Respite Care

[Tw1nkle]

Hi!
We're thinking of applying for fostering in a few years (once we know we're not having any more children of our own).
However, I'd love to help in some way now - is there a big demand for respite care?
Ideally I'd love to 1 weekend a month - is that reasonable? Do you need to be a foster carer before you can do respite care?
Many thanks.

My own La are not recruiting for respite carers at the moment - thanks to the government cuts there simply isn't the money to train and assess respite carers.

(They're also much more reluctant to allow foster carers to use respite anymore.)

It appears that it is ok for foster carers to work all day, every day without a break. The system of respite is so fudged and unaccessable that we can't use it. Or non existent. There is an idea that we simply parent so don't need breaks. Sorry its not even me that has the respite issue. I gave up on the idea of time off a long time ago.
It depends on where you live. There may be forward thinking authorities that see the importance of respite and provide it. It is worth investigating as respite carers are worth their weight in gold. Actually if you can commit to something like one weekend every month you may get matched to a family with a challenging placement. Good luck

Hi Tw1nkle
The agency that I work for are always interested in recruiting respite carers. My kids go to the same respite carer every time and it's just like they are going to stay with a friend now :)
It's a great way to experience fostering without the full time commitment and a lot of respite carers do go on to be full time carers.
Good luck

My LA have regular respite carers and they can do as little or as much respite as they like.

I know there is a demand for respite for disabled children, at least locally. However you have to commit to 4 days a month. Financially it is not well paid though, only about £30 per night.

Tw1nkle just give your local council a call, cause as you can see it all depends on the area, in my area it looks like you may have respite every weekend or none at all for 2-3 months - it#'s a gamble really.

I think that it's ridiculous that some LA's won't let carers have some time off from children, I understand there's no money but I'm sure some carers would like time off even if it's unpaid. I mean how many birth parents care for own children 365 days a year? Kids spend time with extended families, with babysitters, apart from foster carers are usually not allowed to give the kids away... Wonder why people burn out..
Thankfully we are allowed 2 weeks of respite if required. We won't use it unless there's no other way but it's good to know we can..

In my area all foster carers can do respite, as long as they have the room of course. There are not any carers JUST approved to do respite, though this may well have been the case in the past.