What checks does a Walsall fostering agency carry out on household members?

Household checks are a safeguarding part of the fostering assessment. A fostering agency considers everyone who lives in, or regularly spends significant time in, the home so it can understand the wider environment a child would be joining. The checks are not limited to the prospective foster carer.

Checks commonly include:

• Identity and address verification: the agency confirms people’s identities, current and previous addresses, and relevant personal details.
• Disclosure and Barring Service checks: adults in the household will normally need the appropriate DBS check. The agency may also need to consider people who regularly stay overnight or have frequent unsupervised contact with a foster child.
• References: household members may be asked for personal or professional references, particularly where their involvement in family life could affect a child’s care.
• Local authority and safeguarding enquiries: the agency may make enquiries about known concerns involving children, vulnerable adults, domestic abuse or other matters relevant to safety. Previous addresses or time spent overseas can lead to additional enquiries.
• Health information: information about a household member’s health may be considered where it could affect their ability to live safely alongside a foster child. This is handled as relevant personal information rather than as a general judgement about someone’s health.

The agency also looks at how the household operates in practice. This can include relationships between household members, arrangements for privacy and personal space, attitudes towards children who have experienced trauma, and how adults would respond to boundaries or challenging behaviour. The assessment may explore whether existing children understand fostering and whether their views or needs raise any issues that should be addressed.

Adult household members are usually expected to take part openly in the assessment and give consent for the required checks. A refusal, incomplete information or unexplained discrepancy does not automatically determine the outcome, but it will need to be discussed and may prevent the agency from completing its safeguarding assessment. Giving accurate information about convictions, cautions, previous social care involvement or relevant family circumstances is important; agencies assess the nature, seriousness, relevance and age of information rather than treating every disclosure in the same way.

Checks are not necessarily a one-off exercise. Approved foster carers must tell their agency about relevant changes, such as a new adult moving into the home, a change in household composition, a new relationship, a conviction or police investigation, or a significant safeguarding concern. The agency can then decide whether further checks, updated references or a review of the fostering arrangements are needed.

Information gathered about household members should be handled confidentially and used for the fostering assessment and safeguarding purposes. The agency should explain what information it needs, why it is needed and how it will be considered. If a household member is worried about a check, the practical step is to raise the concern early with the assessing social worker and ask how the issue will affect the assessment.

These enquiries form part of the wider approval process, alongside assessment interviews, household visits, training, references and the agency’s recommendation to its fostering panel. The purpose is to identify any risks, clarify how they could be managed and establish whether the household can provide a suitable environment for a child in foster care.