Foster Care Fortnight

virtuocity

virtuocity

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Hi all.

For those who don't know, my wife and I are foster carers and have been working with Looked After children for over 3 years.

This fortnight is where the fostering community focus on spreading the message about the positives of caring for children and asking the question: Could you foster?

I'm starting this thread to invite input from those who have been affected by fostering. Do you know any carers, or children who have been accommodated?

Most importantly, I'm wondering...... Could you foster?

http://www.fostering.net/could-you-foster#.UZCtJLXvt14
 
Good for you:thup:

I did look into it about 7-8 yrs ago and there were quite a few obstacles and some scare stories around. I do think it is a wonderful thing to do and take my hat of to you and your good lady.

Might be worth posting about the pro's and con's from your perspective as it might answer peoples questions before they make a move.
 
It would take a book for me to give even a brief synopsis of our experiences so far.

Struggling to summarise but all I can say is that the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks and we love working with children for a living!

What obstacles and scare stories did you come up against? There are 1,000,000 fostering myths and I'm happy to discredit them all!!!

Oh and everyone- please take a few mins to look at the link I posted.
 
virtuocity said:
It would take a book for me to give even a brief synopsis of our experiences so far.

Struggling to summarise but all I can say is that the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks and we love working with children for a living!

What obstacles and scare stories did you come up against? There are 1,000,000 fostering myths and I'm happy to discredit them all!!!

Oh and everyone- please take a few mins to look at the link I posted.
Click to expand...

Looked at the link, is there links for all the qualifying criteria and process?

*Edit* found some myself, thanks
 
Last edited:
DarthVega said:
Looked at the link, is there links for all the qualifying criteria and process?

*Edit* found some myself, thanks
Click to expand...

Qualifying criteria changes depending on who you foster through. You may choose to foster via a council or through a private agency or a charity.

Some don't take those who have had minor convictions, those who plan to keep 2 full time jobs, those who have never had their own kids...... the list is quite long.

The process is reasonably similar though.

Generally, you will go to a 3 day training course called Skills To Foster. This is a brilliant, enlightening course which gives you a taster of what fostering is about.

Secondly, you have a social worker or link worker allocated to you. Over a number of weeks (can take between 6 months to 2 years depending on how often you're able to meet with your worker.... once a week is VERY frequent and that's what we did). You'll answer lots of questions about yourselves and your past. It seems intense and intrusive and whilst some parts can feel that way, the majority of the time it's very relaxed, easy and actually nice to take time to talk about yourself for a change.

Over the weeks, your worker will use the information you've provided to complete a HUGE application for called a Form F. You don't need to worry about doing this, your worker will do it all for you.

Lastly, you'll go to a fostering panel. It will be a group of people who will feel that they already know you inside-out as they have read your Form F!!! They will ask any additional questions and either approve you or reject your application.

NOTE: Good agencies and workers will not send anyone to a fostering panel to be rejected. Although it does happen, I've never personally known it to happen to any prospective carers I've met.
 
Virtuocity, I take my hat off to you. I know some Foster Parents and each one has my respect, I also know that it's not an easy ride but is very rewarding as you say. It's something that my wife and I have discussed, but with us both in full time employment and with three children under 10yrs, it's not right for us at this time.

My only question though is can you please clarify your comment "we love working with children for a living"? I know that a fosterer will receive an allowance, but not enough to class as making a living?
 
virtuocity said:
Hi all.

For those who don't know, my wife and I are foster carers and have been working with Looked After children for over 3 years.

This fortnight is where the fostering community focus on spreading the message about the positives of caring for children and asking the question: Could you foster?

I'm starting this thread to invite input from those who have been affected by fostering. Do you know any carers, or children who have been accommodated?

Most importantly, I'm wondering...... Could you foster?

http://www.fostering.net/could-you-foster#.UZCtJLXvt14
Click to expand...

Hi mate

Foster careers here too, in Ireland though but process still pretty much the same.

Been doing it for 2 years and at present on our 3rd placement.

Don't know what it's like there but they are crying out for carers over here, and I would say to anyone considering it to at least give the training a go and seriously consider it, it's a truly rewarding thing to do.

As for all the myths and scaremongering stories about "bad" children who are impossible to care for, well these are few and far between and the 5 kids we have had so far have been an absolute delight to have in our house....the hardest part of fostering is saying goodbye when it's time for the kids to move on.

Great to hear there are some other foster carers on here and hopefully this thread may prompt some others to look into it and perhaps become carers themselves.
 
Who should I foster with?

This is a bit like asking- what putter should I buy?

It's very personal and something you should take time to decide on. The best way to decide is to speak with as many fostering agencies and your local authority.

Children are 'accommodated' by the local authority. They then generally turn to their own pool of carers to see who can look after the child. They will try to 'match' the child to the best available carer for their needs.

However, there is a HUGE lack of foster carers out there so what can the council do?

Well, they have a few options.

NB: the following is not official or backed up with statistics but is based on my own experiences and discussions with other carers....

They can turn to private / charity fostering agencies. You may have heard of a few, such as Barnardos, TACT, Fostering Solutions, Children First etc.

These agencies will charge the council a weekly rate to place the child with one of their carers. Rates can be over £1,000 per week!!!!!!

Carers tend to be paid less if they foster with their council and much more if they foster with one of the agencies who charge over £1,000 per week.

I would say that most of that £1,000 goes into providing training, funding their adoption arm of the agency and providing carers with money solely to be spent on children. But there is a good bit left for carers' personal allowances.

Although I class myself as a full time foster carer, I do have other means of income (sounds dodgy!!!) which helps me and Mrs V out.

However, for one of a two-parent family, then yes you can receive a decent wage for fostering. However, it is only decent because the government provides fantastic tax relief for carers (£10,000 per year plus £200 a week per child in placement).

Unfortunately, the second option for councils (and a more sound financial option) is to place children in less than perfectly matched households. In know way am I suggesting that the quality of care via council carers is poor- quite the opposite- but I believe I'm accurate when I say that most council carers have either experienced or know people who have experienced councils offering placements on the basis that they have a vacant bedroom, rather than being perfectly matched to the child.
 
If you care............


For me and Mrs V, following our research we decided that fostering via our council was not for us.

Yes, we would get paid less. That WAS a consideration. 3 years ago we were both working away 12 hours a day so for Mrs V to give up her job, it had to be financially viable.

Secondly, because private agencies get paid a lot of money by the councils, it meant there was more budget for training and support.

Council social workers are so overworked that it's difficult to get a hold of them, never mind get them to visit your child regularly in your home.

As we foster through a private agency, we have our own Link Social Worker and she is AMAZING and is always there for us when we need her.

We did feel uncomfortable that some agencies are not charities and earn profits from fostering. This did not sit right with us at all.

So in the end we went with a charity, who charge a fraction to councils what some agencies do.

People ask me why I call it a job. I don't do this to make it sound hard or annoying. I do it because I am put in many situations where I need to look as professional as lawyers, doctors, Social Workers, parents, children's panel members etc. I call it a job as I want to be seen as a Childcare Professional.

The best bit is- I'm not working in some poxy office making a fortune for a guy I hate..... I did that for a long while.

If I do my job to the best of my ability, I get to change children's lives for the better. Job satisfaction guaranteed!
 
Hats off to all Foster carers out there. HIDs Nan has just now stopped doing it, the only reason being she is in her mid 60's and has been doing it since her early 20's. She's had so many children through her door and helped them all in so many ways I can't even mention, she has even adopted 2 of them full time into her family her and brought them up a treat since they were merely months old, and despite this continued to Foster on top of this. She has done it so long most of the children still come back to visit regularly and Christmas is awash with people she has helped and still makes dinner for on the big day.

My next door neighbour is also a Foster carer though I believe she does merely respite short term care (hope I go that right).

It certainly is something that is very giving and rewarding to from what i've seen.
 
So how much do you get paid..... per child? and how many do you have?

Obviously you don't have to answer that, but seeing as you raised the subject........
 
Huge respect to all Foster Parents.

I was fostered and eventually adopted so I am full of admiration for the service they provide :clap: :thup:
 
JustOne said:
So how much do you get paid..... per child? and how many do you have?

Obviously you don't have to answer that, but seeing as you raised the subject........
Click to expand...

I'd prefer to keep this topic about Foster Care Fortnight- i.e. raising awareness about foster care and posing the question as to whether forum members COULD or HAVE CONSIDERED fostering.

I would GUESS that you could receive anything between £250 and £500 a week per child which depends on who you foster through, the age of the child, the needs of the child etc. Included within each payment is a breakdown of how much of this should be spent on clothing, education, hobbies etc etc, as well as how much is for personal allowance.

It's certainly not going to make you rich and is more of a vocation than a job, but as I said I wouldn't want anyone to feel guilty about saying that they are Professional carers and look after children 24/7 as their job.
 
Not quite the same but Mrs Homer and I have just begun to go down the adoption road. Moving to a new house with a view to offering a needy child a secure safe environment to love learn and live. Early days but so far the process has been stress free with some simple forms to complete. Appreciate there is much more to it but as we're kind of dictacted by the progress of the new build we've told the authorities to pace the process accordingly
 
HomerJSimpson said:
as we're kind of dictacted by the progress of the new build we've told the authorities to pace the process accordingly
Click to expand...

Brilliant Homer!!!!

I think that having a reason to take things at a more calm pace will help you a lot. A lot of people, whether going into fostering or looking to adopt are naturally over-eager to get the process finished within 5 minutes.

Best of luck to both of you. I'm rooting for you.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Not quite the same but Mrs Homer and I have just begun to go down the adoption road. Moving to a new house with a view to offering a needy child a secure safe environment to love learn and live. Early days but so far the process has been stress free with some simple forms to complete. Appreciate there is much more to it but as we're kind of dictacted by the progress of the new build we've told the authorities to pace the process accordingly
Click to expand...

well done :thup::whoo:
 
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