Housing requirements

[erinaceus]

This is more of an idle question at this stage but I have been thinking about it.

After my marriage broke down a few years ago we sold our marital home and I bought a one-bedroom house where I have been living ever since.

I do not think I will have biological children now but had always had in mind adopting; now that my life has taken a different path I think fostering could be something I would be interested in. However (obviously) my housing situation is not appropriate for either.

I am loathe to go through selling my current home and buying a bigger one if I was only to then fail to be approved as a carer, a matter that might take quite a lot of thought because I have some disabilities in my history although I am doing well at the moment. Are foster agencies able to give you any idea how likely it is that you might be approved and/or whether you can take any steps to improve your chances, before you make such a big life step as moving properties?

Thanks to anyone who knows about this sort of thing. In terms of timeline I am thinking of in a few years’ time so there’s no hurry really.

Hi.
It may vary according to agency / LA but where I work you would need to be in the house that you will be fostering in, in order to be assessed. This is because your home needs to be assessed also, and you undergo a financial check so would also need to know/evidence outgoings such as mortgage, council tax bills. None of this can be theoretical.

there really is no way of known whether you will be approved until the end. The assessor can tell you that they think it’s likely but the panel have to agree and then the ADM has to agree. And if anything crops up last minute it can change the outcome.

you could talk to them and get a feel for if you wouldn’t be suitable and therefore not apply. But you’d need to go through the above to know if you’d be approved.

hope that makes sense!

Yes, that does make sense - and lines up with what I had inferred from reading a little bit of what I was able to find.

Thanks for confirming, that is helpful.

I sit on fostering panels for my LA. I know on at least one occasion we agreed a carer who was selling her city flat and moving to another town near family and to suitable accommodation. We knew it was going to happen though and it was greed no children could be placed with her until she had moved and a risk assessment done on her home. There is no harm in opening up a dialogue with your LA about their expectations.