At Fair Ways Fostering, we understand that becoming a foster carer is a big decision. You may have lots of questions about what is required to become a foster carer. We speak to lots of people every week who have many questions about what fostering entails and the process.
Fostering is offering a child, who has come into the care system a safe, stable and loving home at a point when they cannot live with their parents or relatives.
Children come into the care system for many different reasons, sometimes it’s due to parental illness or challenges within the family that requires the child to have alternative care arrangements.
The children and young people who come into the care system are from a diverse range of backgrounds and as such, may display an array of behaviour depending on their experiences in life.
Anyone who is over 21, has a spare room, is a full-time resident in the UK and have the ability to give your time to care for a child or young person on a full time basis. Your gender, sexuality and relationship status would not impact a fostering application.
Your health and whether you are well enough to care for a child now and into the foreseeable future.
Your financial security and whether you can afford to foster.
Your home and whether it is safe enough for a child.
Your support network and whether they are able to support you with fostering.
Your past, whether you have any criminal convictions that we need to be aware of, but this may not necessarily impact your fostering application.
Your experience with children and young people, whether within your family network or professionally.
The practicalities of fostering are the same as most families, ensuring a child is fed, has correct clothing, has a safe and loving home, that they attend school with homework completed, ensure a child attends medical and dental appointments and to support a child with hobbies, interests and socially.
But as a foster carer, you will be working as part of a professional team, keeping daily records and write reports about the child in your care to inform that professional network. You will need to attend meetings and advocate for the child in your care, promote and support contact between a child and their birth families; often transporting them to contact as well. You will support the child with their emotions, behaviour and needs, supporting them to build confidence and self-esteem.
Many of our Foster carers already have birth children at home and the views of birth children are integral to our fostering assessment process, to ensure they understand the impact of fostering within age-appropriate levels. The impact fostering will have on your birth children will be fully explored throughout the fostering assessment process.
If you have recently had a baby we would advise you to enquire about fostering again when they are 1, as fostering is very demanding and we would not want fostering to impact your ability to meet the needs of your own young child.
As a foster carer, you will receive a competitive weekly allowance. The value of that allowance will vary depending on how many children you have in placement, your skills set and the demands of the placement.
We aim for the process to take between 4 and 6 months from application to approval at the panel.
You don’t need any qualifications, but Fair Ways will offer you all the training you need. Part of the Fostering Assessment process will be to attend the Skills to Foster Training Course, which is a two-day induction to Fostering and is designed to prepare new applicants for the challenges of Fostering. The course focus’ on day-to-day practical skills that Foster Carers need.
Yes you can. We would still undertake a fostering assessment, as this is the best way we learn about you as individuals and assess your suitability to foster for Fair Ways and match your skillset to the differing types of Foster care. But with permission from your current agency, we can utilise information previously gathered, in your fostering assessment; which will speed up the transfer process.
Yes they can. As part of the assessment process we would organise a meeting with your current agency and the local authority whome placed those children, to ensure that Fair Ways has all relevant information; in order to best support you and the children in your care.
For more information please refer to the Fostering Network Transfer Protocol 2014.
Having pets would not impact you becoming a foster parent, in fact, some pets can enhance placement and the therapeutic interventions for children. However, every pet's temperament is different and this would be assessed via a risk assessment throughout the assessment process.
It’s a common myth that your religious views may stop you from fostering. As a foster parent, you must meet a child's needs and for some children, this includes meeting their religious needs. This does not mean you must have the same religious beliefs as the child in your care.
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