We cannot thank Robin and the team enough for their advice and support throughout our DBS investigation. We lost our children to an allegation in 2024. Unfortunately we were not members of the NUPFC at the time. When we were fostering whenever the NUPFC was brought up there was such a negative response from Social Workers implying they were just there to upset the apple cart and foster carers had the free support of our LA's chosen support organisation which was enough. We were kept in the dark throughout our allegation. A highly anxious time along with the grief of losing the children and not being able to contact them and no support other than our family and friends. The night before our allegation meeting we were allocated a representative from the LA's chosen support organisation. We met with the representative an hour before our meeting. Who advised us how it would be and the allegation hadn't come from the children. We thought our representatives experience of being a foster carer and their years of experience as an allegations representative we would be ok. We went into the meeting thinking our representative was there as our voice of experience. We quickly found out our representative was there with no voice just an observer. We were on our own very anxious and fighting to keep our good name. It was very clear they'd already made their minds up whatever we said was twisted to their own narrative. We left the meeting heartbroken knowing what the outcome would be. 2 weeks later we were informed the allegation was unsubstantiated but they were substantiating emotional harm. We were given the choice of resigning or going to panel. We resigned we couldn't put ourselves through anymore. 6 months later the NUPFC was recommended to us by a friend. After communicating with Robin and learning the benefits of being a member of the NUPFC we joined and thank goodness we did for what was to come next.The DBS papers came a year after the allegations. If we didn't already feel like monsters we certainly did now. We experienced the meaning of corruption, being scapegoats and gaslighting. I got in touch with Robin at NUPFC who replied straight away with advice and told me what to do. Robin got things in motion from their end and I did what had to be done from our end. We was able to use the NUPFC solicitor as members. What an absolute pleasure Jonathan the Solicitor was to work with. We cannot thank Jonathan enough for his tireless work on our representation and his understanding of how the DBS works. He wrote an absolutely fantastic representation. He clearly went through the DBS papers with a fine tooth combe picking up on so much I hadn't. For the past year we have felt like we have been in a courtroom drama knowing the truth but nobody was listening until the NUPFC and Jonathan got involved.We so wish we had been members of the NUPFC while foster carers. We have no doubt we would not have been put through this living hell for the last 15 months if we were. Please ignore your organisations if they talk negatively about the NUPFC and join today for your own piece of mind and to help the NUPFC to grow and help foster carers and a fostering system work for children and their carers.
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The National Union of Professional Foster Carers (NUPFC) provide valuable assistance and services to its members, including representation during allegations process, representation during standard of care proceedings, as well as helping to find solutions to problems that may occur between you and your foster agency or local authority.