Life Story Tools

Each foster family produces a welcome booklet containing photos and information about their family. This may include information about their home, pets and lifestyle, which helps to make the child or young person feels at ease in their new environment.

Each child receives a copy of their foster family’s welcome booklet, which then serves as a record of their placement. It also acknowledges that each move is significant.

Each team produces an introduction to their area and staff members for each child or young person placed. This also serves as a future record of their supporting FFI staff and acknowledges the significance of each relationship and importance of each individual with whom the child or young person may have had a connection.

Each child or young person placed receives a memory box to encourage themselves and their carers to store memorabilia and items of sentiment.

In addition to the memory box, we provide a camera and photo album, encouraging the child or young person to keep a photographic record of their time with FFI. FFI also encourages carers and staff to regularly take photographs/videos of the child or young person as part of its commitment to Life Story Work.

This is undertaken within safe care guidelines as stated within FFI policy and guidance on photographing and filming.

These written guides contain information about being in care, resources available, useful contacts and a complaints leaflet. The Toby Bear book is aimed at children at an earlier developmental stage (under 9’s).

FFI has developed a Memory Book consisting of worksheets that can be removed or added to as needed – providing a qualitative record of the child or young person’s placement(s).

The child or young person’s Case Records may focus more on facts, issues and concerns, while the Memory Book can contain anecdotes, photographs, drawings, as well as the thoughts and feelings of the child or young person. This also applies for those who cared for or worked with them.

This can serve as a future source of reference, in line with the overall aim of FFI Life Story Work, in order to serve as a catalyst to promote thought/reflection and a trigger for memories.

Children in care may experience many moves and changes of GP; information about their health may get lost or be hard to track.

Therefore, FFI provides a Health Passport for every child or young person with the aim of keeping health information together in one place. Foster carers are required to keep the Health Passport up-to-date.