Did you have to be a driver to foster?

[incognitomum]

A friend has been refused as a foster carer and reason stated is that he has to be a driver. I'm surprised as he lives in a town with very good public transport.

Meant Do you have to be a driver.

Nope. I know several who don't drive. However it is much easier if you do, particularly for contact and if current school are miles away.

It's such a shame he'd be brilliant

There is a huge amount of running around to do so whilst it might be possible it would hugely reduce the amount of children who could be put into care with that person. Thus I would imagine many agencies/LA would not want to invest the time etc into someone who is not suitable for the majority of placements.

For a lot of agencies it would be a preference that you have a driving licence / car, but it's not always essential. You will probably need to show that you can provide alternative transport for things like school or doctor’s appointments.

It's not for me. I'd probably like to foster but dh wouldn't plus our jobs aren't good for such things.

Hopefully he won't give up totally. Maybe he can look at another area?

In our country we have 6 local courses we have to go on and 6 courses 30-60 minutes drive away. 2-3 meetings a month (some at home, others aren't), an annual review meeting about 45 minutes drive away.

Contact for one of our foster children is 4 times a week a 5 minute drive away. We are still arranging contact for our second foster child, but it is looking like once a month, which is a 2 hour drive away.

That's before you add in what every child has, school, days out, clubs etc.

I think only when you start doing it do you realise how much travel is actually involved.

County*

Thanks Tacca.