I want to become a foster carer.

[hellogoodbye]

Hello. I have always wanted to become a foster carer, but my DH wouldn't agree to it, well he has moved out so I don't have that problem anyway!

Is there a minimum age you have to be?

Can you say what age groups you would like to foster? I am in my early 20s so wouldn't feel comfortable having a teenager for now really (unless they were very well behavied but I am guessing thats unlikely!)

I am a registered childminder, could I still carry on with doing this? I only have one child of my own.

I have a baby - will this effect whether I can foster or not?

I have a spare room, with a bed and cupboard etc, would this be enough? Its not massive and the bathrooom is then downstairs?

Any advice would be great!

Hi hello, Dh and me have been fostering for almost 21 years.

I think you have to be 21, not sure about that though, we choose to foster newborns because it's an age group we love caring for. Yes you can say which age group you'd like.

I can't see any good reason why you can't foster and childmind and lots of carers have babies/children of their own. I think they like the fostered child to be the youngest one.

Good luck

Not got much to add from what Flower said, but just to clarify you can specfy which age range, but they don't always stick to it! We were approved for two 5-10 year old kids and ended up with three who were 3,4 and 6 when we first got them!

We were also told they like at least a two year age gap between birth and foster children to avoid conflicts of interest and whilst the foster child is normally the youngest that doesn't have to be the case. I had a friend who had a baby girl and fostered an 8 year old boy.

The only difficulty with the childminding is that there tend to be lots of meetings you need to go to and you may find you are struggling to do both. The experience you have will be invaluable and help you to foster. Some foster carers are paid a fee plus the allowances so maybe you could afford to stop child mnding and just foster?

I would contact your local authority social work department and find out more. Most likely they will first send an information pack and if you are still interested you can go to an information evening or have a visit from a social worker to talk through whether it could work for you (personally I'd do both).

Good luck
Bop

hellogoodbye, we're pretty similar! I'm single with a toddler, have been childminding for a little while now and am in my (late) 20s. I was approved to foster last year, I started the process when my dd was a year old and have been waiting for a placement for 9 months. I'd recommend phoning local authorities near to you as well as independent agencies to see what they say. I contacted quite a few but only 3 agreed to come out to see me (the others had issues with me renting and my dd being too young). Of the 3 I saw, 2 were happy (the LA needed me to be in a 3 bedroom house to start the process and I couldn't afford to move at the time), and I went with the one I felt most comfortable with (an IFA). The approval process went well and only took 4 months, and I was approved for one or two children up to age 7. It's been a while waiting for a placement, and that's why I decided to start childminding. I also moved to a bigger house in the time between approval and now. In the last month I've had a couple of possible placements but haven't been able to take them - one was an older girl who I didn't feel comfortable with accepting because of safety issues regarding my dd. The other one was two small children, which I would have taken if I hadn't been working - the regulations of no more than 3 under 5 meant I couldn't take the children as my mindees are here some of the time. So after a lot of thought I've decided to end the childminding contracts and wait for the next placement as things seem to have picked up with the agency and they're getting more referrals. I did think about doing both but my agency have said it's not practical as I'll have to be available a lot of the time for meetings etc. And I don't want to wear my self out too much with kids here 24/7 and mindees week days!! Hope that helps

There was a woman on our fostering course who is a single mum with one child and who also childminds but her child is school age (though primary school and not that old) so I think she is OK to do both because she doesn't have to look after her own child during the day when he is at school and her mindees are there.