Trying to decide ( Fostering)

[disneychic]

Hi,

This is my 1st post so here goes...

Hubby and I have been talking about fostering since we had our Daughter. We always had questions that neither had the answer to, so I thought it was time to get all the answers and facts so that we can make a decision once and for all!

We live in a 3 bed house, 2 children ( 3 and 6) 2 dogs, 2 gerbils, 2 fish, and a cat!
Both children have their own room, we are in the process of converting the loft, but it's a slow (and expensive)process.
How would this impact any possible decision made?? Would the child have to have their own room?

Also, I hear stories of Foster children being moved a number of times, are there reason's behind this?? Surely SW's don't just decide to move children on a whim, and do the Foster carers have any sort of input into these decisions?

We have lots of love and care to give, and our children are warm and excepting to everyone they meet, but I know there is lots more to Fostering then just being a nice Family. My Husband and I both have reservations wether or not we are strong ( if thats the right word??)enough to do this, so any advice will go down a treat!!

Gosh I am nervous already and I have only requested an info pack!!

We are looking into fostering too, disneychic, and have spent lots of time talking to the fostering service, and friends who are already foster carers.
I know there are foster carers on mumsnet who will hopefully be able to answer all your questions, but I just wanted to say good luck with it all!
I know it takes quite a long time, and lots of checks before you are allowed to take on a child, so there will be plenty of opportunity to ask any questions.
Would love to hear how you get on. What part of the country are you in?

we foster, we are in our first year of doing it.

Yes the child placed with you will need thier own room.

Our process before we went to panel was nearly 10 months.

If you register your interest you get invited to an information session that you have to attend and we found it very helpful.

as far as length of placement goes depends on you and what the needs of the child are, we are approved as long term placments so in effect we could have a cild for many years. We also do respite care and have regualar child. We also do emergency short term, so we had a child for 3 weeks over the summer before he went back home.

We dont have babies as these are usually only placed for under 12 months, we also don't have teenagers as we have a ds 7.

We also have 2 large dogs, cat, fish and stick insects. You have to fill out assesments for the dogs and some SW can get nervous about dogs, we are really lucky that our SW is dog potty.

We foster and have done for over 20 years.

Unless you decide to foster newborns it is expected that fc's have their own rooms. Even if you do foster tiny babies, as we do, they can often, due to court issues, be with you for more than a year so would likely need a room of their own anyway.

Fc's do sometimes have various moves between foster homes, sad but it does happen. This can be because the family find they cannot cope with the fc's needs/behaviour etc or because the fc is unhappy with that particular family.

I have never known this happen on a whim and as a foster carer you would be included in any decisions but you won't have the final say.

Hope this helps and please feel free to ask any other questions

Thanks very much to everyone for answering my post!!

We don't have a spare bedroom YET but maybe before the whole process is finished we will have.

@ bottersnike...Hi, I am from Cheshire and I don't really know anyone who fosters! So this is the only way we can get good info and advice, until we get our info pack of course. Good Luck with it all and keep us updated, I will be doing the same

Thanks again for the replies x

We had a good chat this week with a friend of ours who is a foster carer.
We think we will start by offering respite care, and see how we (and our boys) find it. If our house move plans work, and we get the house we have seen, we will a big spare room for longer-term foster children, and a smaller one for respite care.
It's lovely to hear that other parents are moving into foster care as well, as there seems to be such an urgent need for foster parents.
Would love to keep in touch, disneychic My mum is in Cheshire (Macclesfield), whereabouts are you?

Hi bottersnike

The info pack from the LA arrived on Friday, but me and Hubby have yet to find a couple of spare hours to give it our full attention, so it will probably be tomorrow now.

We live in Winsford, Macc is about 30 mins away.

Would love to keep in touch with you too, I will let you know how we get on after we have read the pack

Hubby and I have read through the info pack and are going to go to the next step.
Hubby has really surprised me, he is really keen to get going!! (He scares easily lol)

I am going to give SS's a call tomorrow to let them know. The only thing now is that we have a huge Family holiday coming up in October and we don't want to start fostering (if we are approved) until after that. I will just explain to the SW and see what she advise's.

Short and intermediate foster care seems to appeal to us, but I suppose that could all change as the process continues.

Pleased it's going well! We have just received the info pack too, and are waiting till we've moved house to then start the ball rolling with checks etc.
Our friend has warned us that SS don't hold back when asking questions, so be prepared for some really personal ones

yes they certainly will ask very intimate questioning!

Also we found that lots of peoploe dropped out after the 4 week course, we found that thise who are easily scared would be after the course as they like to tell you all the negatives frequently. It is a bit daunting but you have to remember why you wanted to do it in the first place, and not scare easily. It is all worst case scenario.

I would imagine you would just be approved in october so hopefully all goes well and it wont mess up your holiday.

I am so glad you have decided to go ahead. good luck.