Anyone with Sefton, Lancashire or Liverpool LA.

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Hi. my DH and I are just at the beginning of considering fostering. Are there are Carers out there who are with Sefton, Lancashire or Liverpool City Council LA. I live in one LA but border the other two. If so would you recommend them?
Plus do any of these authorities accept application for fostering 0-2's if you do not have a spare room? and do they allow you to request babies/toddlers only? My eldest will be at Uni shortly so in a couple of years we will have a spare room permanently but not yet. Other than that my younger two girls (teens) are quite happy (translate that to would love) to share a room rather than have their own but would it be acceptable to a LA to put two of my own children together to 'create' a spare room.
We are particularly interested in emergency, short term and respite fostering rather than long term.
Thanks for any advice.

Hi, sorry I don't know about the LAs you listed, but I'd be wary of limiting yourself to 0-2s if you are going to be relying on the money. This was my initial approval but I've had to increase it to 0-10 in the last few years as this age group are now brought into care much less often in my LA - early intervention is cheaper than foster care. And great if it works.

I think my LA would be fine with you putting your own children in a room together if the girls were happy with that.

I don't think my LA is recruiting emergency or respite carers any more. Emergency placements go to regular short term carers, and respite doesn't exist! (Just discovered on another thread that this isn't the case everywhere though). Also, short term isn't always so short - most of my placements are 18 months +

Hope this helps somewhat, and that someone with knowledge of your LAs comes along shortly.

Thanks for the reply. We wouldn't be doing it for the money so how regular or not we had a placement wouldn't be an issue financially (though obviously the more regular the better from the angle of caring for a child in need) I just feel my forte is younger children and babies/toddlers in particular.