How to choose a fostering agency

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I'm looking at fostering now that my children have left home. I'd be looking at older teenagers or mother and baby placements ideally, rather than younger children.
I filled in an online query form, thinking that it was for a local authority, but it was actually a general query form, and I'm now being bombarded with emails/information packs/phone calls.
I believe that you can only be assessed by one agency - so how on earth do I decide which one?
Are they all much of a muchness, in which case I'd probably go with the one with the nearest office/address, or are there huge differences?

I've tried googling, but obviously I'm not asking the right question.

Any experiences with agencies in the Surrey area at all? Good or bad, all advice welcome :)

Hi that sounds great what you want to do, a lot of people come into fostering looking to support younger children, and there seem to be many teenagers/young people who need support.

The first thing to decide is if you want to foster for a local authority, or an independent agency IFA. Initially, local authorities look to place children with their own carers, so if you are with them you could be more likely to get placements. Some local authorities (including one I am with) really need placements for teenagers and pay experienced foster carers a wage, so it might be worth asking if this is available. You could foster for a neighboring local authority, it doesn't have to be where you live, within reason!

Some IFA's are charities, or non-profit organizations. They are paid by local authorities to provide placements, and some are businesses that make a profit. It would be up to you if you agree with the ethics of this.

IFA's don't have their own children, they are referred from authorities so you could get a 'harder to place' child. They might be older, have special needs or behavioral issues. Agency social workers could have less carers to support, so you get more support and help, and they may 'pay' more.

It would be ok to approach a few agencies, BAAF (British Association of Adoption and Fostering) have links from their web page, and ask questions about what support is available, how quick they assess, what sort of placements they offer.

Just have a chat with them, read their info packs, maybe go to open days see how you feel and who you are most comfortable with. As long as you don't start an assessment with anyone, that is fine. Hope you get on ok.

Excellent advice from Ethiad.

I'd just add that, should you choose to go with an agency rather than a loal authority, you really need to ask the agency exactly how many children they've placed within the last few months. As the purse strings get ever tighter local authorities are using agencies less and less - my own LA haven't used agencies for some time now.

I foster teenagers with an agency. As scarlet suggested, I'd have a chat with a few and ask how many carers they have on their books with current placements and how long the average wait time is between agencies. And also get hold of their Ofsteds. Our agency has been great but I know of carers who came on board a year ago and have never had a placement. Also, a lot of the old children homes are being closed down. This has meant that there are a number of specialist schemes for carers who are willing to take one placement, and who have no birth children at home. There is a pretty large allowance for this, but you'd have to go into it with your eyes wide open, so to speak, as the children could be extremely challenging - hence being sole placements.

Thank you for the advice! It's a confusing issue for the uninitiated :-)
I don't actually have children living at home any more - mine are 23 and 24 and live away from home now - hence having the space.

I will look at the local authority first I think - there is a local meeting for potential foster parents locally later this month with one agency too that I will go to. I'll keep my options open until I've got more information.
Brilliant advice to check how many placements and wait times - I had no idea what questions I needed to ask.

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions as I find out more... again, thank you :)

Good idea to go to the LA rather than an IFA. I know Ethiad said that some IFAs are charities or non-profit organisations, but all this means is that they don't pay shareholders, so it doesn't stop the directors taking large salaries for themselves. IFAs are businesses and their main issue is to make profits........they charge LAs very large sums of money to "sell" the families that they recruit and approve to them. They don't usually explain this to applicants for obvious reasons.
It boils down to whether you want to line the pockets of the directors of IFAs or foster for the LA, and be more sure of placements. This govt as you may know has slashed the budgets of all public services and LA SSDs are really struggling and will only "buy" an IFA placement as a very last resort, and then when one of their own carers has a vacancy they often move the child back in house because they can't afford IFA fees.

It's "buying" and "selling" children really but the govt love any kind of privatisation, so it is allowed to continue.

From my experiences I get an awful lot more support from my IFA than do my LA compatriots.
Pur agency tends to get more challenging children and sibling groups that the LA can't place. I am happy with that.