What you should know before fostering a child
It’s a partly professional, largely caring role
At Sparks Fostering, we advise that fostering is a 70% caring role and 30% professional role. Applicants often underestimate the importance of the professional element of the role – including a comprehensive assessment process, regular training and supervision and attendance at multi-agency meetings.
You will depend on support from your fostering provider
Carers who don’t receive high levels of support from their fostering provider at much greater risk of failing in their fostering role – this could mean that recordings aren’t up to date, training isn’t useful or isn’t attended, and in some cases the lack of support could lead to disruption and the child being moved to another home.
Some foster carers may experience ‘blame culture’ and defensive practice from their fostering provider; this can be distressing for the carers.
At Sparks Fostering, we offer 24/7 support, over 40 core training topics that are easily accessible, the highest allowances, and we regularly ask our foster carers for feedback and suggestions for us to improve the service.
Foster carers can move providers if they’re not receiving good enough support
There is a local authority fostering service in each area of England (152 fostering providers in total) and there are over 300 independent fostering providers. Also, there is a significant shortage of foster carers. Foster carers who aren’t satisfied with the support offered by their current fostering provider (even though they have taken appropriate steps to request additional support) can speak with other fostering providers in confidence.
Sparks Fostering is rated Good/Good/Outstanding by Ofsted, gives high fees/allowances and support and is also available to give advice to carers who don’t plan to move providers.
There’s a huge range of children who need foster homes
Children who need foster homes are as varied as children who are in the general population; however, children in foster care are more likely to have experienced abuse in earlier life. Foster carers should aim to be as open-minded as possible when considering which children they could care for.
Fostering applicants can request to care for children of a particular age range, and level of need, and can also make other suggestions; however, if the applicant refuses to care for the majority of children in care and is too restrictive, the fostering provider is likely to refuse their application.
It’s not always possible to know the child’s needs before they join your home
Foster carers may stipulate that they want to care for children with lower level needs, or with specific challenges; however, sometimes the children’s needs aren’t fully known before the child joins the fostering home, or the child may have emerging needs as they grow older.
Where possible, fostering families are expected to adapt and continue to support the child so that the child does not suffer the difficulties of moving to more foster homes; however, sometimes it’s not possible to continue the arrangement and unfortunately, a move can be agreed.
Prepare yourself for the emotional impact of children moving
Foster carers often struggle emotionally when children move on, especially the first child who joined their home. Good carers build a strong caring relationship with the child and they grow to be very protective of the child, as any good carer should be. Also, foster carers invest a lot of time and energy in helping the child to settle into the home and start to recover from any previous trauma. And the routines of the household adapt to meet the needs of the child. When a child moves on, it can be upsetting for the entire household, even if it’s understood that the move is in the child’s best interests.
