What is foster care? What do foster carers do?

Foster carers offer a child or young person a safe and caring family environment, usually close to their home area and school, while they are unable to live with their own family. This allows other professionals to work with the birth family to help resolve their issues so the children can either return home, or so that longer term plans can be made for them.

Foster children

Unfortunately, some children are not able live with their families.  This can be for a variety of reasons such as parental drug or alcohol abuse, parental mental health issues or domestic violence, neglect, or physical/sexual abuse.  Sometimes when a child is placed in a foster home, we may not know how long they will need to remain in care.  The uncertainty can be very unsettling for a child. They will need foster carers that care, support, and stick with them when the going gets tough.

Types of fostering 

UK Fostering requires foster carers that can consider a variety of types of foster care, such as long-term, short-term, emergency, remand, respite, parent & child assessments, children with additional needs such as disabilities or medical needs etc. The type of care required is advised by the child’s social worker by way of a referral and depends upon the circumstances and needs of a child.

Fostering allowance 

Fostering is not a salaried position but you do receive a fostering allowance when a child is with you to cover costs of caring for the child. We provide you other benefits while you foster with us. We provide full training, your own social worker and 24hr phone support for emergencies.

Fostering regulations 

The fostering sector is regulated by several acts and fostering regulations, as well as statutory guidance. They provide the legal and statutory framework for our organisation and its activities. UK Fostering ensures that all legislation, statutory guidance as well as best practice guidelines are adhered to, taking care to implement these into all aspects of our policies, procedures, and practices.

Still looking for fostering information?

There is so much to try to cover in relation to fostering and you may wish to discuss your own situation with us in more depth before starting on your fostering journey.  Please feel free to call us, and we’ll be happy to help. Our team will do their best to answer any of your queries