I am looking to foster but dont have my own children

[Hanz87]

I am 30 and my partner is 39 we are looking at heading to panel mid april however the social worker heading up the case seems fixated on the fact that we don't have our own children. If this is such a problem why were we not told earlier in the process as its making me worried that I won't be approved now. Any advice welcome.

The panel will want to see that you have experience with children, but this doesn’t necessarily mean having had your own. Requiring people to have their own kids would cut out a huge part of the potential fostering population! This can be through things like playing an active role in the lives of family members children or voluntary work. Challenge your sw on it. Not having your own children can also mean you are more flexible on the type of placements you can offer as you aren’t working around the ages and needs of your own kids,

I already work in the care sector for adults with learning disabilities and feel that I have many transferable skills. I have done a lot of research and feel that it something I would love to do but now I'm worried that i won't be approved.

I wouldn’t worry, no panel is not going to approve you because you don’t have your own children. Have your agency put you on your prep training course yet? They’ll talk about relevant experience on that.

I sit on a fostering/adoption panel for my LA. We have foster carers who have never had their own children. Just be prepared for this to be discussed in detail when you go to your panel. Be open to accessing any training they offer and say clearly that you will ask for help if you need it. Good luck!

Yes I've been on the course and we were recieved positively. I am keen to learn and not afraid to ask questions so I hope that does enable me to do well. I purposely picked an agency were the head office is 10 minutes away to allow my to participate in as much training as possible. I am really looking forward to fostering

My husband and I didn't have children when we were approved. We'd been married a number of years and I'd never got pregnant so we assumed there was a medical issue but my husband didn't want medical tests. So we decided to short term foster and keep trying, and perhaps later adopt in the future. I went to an information evening and a SW said they wouldn't accept people to foster who were trying for a baby. You either had to have completed your family or not be planning to start one for the next 5 years. So that's the line we trotted out during our approval process. We weren't trying for a baby for the next 5 years or so and would review things then. We were approved without problems.

Our first short term placement became our long term placement and are still with us. A bit over two years after they arrived I fell pregnant and the baby arrived when they'd been with us almost exactly 3 years. Fortunately they love her and no SW has had a problem with it.

Don't worry it should not be a problem and its certainty not a requirement of being a great foster carer. We didn't have our own children when we first started fostering. Instead we had experience through looking after nephews and nieces, I worked as a nanny and we also hosted teenage students from abroad studying English in our local town. All relevant experience. Now we have our own child and are getting back to fostering offering respite / short breaks. Good luck at panel, it's daunting but they will be a nice bunch who want you to succeed as there is a, great need for more carers.