INTRODUCTION
There are almost 50,000 children and young people being looked after by foster carers in the United Kingdom. When children are placed in foster care, they are matched to a carer who is most able to meet their particular needs. Because of a national shortage of foster carers, approximately two-thirds of children in public care are placed in foster families. More carers are needed all the time.
Choosing to foster is a major decision that is likely to impact greatly on you and your family. It is important to know what to expect from the process of fostering and its financial and emotional dimensions. Three organisations are referred to on this page. They have been chosen because their websites offer a good grounding in the subject. You will be directed to specific pages within each site but it is worth browsing further to see if there is any extra information that would be useful to you.
Adoption-net is a website covering adoption and fostering in great detail and from many angles.
The Fostering Information Line assists local authority social services departments and adoption agencies to recruit carers for children in need of foster care. They also provide information and advice to members of the general public on all aspects of fostering and run a helpline.
Fostering Network is part of the National Foster Care Association, created with support from the Department of Health. The site serves as a good introduction to fostering. A more comprehensive government site is under construction.
WHAT IS FOSTERING?
Fostering is about caring in your own home for a child or children who cannot be with their parents. The arrangement is temporary in most cases - the aim is that the child will ultimately return home to their family. In some instances this may take a matter of days or weeks, in others it may take much longer. If a return to the family is not possible, a decision maybe made to find them a permanent new family, possibly through adoption. There are several types of fostering, which are outlined on the Adoption-net site. As a foster carer, you do not have parental responsibility for the child - this remains with the birth parents or the local authority, or is sometimes shared between the two. The Fostering Network has a good introduction to fostering as part of its website.
WHY FOSTER?
By fostering, you provide a home for children who are enduring a difficult time in their lives and need the stability of a family environment. You are offering support for the members of their birth family, who are given the chance to resolve whatever difficulties they are going through without the added responsibility of having a child to look after, so eventually they can welcome the child back into their home. Fostering is a potentially rewarding activity, which may drain your emotions and challenge your parenting skills. The charity NCH features quotes about the experience of fostering on its website.
WHO CAN FOSTER?
There are approximately 37,000 registered foster carers across the UK. They used to be referred to as ‘foster parents’ but this term is misleading, as the child already has parents and ‘foster carers’ better reflects the often temporary nature of the task.
Few limitations are placed on who can foster – potential carers are not discriminated against due to income, marital status or sexuality. When you undergo the application procedure, these factors will be taken into consideration but none automatically rule you out. As long as you can provide the child with a supportive family environment, other criteria are given less weight. There is however a minimum age requirement of 21 years.
WHO NEEDS FOSTERING?
All manner of children need fostering - there is no norm. The largest proportion of fostered children is between 10 and 15 years old. Well over half of all youngsters in foster care are aged 10 or over. They are mostly from homes where parents are experiencing difficulties, which temporarily prevent them from being able to offer their child a stable home.
For information about fostering disabled children or children from ethnic minorities, refer to the relevant Fostering Information Line pages. Adoption-net includes information on caring for disabled children and covers the issues specific to fostering children from ethnic minorities.
WHAT IS THE FOSTERING PROCEDURE?
All local councils run a foster care service for youngsters from their area. They are responsible for recruiting, assessing and preparing foster carers, and supporting them in their task. Until recently, local authorities alone managed foster care. A shortage in carers has meant that local authorities are now relying on the independent sector to help fulfil their responsibility to find foster homes. These independent agencies are partly funded by the local authorities and include Barnardo’s and the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). These agencies also pay a larger sum of foster allowance than the local authority would allocate, which is the reason people may choose them.
Independent fostering agencies (IFAs) have to be registered and inspected on the same terms as local authority fostering services by the Commission for Social Care Inspection as part of the National Care Standards Act 2000 and the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, which set out to regulate the recruitment, assessment and support of or for foster carers. Welsh IFAs are registered and inspected by the Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales and IFAs in Scotland will be registered and inspected by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care from 2003.
The fostering process (summarised by the Fostering Information Line)
- If you are interested in becoming a foster carer, the first thing you should do is contact your local council's social services department, who will be able to provide you with some basic information to get you started. You can receive an information pack from the Fostering Network.
- Once you have decided to apply, the agency will conduct a home study. From this they are able to find out more details about you and your family. It will include health checks and personal profiling. They may suggest you attend some training to provide you with further information about what is to come.
- As part of the home study the social worker will be required to complete Form F – this is the official application form that will eventually be presented to a fostering panel for consideration. If your application gets to this stage, it is likely that it will be accepted.
- Once the panel has approved your application, you are ready to accept placements. Before you receive a child into your home, you will learn a little about them and it is usual that you will meet them and their family.
- This can be anxious time for you, the child and your family, so be prepared for a difficult transition period. The Fostering Information Line site has a good section on welcoming a foster child into your home.
HOW LONG WILL THE PROCESS TAKE?
The length of the procedure is dependent on many factors including how many visits the social worker feels are necessary before completing the form and how long the police and health checks take. In London, there is a backlog of police checks so the process may take longer. As an approximate figure, it will take 6-8 months from when you first apply to when a child is placed with you.
HOW LONG WILL THE CHILD BE WITH ME?
The average placement of a foster child is three to six months. Up to half of youngsters placed in foster care will move on within 12 weeks. One in three stay with foster carers for up to two years. Most of the remaining young people need permanent care outside their families.
IS THERE A LIMIT TO THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN I CAN FOSTER?
According to the Children’s Act 1989, a person may not foster more than three children - ‘the usual fostering limit’ – at a time. A person may exceed the usual fostering limit if the children concerned are all siblings or if specifically permitted by the local authority.
FINANCIAL MATTERS
All fostering agencies pay carers a weekly allowance to cover the upkeep of the children they foster. (See the Fostering Information Line section, ‘Foster Carer Allowances’, and the Adoption-net section on financial allowances). This extends further than just accommodation and food bills, to clothing, birthday and often a holiday allowance. The amount differs from area to area, and also depends on the age of the child. Most of these payments are not taxable and will not affect your entitlement to other benefits or your National Insurance status. (See the Fostering Information Line section on benefits.) To find out exactly what you are eligible for, contact your support worker.
BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES
Many children who go into foster care display challenging behaviour. Adoption-net publishes a useful article about one foster parent’s experience of the testing behaviour that she faced from her foster child. It has some valuable advice on setting guidelines and dealing with a demanding foster child.
CONTACT WITH THE BIRTH FAMILY
In the vast majority of cases, children in foster care will have regular contact with their natural families and their parents will continue to have responsibilities towards them. The Fostering Information Line deals briefly with this subject (see Maintaining contact with families) but it is advised that you talk to both your support worker and your child’s social worker to find out more about familial links.
SUPPORT
There is a network of people set up to help you and the child during your fostering experience. You will be assigned a support worker and the child will be allocated a social worker, who will visit you regularly to monitor your progress, and be on hand if you have any problems or queries.
Support workers can also help with the emotions many carers feel when a child leaves their care. Adoption-net has a section on the emotional impact of fostering and the Fostering Information Line deals with foster children returning to their families.
Useful organisations to contact are:
Barnardo’s
Tanners Lane
Barkingside
Ilford
Essex IG6 1QG
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail: chief.executive
British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF)
Skyline House
200 Union Street
London SE1 0LX
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail: mail
Fostering Information Line
193 Market Street
Hyde
Cheshire SK14 1HF
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail: office
The Fostering Network
87 Blackfriars Road
London SE1 8HA
Telephone:
Fax:
Helpline: from 12.30pm to 4pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
E-mail: penny.king
The Fostering Network Scotland
2nd Floor, Ingram House
227 Ingram Street
Glasgow G1 1DA
Telephone:
Fax:
E-Mail: NFCA
The Fostering Network Northern Ireland
216 Belmont Road
Belfast BT4 2AT
Telephone:
Fax:
E-Mail: ni
Parents for Children
41 Southgate Road
London N1 3JP
Telephone:
E-mail: info
A charity established to find families for children who are considered hard to place.
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