What is fostering?

Fostering is caring for a child in your own home. 

When a child cannot live at home or with family they can become cared for by the local authority. Foster carers provides stability, safety and a nurturing environment when this happens. Foster carers give children space and support to flourish and share their lives with the children they welcome into their homes.

Foster carers play an important part in helping children maintain relationships with those who are important to them, to hopefully help children return to their family where possible. All of our foster carers are supported by a team of professionals from social services, education and health care.

• Foster carers offer security, safety and stability at times of confusion and worry for children
• But it's not just children that foster carers help. Foster carers support our communities by helping children to stay closer to home when it is safe for them to do so
• You’ll experience pride and joy as you watch a child grow and develop into their own person. As a foster carer you have a unique opportunity to support a child through a particularly vulnerable time and help them overcome challenges
• You will provide consistency for a child and be someone the child can form a positive and trusting relationship with
• By providing a child with a positive adult role mode, you’ll help ensure that they experience affection, support and strong family experiences that can help them on their way to becoming a confident young person
• By combining your own life experience with the training and support we offer, you'll feel confident making decisions around a child’s day to day care and be able to help them develop into a confident, well-rounded young person
• Fostering involves working closely with others involved in the welfare of the children you are caring for. Foster carers work closely as a team, not only with professionals but also in supporting each other

Foster carers care for children in their home and carry out the day-to-day activities to meet their needs. Fostering is different to parenting your own child, and through our training and support we’ll help you understand how to meet the needs of a child in foster care.

On a daily basis, foster carers:

• provide love, stability and safe relationships
• provide/support a healthy diet and lifestyle
• drop off and pick up children from school
• communicate with nursery, school and other educational organisations to support learning
• provide the opportunity for children to experience a positive family life
• spend leisure time together, ensure children have the opportunity to play, relax and have fun
• support children with appointments and activities
• foster carers are also role models for those they look after, offering help, love and patience to children who often need time to trust