Bedroom requirement question

[TeenLifeMum]

Dh and I have always had fostering in mind but circumstances have brought it to the forefront of conversations. Dc are 11, 11 and 15 all at secondary. We’d be looking at primary age and below. We have a small study that could take a single bed and chest of drawers. The rest of the house is big enough to accommodate extra people.

Now to my question… would a bunk bed be suitable to enable siblings to stay together? Obviously unrelated dc couldn’t share but we could get a bunk bed for sibling situations. We’re looking mostly at emergency care (I’m concerned admit longer term stays and the impact on my dc when they leave) and I imagine many dc are siblings rather than single dc and tearing them apart would be scary. Or would we need to stick to one dc only?

We’re currently ensuring we’re fully informed before heading down this route. Thank you!

Having bunk beds in a small study may be an issue as also might be the case if there is only one bathroom and 7 people. It's a call that individual fostering agencies will make. I would measure the room in question and put it to the LA/fostering agency and let them decide. Best to ask up front to save lots of time being wasted.

Also our LA has rules about what age can go in bunks if you are looking at very young children

The LAs that I’ve dealt will only allow siblings of the same sex on placement to share, and only for under 5s, so you may find the addition of the bunks unnecessary.
Also, in my experience, sibling contact has never included sleepovers.

Thanks @WetLettuce2 . One bed and one dc would be best for us but I hate the idea of splitting siblings. Room isn’t big enough for 2 singles though. We’re looking at emergency or respite care.

I foster and my agency states so many square metres per child, so bunks for same sex siblings ok if in a large bedroom. Bunk beds in tiny bedroom would be claustrophobic. Would you think it was ok to put 2 of your own kids in bunk beds in tiny room? You have to treat foster children as good as your own DC or it won't work. Many foster children already have issues so squashing them together in a study size room would make them worse.

Don’t think of it as splitting up siblings. That’s not in your remit anyway as a FC, that’s for SW/LA to decide. If there was a sibling group which the LA wanted to keep together, they look for a placement that could accommodate them. Sometimes they decide to deliberately split up siblings if they feel it’s in their best interest. This has happened with me a few times when I was meant to be having 2 siblings, but they decided they’d be better doing respite separately so I ended up with 1.
I’d suggest you do the one room with one child in mind.
Good luck !

No one is going to care about square footage in emergencies. Everything is better than being stuck in a police station overnight.

Don't worry about how your DCs will react when FC leave. Everyone will breathe a sigh of relief.