Becoming Foster Carers

[elliedragon]

My husband and I have been discussing the possibility of becoming foster carers and we have no experience of it and it is totally new to us. Does anyone have any experience, advice about this?

[Duranfan]

Hi Elliedragon

I may be going down the adoption route, and I believe it's more or less the same process, but maybe less intrusive.

A good website to visit is Adoption UK, where they have loads of different forums for each scenrio.. but your first stop anyway is your local authority.. give them a quick call and ask any questions... they are there to help.

Good luck...

[Spacecadet]

a woman i know used to be a foster carer, your first port of call issocial services who will prob want to come and visit you to assess your suitibility, then you need to have all the relevant checks done etc..best of british! i beleive it can be very rewarding.

[Kidstrack2]

I am a former foster child. I was fostered most of my life. If you contact your local social services fostering and adoption team they will send you an information pack. Then if you want to proceed they send some forms out and they start the process of you becoming foster parents within a year.They do a home visit and they like you to have at least one spare bedroom. They dig deep into your background, police checks etc and you will have many training sessions! You can also become a childrens carer which is a newer system but involves more training. I have gone down this route myself but decided my family wasn't quite complete yet. So maybe in a few years I will continue with the process of it all.

[roisin]

Do you already have children elliedragon? Many SS are wary of placing children (especially older ones) in families with their own children, particularly of a similar age.

I think this is justified. My parents did long-term fostering, and I have to admit as a child I resented it, and in retrospect I still think it was not good for us as a family, and I wish they hadn't done it.