We work relationally with our whole team. Working relationally is about developing a meaningful relationship and as we all know, being in a good relationship takes work. However, we think it’s worth the work. Our foster carers tell us that they feel well supported, and we feel that is because there is a sense of feeling safe, crucially, even when they may be experiencing feelings of vulnerability or reduced self-confidence.
Enabling foster carers to feel supported doesn’t come easy, it takes a dedicated support team and a culture of advocating for foster carers strongly. We appreciate that foster carers can feel that they are living in a goldfish bowl, with so many people involved in the care of any children they support, looking in and offering opinions and making decisions. It can feel overwhelming at times and it’s ok for foster carers to say they are not ok, without feeling judged. It’s ok to ask for help and it’s ok to question decisions. It helps that our supervising social workers work with, on average, 8 foster families in their case load. This enables our social worker team to truly advocate on behalf of our foster carers and be part of meetings where needed, to ensure that the best outcomes for our carers and children are our main focus.
Being in a positive relationship involves honesty and openness. Being a foster carer comes with a lot of responsibility, and we see our role as supporting foster carers to feel confident about working within legislative requirements, keeping them and the children they support, safe. We want the time that our foster carers spend with children to be a long-lasting positive memory for everyone involved, and for it to be part of the young persons life story that they can relate to, later in their adulthood. Consequently, we have worked to create a community of foster families, that meet and support each other, but also are part of the fostered childrens life. Our short break foster carers get to form relationships with our children and feel a part of the community too, so that should a foster carer need a short break, the chances are that the child can be supported by someone else they know and therefore continue to feel safe and secure until they can return to their foster home.
Successful foster carers, starts with our team, really understanding our foster families, how they live and their ambitions. This ensures that we have a better opportunity to successfully match the needs of children and young people with them. We are very proud of our success with our matching process. It’s very rare that our children need to move again, unless it is part of the child’s plan. This gives a child, who has experienced neglect or abuse the stability they require to feel safe and loved. It takes teamwork and collaboration to ensure that whatever is needed, is available, to prevent a child having to move before they are ready. There are times however, when it is unavoidable, but part of our work is to ensure that the ending is caring, focused on the child and involves providing the child with a lasting feeling that they are loved and they will be remembered fondly, keeping in touch as the child wishes.
We hear a lot from foster carers who don’t feel supported in their fostering agency, especially when their own social worker is on leave. They report they are not getting breaks when they need them, having to travel long distances for training and sadly, overall feeling they are just a number. Foster carers should feel valued and proud of what they achieve. They should feel recognised, respected and supported to continue to be able to be the best version of themselves.
Successful fostering requires financial support. We believe in being very open about fees and allowances that our foster carers can expect. It tends to be a sticky subject, as so many people have the opinion that fostering should not be about the money. We agree, money should not be the main driver for fostering children, but sadly, unless foster carers have won the lottery, it is necessary to have funding to support the needs of a child or young person and to be paid for the time that foster carers spend caring and supporting a child or young person.
Some foster carers are able to work alongside fostering and we include this as part of the foster carers matching plan. Working will rule out some children being able to live with them because the children may require full time foster carers to be available but they may have the option to foster children and young people who have different needs enabling carers to work to ensure the family is economically viable. We all come with different needs and expectations, but all can lead to success.
We work to support foster carers financially with allowances for a whole range of things, including birthday and festival gifts, a summer allowance to assist with the costs of children being out of school. Clothing allowances and travel cost reimbursement all help towards meeting the costs of raising a child. We support short breaks for foster carers and make payments where short breaks are not taken. There is a weekly fee, paid monthly, determined by the needs of the child or young person. There is, quite rightly, a generous tax allowance for foster carers which means that the majority do not pay any tax on the fees and allowances paid to them.
We have foster carers who have made fostering their career. They started fostering and realised they were really good at supporting children and young people as part of their family and as a result stopped working and concentrated on fostering. Every one of our foster carers has a different story to tell, but each of them is successful and our children and young people thrive in their care.
Our objective is to ensure that children who are fostered have the same life chances as their peers, and to live in a wonderful family which can help them come to terms with the abuse or neglect they may have experienced. This will contribute enormously to enabling children to succeed in life as adults. The need for foster carers is at an all time high and we welcome any conversations from people who think they would like to explore more about becoming a successful foster carer in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire Norfolk and Suffolk.
If you would like more information about becoming a foster carer or our short break fostering option get in touch.
