could you foster

Proud to foster and proud to support fostering. Here is Kevin Williams, The Fostering Network's chief executive, closing statement as Foster Care Fortnight^TM draws to an end after two fabulous weeks.

Fantastic, you’ve been through the process of pre-approval training, assessment and panel and now you’ve been approved as a foster carer. That’s great news. But what can you expect next?

So, you’ve made the decision that you’d like to become a foster carer. You think you have the right skills and experience, you have the desire to offer a safe and caring home to a child or young person…and, of course, you have a spare room. Now what happens?

Becoming a foster carer will typically take around eight months from the first enquiry. There is a series of visits and assessments with a social worker before and final interview with a panel which will make a decision as to whether you will be approved to foster.

This sounds quite onerous, but it’s a very important part of your fostering journey – it gives you plenty of time to ask questions and reflect on what it will mean being a foster carer (not just for you, but for your family and friends), and allows your fostering service to ensure that you are going to be a good foster carer.

This blog gives a summary of the various stages of becoming a foster carer. For more comprehensive information read our frequently asked questions.

There is currently a need for at least 8,100 new fostering families in the UK over the next 12 months to ensure that every child entering foster care can live with a family which meet their needs. There is a specific need for foster carers to look after teenagers, sibling groups and children with disabilities. Without more people coming forward to foster there will be less choice for fostering services which could result in children facing considerable disruption such as being sent out of their local area to live – away from their support networks including friends, teachers and extended family.

Every 20 minutes a child comes into care in the UK in need of a foster family to look after them for as long as they need it – sometimes a few days, other times a whole childhood.

It took many years for foster parents to habitually be called foster carers. At the Fostering Network we thought this a significant and positive change in language because it reflected an increased understanding of the role. The responsibility – and the complexity – of the task has grown exponentially over the four decades the network has been in existence, and the change of title was an important step in recognising this.

But following the fostering stocktake in England, that important change appears to have been undone.  Over the last couple of months the Department for Education and others appear to be using the term “foster parents” as their descriptor of choice.