It explores foster carers’ employment before and after approval to foster, sheds light on their experiences throughout the approval process (including the support they receive from their fostering service and their employer), shares their opinions about combining fostering with other work and identifies what kind of support would help them. 

 

The report highlights that:

 

52 per cent of foster carers who were required to give up work to foster think stopping work was the wrong decision;

 

29 per cent of foster carers who work outside the home were expected to reduce their working hours by their fostering service.

 

Foster carers also reported that they felt pressured to give up work before they were approved as foster carers.

 

Dr Lucy Peake, director of development at The Fostering Network, said: “To recruit, and more importantly retain, foster carers with a wide range of skills, fostering services should not impose blanket bans on employment outside of the home. 

 

“We know that it can be difficult to combine fostering with another job and it is not always realistic nor in a child’s best interests for a foster carer to work outside of the home. But we also know that some foster carers will have the time, capacity and energy to combine fostering and another career, while meeting their fostered children’s needs. This report shows us there is much that both employers and fostering services can do to make this work successfully for all involved.

 

“Moreover, where foster carers are told that to foster they have to give up work, they need assurances that they will be financially supported throughout the year and whether or not they have a placement.” 

 

The Fostering Network is developing the Fostering Family Friendly Employers scheme and will support employers to develop good practice. We will also be encouraging fostering services to improve flexibility and support for foster carers who also take on additional work. 

 

Children and families minister Edward Timpson, who grew up with over 80 fostered brothers and sisters said: “I want us to recruit more foster carers from a wider range of backgrounds and to remove barriers that may stand in their way.

 

 

You can download the full report from The Fostering Network’s website.

 

 

For more information contact The Fostering Network press office on 020 7620 6425 or email media@fostering.net. Follow us on Twitter @fosteringnet

 

 

1. Over 63,000 children live with over 52,500 foster families across the UK each day. The Fostering Network estimates that at least 8,600 new foster families are needed across the UK in 2014 alone. In particular there’s a real need to find foster carers for teenagers, disabled children and sibling groups.

 

2. The survey and report are part of a two-year project, Supporting fostering services to recruit more foster carers, funded by the Department for Education and being carried out by The Fostering Network. The survey was completed by over 700 foster carers.

 

3. The Fostering Network is the UK’s leading fostering charity. By working with foster families, and the services that support them, we help all children and young people who are fostered to achieve the very best they can.