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Fostering

What is Fostering?

• Fostering is about making a difference to a child’s life to enable them to reach their full potential.
• Foster Care is looking after someone else’s child or children in your own home for short or long periods, maybe until the child reaches adulthood.
• Foster Care is working in partnership with families and social workers.  It will mean attending some meetings and reviews about the child, and foster carers are expected to encourage children to maintain contact with their birth families.
• Foster Care is helping a child to understand why he/she cannot live at home, and helping a child understand the past and build self-confidence for the future.
• Foster Care is about accepting the child for who he is, regardless of race, religion, language, gender, age, culture, disability or sexual orientation; and about having a non-judgemental attitude towards children and their parents.
• Foster Care can often mean dealing with difficult or challenging behaviour, and can mean facing uncertainty and change, both for the child and carers.
• Foster Care means giving time, space, understanding and guidance, and setting clear boundaries that a child can understand. It is also about letting a child know you are there for them when they need you.
• Foster Care is about helping children in need live in ordinary families and do ordinary things.
• We need foster carers for children of all ages, but particularly for teenagers, and for brothers and sisters who need to be placed together.

Do Foster Carers get paid?

Carers are paid a weekly allowance for the child, which covers such items as clothing, food, recreational activities, school uniform and equipment, transport, and pocket money.  The amount depends on the child’s age.  This allowance is not a wage and does not affect tax or benefits.
 

Do Foster Carers need training?

We run an introductory training course, which all prospective foster carers must attend. The training helps people understand the task of fostering and gives lots of information and advice. Further training is offered after carers have been approved, and all carers must attend a specified number of basic training sessions. We also provide opportunities for foster carers to obtain NVQ Level 3.

Who can foster?

All sorts of people can foster.  You must be over 21.  You can be employed or unemployed, single, married, or living with a partner, with or without children of your own.  You can own or rent your home, but you must have space for a child, who should have his/her own bedroom.  We welcome applications from people from all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life.

What happens when I apply to become a Foster Carer?

We will send you an Information pack and you will receive an initial visit from a member of the Fostering Team within 1 week, to give you more details about fostering, and to check that you have space in your home for a child.

If you decide to go ahead you will be invited to the 3 introductory training sessions.

You will need a medical, and a check will be made to see if you have a criminal record.  You will also be expected to provide the names of 3 people who can give you a personal reference.

Once these checks are completed a Social Worker from the Fostering Team will complete an assessment of you and your family.  This will help us decide which children you can best care for, and will help you and your family prepare for the task of fostering.