I have applied to a private fostering organization and also to my la. I hve had both social workers come out and take details and explain the process to me and my husband about fostering.
Under normal circumstances i think i would go with la... but as we were smokers till new year and only been given up a few weeks, la said we cant foster for at least a year after stopping smoking. Private agency said it isnt a problem for them as we are interested in fostering older children and teens.
It is a dilemma for me. The sw from la was very nice and said it was a one off that they were even visiting us ..normally they wouldn't even entertain the application till we had stopped smoking at least 6 months but we had so much parenting experience as we have three boys with autism (my eldest is now 20 and living independently and i have 13 year old twins)..one of my twins is at a ballet school on a scholarship living away from home and the other at home with me and hubby.
I have thought about fostering for such a long time but never had the spare room and then made an enquiry with la about a year ago on phone and was told no cos we smoked. It is only now that we have stopped smoking that i decided to make the enquiry again and discovered that there were private agencies.
Both twins have their own rooms and i have a lovely big double room spare.
The private agency sw said they are busy in our area with placements but obviously couldn't guarantee anything and said that process of assessment would take about 4 months . LA would start process too but wouldnt take any of it to panel till we had bee stopped smoking for at least 6 months and aim to make our first placement in about a years time. It seems a long time to wait.
We are currently on Income Support and I am considering going back to my old job in civil service full time. I wanted to make enquiry about fostering before i made a long term decision about future work.
Sorry to have rambled on .. any advice would be helpful.
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scootbabe66 · 26/01/2013 13:09
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