so that their views can be taken into account;
• A healthy dialogue is in place so changes to rules can happen as the child matures or if these rules are no longer needed, for example being left on their own in the house, later bed times etc;
• You should be honest about any non-negotiable issues, such as smoking on the premises;
• Rules need to be realistic and positive and make sense to everyone concerned, for example, ideally phrased as a "do" rather than a "do not";
• Children may need to be reminded, in a supportive way, of the expectations we have regarding their behaviour and of why we have rules;
• When children or young people are stressed and upset they can display strong emotions such as anger, distress and frustration. Acknowledge that a child’s feeling are legitimate but look with the child at how the situation can be managed in a different way.

It is important to consider that a child may have disabilities that affect their behaviour, social skills, communication and understanding, so require extra help with behaviour support.

It is important to work with the multi-disciplinary team to work out a positive approach to supporting the child with their behaviours. This plan should be followed by all to ensure that the child receives consistent messages around what is expected. Ongoing support around behaviours may be needed to keep the child safe and healthy.

You are not permitted to conduct body searches, pat down searches, searches of clothing worn by children or of their bedrooms.

Should you suspect that a child is carrying or has concealed an item which may place the child or another person at risk, you should try to obtain the item by co-operation/negotiation.

If you suspect that a child is concealing an item which may place themselves or another person at risk, you must notify the Fostering Service or, in an emergency, the Police.

In the event of any serious incident (e.g. accident, violence or assault, damage to property), you should take what actions you deem to be necessary to protect children/yourself from immediate harm or injury; and then notify the Fostering Service immediately.

If there is a risk of serious injury/harm or damage to property, you should not use any form of physical intervention except as a last resort to prevent yourself or others from being injured or to prevent serious damage to property. If any form of physical intervention is used, it must be the least restrictive necessary to protect the child, yourself or others. See also: Restrictive Physical Intervention and Restraint Procedure.

At no time should you act unless you are confident of managing the situation safely, without escalation or further injury.

The Fostering Service will endeavour to deal with as many as possible of the challenges that are involved in caring for children without recourse to the involvement of the police, who should only be involved in two circumstances:

• An emergency necessitating their immediate involvement to protect the child or others;
• Following discussion with the Supervising Social Worker, fostering manager, or the fostering Agency Out of Hours.

If any serious incident occurs or the police are called, the Supervising Social Worker, fostering manager or the Fostering Service Out of Hours (if out of office hours) must be notified without delay and will then notify the relevant social worker(s) and arrange for a full report to be made of the incident and actions taken. The Regulatory Authority must also be notified.