To wonder how people can afford to foster

[Janepear]

The allowance is £140 pw and obviously you can’t work. We are just trying to work out how we could afford to do it. Anyone any ideas?

Ha she any once seenInstant Family at the cinema yet?
It's the Mark Wahlburg film about an idealistical couple who want to to foster. It based on the directors true expierences.

Well
Said Moonin

Thanks for posting that Moomin.

OP, just to give you an idea of why it might not be possible for you to work as well as fostering - this is what my diary looks like this week (currently fostering two children).

Monday - drop child 1 off at school half an hour away. Go back and pick up at 3pm and take child to contact with parent. Pick up 5pm. Take child 2 to swimming lessons (she is allowed to get bus to and from school, for some children though this wouldn’t be permitted)

Tuesday - same drop off for child 1, but pick up 3.30 from school and home.

Wednesday - same as Monday but child 2 not swimming. Social worker for child 1 visiting us st home after contact too - meeting may take about an hour.

Thursday - training session 10-2 then pick up child 1 at 3.30.

Friday - same as Monday.

Saturday - take child 2 to contact with dad.

Sunday - oh I think we’re free that day actually, yay. I might even get to spend some quality time with my own DD (age 11) while DP takes child 1 and 2 out somewhere.

All of this is not taking into account that in between the various appointments, you’re often dealing with challenging behaviour, arguments, refusing to follow house rules, etc etc. Can be quite exhausting.

First few years, I carried on working from home in my previous career, but it was very stressful and have more or less given it up now as fostering is my full time - and I mean FULL TIME - job.

An agency here pays almost double that per child per week. Plus tax credits. Plus child benefit. I think. Plus whatever else if they have additional needs... A lot of fosterers have 2/3/even more children from the same family unit.

@DaisyDreaming that would be a very rare event and generally as one is out another one is in within a matter of hours. The number of children vastly outweighs the number of carers

Actually Fiveredbricks, I think you will find you are posting misinformation; foster carers are not entitled to child benefit or child tax credits...or free school meals... or the winning lottery tickets/the answers to the newspaper crossword puzzle.

Just a word of warning with agencies that give high allowances, a friend fostered through one. To say the teenagers placed with her were challenging is an understatement. It had a very negative impact on her own children.

Before I had my own children, I used to wonder if fostering would be right for me.

Its only since having my own and finding out more about parenting, and also learning about fosterers, foster kids, attachment disorder and debunking various stigmas that I've realised I probably wouldn't have been right for it.

I was told you have to be able to give a foster child their own room. I've never had the spare room. Currently, now that we have bought our own flat, my two DDs share the boxiest boxroom you've ever seen. But, its ours completely.

I have a friend who fosters through an agency. If you have the room for multiple kids then You're likely to get a sibset, these are "hard to place" so end up through agencies despite not having additional needs or behaviour issues. She gets quite a substantial amount per month for the trio she has.

140 a week is so little. From that you be expected to save money for the child, provide food, clothing, toys, pay for activities as well as the fact that you still need to afford to pay your bills every month (which will likely also increase in some cases due to the additional people in the house) I imagine it's only people who can afford not to work that could foster on those rates

One thing I would seriously consider apart from the money is the impact a foster child would have on your own. The whole of the family dynamic will be changed.
If a child is removed from their family they have often ( but not always) suffered several Adverse Childhoods Expierences (ACE) this can have a huge impact on their development, how they socialis, who they trust etc.
Your children will be used to your set of rules, boundaries and consequences. A foster child may not have had these in place and will resent structure. Part of our team picks up the pieces when a placement breaks down and it is heartbreaking all round. The child faces another rejection , the foster parents feels guilty they have 'failed' the child and their own children.
I am not saying this happens in every case, of course not. There are plenty of successful placements but I have counted up how many kids we've had to support since last May and it is 54. That is a lot for our team. Most have gone into residential out of our area, some have had another placement and on several time that too has broken down and they've come back to us before moving on. Some have gone back to their family and two reached the age of 16 and was discharged from our team.
I had wanted to foster a few years ago. I would not consider it now. I've seen too many parents searching the streets in the early hours of the morning as a child is MFH or involved with serious CSE issues. I have seen people broken with guilt. I have the utter most respect for people who foster.

If you do decide to go for it I would advice that you really question the statement about the child, A lot of the descriptions I have seen are really sugar coated.

If you do decide to go for it I would advice that you really question the statement about the child, A lot of the descriptions I have seen are really sugar coated.

Outstanding, accurate advice

@User478 independent agencies are for profit only. They place children the council can’t and the council have to pay them up to 5 times what it would cost to place a child directly. People go to Independent agencies because sometimes they pay more but often just because they can afford to advertise more. It’s a horrendous situation that impacts children who need help the most

With regard to gaps between placements, it is very common where I am (a big city) to have gaps, often of weeks, sometimes of months. And during this time, most LAs pay no retention fee and you're not able to work because if a call comes, the child usually arrives that day.

It baffles me, because there is a shortage of carers, particularly for older children. Carers who only care for under-2s can be waiting months, sometimes several months, between placements as, in our LA at least, most carers only take babies. In fact, the LA stopped recruiting carers who would only take under-2s for a while.

So this definitely needs considering if you're giving up other paid work to foster. You need some savings put aside just in case. This, I think, is one of the reasons SS look very carefully into your finances during the assessment. They want to make sure that you have enough money to support yourself whilst fostering because they know they're not really paying enough to cover everything and all eventualities. And they don't want foster carers leaving soon after approval when they realise they can't actually afford to be foster carers. The whole system needs a real shake up in my opinion. It needs proper professional and financial recognition just like any other child care job. It has changed so much in the last 30 years or so, no longer is it about looking after a perfectly healthy baby who has been taken away from their single, teenage mum, for example. It's not just a nice thing to do for a child who can't live with their family and a loving family environment is enough for them. The threshold for removing children from their families is so very high these days that the children in care are the most traumatised and damaged children in society. They often need more than just a nice home and loving foster carers, they need proper, therapeutic parenting, and quite often counselling and mental health support too. Being a kind, well-meaning person is often no longer enough to be a good foster carer. And this needs to be recognised both professionally and financially. But it won't be. Because of money. And whilst ever it isn't, children are being let down and failed. Often time and time again.

Thanks for all the replies and info.

I think LAs are going to have to seriously reconsider this soon. It really is no longer the case that women aren't in employment and therefore available to foster.
If you want to do it then you would need to be available for a child who is 0-5. However when your own children are older, you might take on children who are school age so you would be more able to work.