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What do you need to be a foster carer?
Welcome and thank you for your interest in finding out more about fostering and giving a child a loving home.
We’ll walk you through everything you need to know in this series of six bulletins that we'll send to you over the next 10 days.
We’ll break the information down into bite sized chunks and e-mail you every couple of days. We’ll start with what is foster care and what do you need to be a foster carer. We’ll also cover fostering myths, different types of foster care, the support we offer to foster carers, the process to becoming a foster carer, what happens if you are approved and we’ll sign off with a quick questionnaire at the end.
*In today’s bulletin, let’s start with what is foster care?*
Bulletin 1.1
Fostering means taking care of someone else's child in your own home while their own family are unable to look after them. This can be for a variety of reasons, from temporary illness to issues such as abuse within their home or the death of a parent, parents or carer.
The length of time a foster child stays with you depends on a number of things. Some foster children are babies or toddlers while some are older and it depends on why they need to be fostered.
We offer long and short term foster placements and will discuss what works best for you.
There are so many reasons people have given us for wanting to be a foster carer. You may care deeply about helping children through a difficult time in their lives, you may want to share you home with someone who needs it or feel rewarded by seeing the development of your foster placement. Becoming a foster carer can be one of the most rewarding, life enriching experiences.
We are looking for people from all walks of life to become foster carers. Just like parents, foster carers come from a variety of different backgrounds. You can be single, married, straight, gay or trans. Any ethnic origin. A couple, home owning or renting. Working or not. All you need is a spare room and to be aged 21 or over.
You do not need any special qualifications to be a foster carer, all our foster carers are special people who care about and like children
Bulletin 1.2
All children in foster care should have their own room. But if you are fostering a birth to 2-year-old, the child can share your bedroom.
You need to be in good physical and emotional health and not have had any serious illness or any major life changing event during the previous 12 months.
You are expected to have some experience of caring for children.
You will need to have accommodation that is of a good standard and where your time as occupier is secure so that children can experience stability when placed.
Our foster carers are expected to help children with their education and take part in social activities.
We will check any pets in your household in case they would be unsuitable when placing a child or young person with you.
Our policy is not to place children under five, or children with disabilities in a foster home where anyone smokes tobacco or e-cigarettes.
Becoming a foster carer can be one of the most rewarding, life enriching events you and your family will ever experience and our fostering team will support you through your fostering journey.
*That’s all for now, we’ll be in touch in a couple of days and in our next bulletin we’ll talk about common fostering myths.*
Till next time,
The Fostering Team.
If you've already made up your mind you can take the following actions:
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You can fill in our fostering form, we'll then contact you in the next few days for an informal chat.
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