HOW TO BECOME A FOSTER CARER
In England year ending 31 March 2021, 80850 children and young people were in the care of local authorities at any one time, with 71% placed in foster care (including relatives/friends fostering placements). This is the highest level to date.
If you are interested in fostering but not sure where to start, it’s best to find out as much as possible about what is involved in fostering, the assessment process and the training and support available to you. This is where Fosterline can help!
Fosterline is a free, confidential helpline provided on behalf of the Department for Education, offering advice on fostering issues where you will find lots of advice and information to help you, including a mapping facility to find a fostering service in your area.
Would you like to know what fostering involves, how long it takes to become a carer or what training and support you’ll receive? We can help. Simply call Fosterline on 0800 040 7675 from 9am-5 pm, Monday to Friday. Calling outside of office hours? Leave a message and an advisor will call you back the next working day.
Training for pre-approval Foster Carers.
Our market leading training course, Journey 2 Foster, can help carers to face the realities and rewards of fostering and equip them with the essential carer skills and knowledge. Find out more here
STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?
Visit Fosterline’s website and read their frequently asked questions www.fosterline.info/resources/faqs/
Or, take their Fostering Quiz to see if you could foster www.feedbackstr.com/fosterline
You can also and a local fostering organisation by using Fosterline’s interactive mapping system here www.fosterline.info/find-a-fostering-service/
If you’re interested in becoming a foster carer but haven’t yet completed your fostering journey, we can still help. FosterTalk offers pre-approval membership to foster carers going through the assessment process which includes access to unlimited advice and support right through to fostering panel and beyond. Once you have been approved as a Foster Carer your FosterTalk membership will be upgraded to include all the benefits of an approved Foster Carer with our household membership.
MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES ACCESS TO:
- Fostering Helpline
- 24/7 Legal Helpline
- Tax, Benefits & NI Advice
- Discounted Tax Return Service
- 24/7 Counselling Support
- 24/7 Medical Helpline
- Financial Advice
- Members Magazine & Newsletters
- The FosterTalk Awards
- Discounted Home, Car & Business Insurance
- Education Advisory Services
- Financial Advice
- Free Online Events
ORGANISATION
If you’d like to take the next step into fostering, don’t forget, there are a number of different types of Fostering Organisations operating in most regions. These are usually local authority fostering services and independent fostering agencies (IFA’s) Choose the one that is right for you. Focus on the key elements of support, training, and assistance in your fostering career.
You can search online or visit http://www.fosterline.info/find-a-fostering-service/ and click on the interactive mapping system to find your local fostering providers.
In England, all foster carers are required to complete the Training Support and Development Standards within 12 months of becoming approved as a foster carer. The Training, Support and Development (TSD) standards form part of a foster carer’s induction into their role. They provide a national minimum benchmark that sets out what foster carers should know, understand and be able to do within the first 12 months after being approved.
There are TSD workbooks for foster carers, short breaks carers and family and friends carers(kinship carers) If you’re a foster carer or about to start the TSD standards, and you’d like help completing the workbook, talk to your supervising social worker who will be able to support and guide you.
TSD training courses can be beneficial for both mainstream and kinship carers, find out more here
More information on the Training Support and Development Standards can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/guidance-for-foster-carers
The Care Council for Wales has published a workbook to help support foster carers become effective foster carers in Wales and ensure they have the correct set of knowledge and skills to meet their role in supporting children and young people.
This guide explains how to use the Induction Framework and how to meet each of the required seven outcomes. Each section provides a summary of the outcome, the skills you need to meet the outcome, guidance to help you think how to apply this knowledge, sample questions and activities, and how to show that you have met the outcome. The outcomes are: principles and values, your role in the children’s workforce, health, safety and security; listening and communication; development and behaviour; rights of children and young people; keeping children safe from harm and developing yourself and your skills. The Induction Framework also links with National Occupational Standards, other quality standards and codes of practice relevant to work with all children and young people.
The induction framework for foster carers’ workbook can be found here: https://socialcare.wales/cms_assets/file-uploads/Induction-Framework-for-Foster-Carers.pdf
