Does my Fostering Agency Need to be Near Me? How do I Become a Foster Carer?

Fostering support

When deciding on your fostering agency there can be many considerations including your support, training you will receive, foster carer payments and the Ofsted rating of the fostering agency. You are looking for an agency that will provide a skilled and committed social worker, provide relevant and well delivery training and is rated “good” or “outstanding”. All fostering agencies are rated by Ofsted providing a clear indicator of their quality of care.

Do you need to live close to your fostering agency?

We live in an virtual world now with more contact through video calls, mobile and online interaction. However, spending time together face to face is important. There are challenges and issues in fostering that are best covered and discussed face to face together. For example, if you are exploring how best to deal with challenging behaviour for a child or young persons. Through meeting other foster carers, this can be a problem shared and understood together.

You therefore would want to be close to your fostering agency to travel and spend time with others. Your fostering agency can hold support groups, events and training together. At Beacon Fostering, we look to bring people together and talk through challenges together.

Training can also be better held together at a local location.

If you a placement challenge with a child or young person, you also want your social worker to be close by to visit, again making your support being local an important consideration.

How do I become a foster carer?

The steps to becoming a foster carer are involved but not a difficult as it may seem. The most important areas are having time, energy, commitment to children and a spare room.

It is your first step to know about fostering and that it is right for you overall. This can be covered at the first stage of your fostering process.

1. Enquiry and initial visit

You should start with learning about fostering, the types of children you would support and expected support levels. You can cover all the questions at the outset. Your fostering agency or local authority can visit you to discuss the application process, checks required, references and other requirements to become a foster carer. Each foster carer has to complete relevant training called “Skills to Foster” initially and then complete annual ongoing training. Safeguarding training is a key requirement.

Financial support is a consideration and discussing your foster carer payment levels. These are for your reward and also to cover the children’s allowances.

If you decide fostering is right for you, then you apply at the next step.

2. Application

You complete an application form to formally apply to become a foster carer. This covers your full personal details, employment history, family relationships, health areas and other relevant personal information. Your fostering agency will receive this and it is important that it is held on a confidential basis.

3. Assessment process

A skilled assessor will complete a “Form F’ assessment with you. This involves several meetings and time together to discuss your parenting experience, skills and it is an assessment overall of your suitability to foster. The assessment process is between 2 to 4 months overall. You can also explore fostering in more depth and discuss your expected approval terms. This includes the age of the children you would want to support and look after. Also the placement needs including complex, enhanced or unaccompanied asylum seeking young persons, parent and child, or large sibling groups.

4. Checks and references

Alongside your assessment, there are key safeguarding and personal checks. These include DBS, personal referees, medical and local authority. These are undertaken on a confidential basis by your fostering agency.

5. Skills to foster

This is targeted and focused training on fostering to prepare you to look after a child an and young person. It covers all the key areas across interactive sessions by a skilled and experiencer trainer. You can ask questions and discuss any specific areas also as you develop your fostering knowledge.

6. Panel attendance and representation

When your checks and assessment are complete, then you are ready to attend “panel”, this is with a small group of fostering professionals that representing your fostering agency. It is similar to an interview but in a friendly and engaging manner. Your fostering panel will explore with you around your reasons for fostering and any other questions together.

7. Decision as approved foster carers

The fostering panel arrive at a recommendation from their review of your fostering assessment and time together at panel. When recommended for “approval”, an independent decision maker will review this and then complete a final decision. You are then approved as foster carers! You can then start your fostering journey following a induction with your fostering agency. This first child or young person would only be placed with you when you are ready.

Fostering is a brilliant positive experience as you are helping other. The overall process takes between 3 to 6 months on average. At each step, you will receive excellent support and help.

Foster carers required

Foster carers are urgently required across all local areas across the North West. Beacon Fostering is recruiting in Manchester, Liverpool, Warrington, Preston and Blackpool. We are local in these areas and our team are from the North West also.

Frequently Asked Questions About Becoming a Foster Carer

Frequently Asked Questions about Fostering

It can be hard to decide to be a foster carer and it is natural to have questions. This article therefore looks to cover key questions.

What are the key requirements to become a Foster Carer?

If you are asking yourself this question, well done!!

You are on the verge of making a difference in the lives of several children and young people in need of a stable family home. The key requirements are that you must have spare bedroom to accommodate a child in your home and must have time and availability to foster, as it would help to promote a sense of consistency of care in the minds of children and young people.

There is a shortage of foster carers across England, with an estimated 7,000 currently required.

What does the assessment process look like?

You will have dedicated support from your fostering agency throughout the assessment process. In Line with Fostering Regulations 2011, you fostering agency will undertake a telephone screening with you once you call us, following which we will undertake an Initial Visit to further discuss your interest in fostering and invite you to our 3 days Skills to Foster training programme. This is delivered virtually and face to face. Local training courses and support groups are held regularly.

The assessment process involves Stage 1 and 2. Stage 1 is basic information gathering, which entails completing your application pack, processing the statutory checks such as DBS, Medical, Local Authority checks, personal and professional references and Stage 2 encompasses your interviews with your Fostering assessor to build an overall view on your suitability based on your personal and professional life experiences, which are transpirable to fostering. You will attend Beacon’s Fostering Panel on completion of your assessment to receive recommendation on your suitability to foster. The entire process takes 3 to 6 months and you would receive tailored trainings to you during the assessment process to ensure you feel confident to embark on your fostering journey. Your assessor would visit you locally at your home.

Can I foster on a rented property?

Yes absolutely, you can foster, if you live in a rented property. However, you would need to provide your fostering agency with your landlord’s consent to foster in the property. You would need to be on a long term tenancy to ensure residential stability to a foster child as frequent house moves, could disrupt children’s continuity of education in their school and with their peer network.

Can I foster if I am not a British Citizen?

As per the Government Guidance in order to foster:-

You must have the right to work in the UK and be able to take care of a child or young person and offer them with sense of permanency.

It is recommended that you to check your visa status with Home Office, if you can foster and your prospects of living and working indefinitely in UK.

Can I foster if I am a single parent and also work full time?

Yes, you can foster as a single parent. Children and young people need a living and caring environment and this is what is imperative to fostering. It is important to recognise that due to work commitments, your availability to foster full time may be impacted and therefore, we encourage you speak to members within your family network, who can act as your support network and support you in fostering, whilst you are at work.

It is recommended that you to speak to your employer about your interest in fostering, to manage your working hours to fit fostering as your way of life, like you would do in terms of being available for your own children, friends and family members. It would be best to speak to your own children to ascertain their wishes and feelings around your intention to foster.

What is the difference between fostering and adoption?

Fostering is looking after children and caring for them until they transition into adulthood or rehabilitate within their own family network. At times, children move into residential units from foster care, if certain thresholds are met in terms of their level of needs requiring specialist input.

As a foster carer, you will not have legal parental responsibility for the children in your care. In Fostering, the legal parental responsibility is retained by birth parents and if the children are subject to Care Orders, then the legal parental responsibility is shared between the birth parents and the Local Authority.

As an adoptive parent, you will have legal parental responsibility for the chid. In Fostering, you will look after the children in line with their Care/Permanency Plan and work alongside Beacon and the placing Authority of the child.

Can I Foster if I have a pet?

Yes, absolutely, you can foster with a pet. Children and young people may find it stimulating, playful and soothing to live with a pet. However, your pet is subject to a pet assessment as a part of your fostering assessment process to ensure that they do not pose risk of injury to foster children and are fully vaccinated against infectious diseases.

Will I be paid as a Foster Carer?

Yes, you will receive competitive fostering allowances when fostering, which are payable when you care for children in your home. The allowances range from 450 a week to 750 a week for more complex placements, including parent and child placements. You will be exempt from tax as a foster carer. However, you must disclose to HMRC about your status as a foster carer, once you are approved.

How long will the children remain with us?

You will care for the children to ensure that they receive relational stability and consistency of care until they move on towards independence or within their family network. In some cases, children live with you for a shorter period known as respite, whilst their primary foster carers are on a break.

There are different categories to foster care, which are long term, short term, emergency, respite, kinship care and bridging placements. This will be discussed with you during your assessment process. It would be important to be able to offer children stability until they reach adulthood and help them transition from your care in line with their Care Plan formulated by their placing Local Authority.

Will I be receive information on the child, we would be caring for?

Yes, prior to every visit your social worker from fostering agency, will share with you a referral information form on the child, this would be looking to place with you. You will know about their background information, including information on their current routines, educational facility they attend, children’s legal status and level of contact with birth family and their long term transition plans.

Busy Moms’ Hacks For Nutritious Meals Minus The Mess

We’re all going hard and fast these days, so getting the gang fed needs to be achieved in as tidy a manner as possible. And yes, busy moms keeping their game tidy, saves them time. This is the hack you’ve been looking for! It’s not only possible to create nutritious meals minus the mess, it’s easy, and achievable in multiple creative ways.

Let me reduce your stress with these smart meal time hacks and thoughts for making meals more “time to share” and less “time to panic”. Your mom was right about her “clean as you go” philosophy. But what if you could almost completely eliminate the mess to begin with?

Forearmed Wins, Every Time!

What if you prepared the dry ingredients the night before? What if you focused less on complexity and more on simple flavors (like Italian food, for example)? Forearmed is part of the secret of making your family nutritious meals without the crazy mess and unpleasant stress.

Instead of flying in and out of the pantry in a frenzy, assemble what you need, and get it ready to go. Reserving a kitchen drawer for this purpose or creating an ingredient box that lives on the counter is a good way to keep ingredients organized. Dried herbs, salt and pepper, curry powder, chopped garlic in a container, and other non-perishables standing ready removes the stress!

When dinner time arrives, you’re not the pantry-whirling dervish. You’re the cool-as-a-cucumber food genius, assembling a simple but nutritious meal, neatly and expertly. Just a little forethought gives you mealtime peace of mind. And best of all, the mess you would have made doing things the old way is eliminated! No stress and no mess!

Keep It Simple, SuperChef

A hearty stew or soup is a meal when you keep it simple. Make a big batch of it, then freeze it in meal-sized portions. If you don’t have a deep freeze yet, save for one. The deep freeze has fed a lot of families well for many happy years, providing a way to keep the food coming even when you’re busy. The ability to feed the team well with foods that have been prepared and then frozen has been making home Super Chefs’ lives easier for decades!

Add a hearty bread with butter. If you’re a heart-healthy, nutrition-conscious family, butter alternatives may stand in for the real thing. Either way, homemade soup or stew is a nutritious meal, prepared by you and on hand. Without making any mess at all, you’ve produced (as if by magic) a memorable and nutritious meal for the happy campers at your house!

Keeping Baby Mess-Free (The Impossible Dream)

Let’s be real. This is a baby we’re talking about. And we know the truth about babies, don’t we moms? Indeed, babies are messy little brutes. But you have ways of keeping that baby at least somewhat mess-free and perhaps less of a sticky, food-encrusted trainwreck!

Baby dishware, moms, is worth the price of admission. Keeping the food where it’s supposed to be (and not in baby’s hair), this stuff may seem frivolous but when you observe the dinner time mess it eliminates, you will change your mind.

Nutritious meals for baby, gratifyingly contained: Priceless! And you won’t miss finding the baby’s dinner on the dog one little bit.

The Magic of One Pot Meals

You may think the subject is worn out; tired. Perhaps. But if one-pot meals weren’t the bomb dot com, do you really think anyone would talk about them at all, much less incessantly? I think not! Because this is the only way to fly when you’re a busy mom.

Cut it up. Bung it in the magical pot. Leave it. A lovely meal is ready to eat as if prepared by mysterious kitchen faeries. It simply could not be easier to feed your team nutritious meals, mess-free. Even if you can’t cook your way out of a paper bag, they will love what comes out of your magical cooking pot.

I believe so strongly in these diabolically easy little buddies, I’m going to get you started on some recipes and bright food ideas. Run, do not walk to your nearest purveyor, and get the one-pot solution that solves mealtime mess!

Bust Out the Foil

Growing in popularity among busy moms and people, the foil packet has risen again from obscurity as a champion of family meal convenience. I’m a serious fan of this methodology. Simple yet delicious, the foil packet cooking technique makes it a cinch to feed the family with something nutritious, delicious, and a little “fancy”. That’s a home run at the home game if ever there was one!

Assemble the meal in the packet and put it in the fridge. When you’re ready, all you do is take it out and stick it in the oven. Nothing’s ever been easier than this mess-free alternative! While some may have questions about using a disposable container, there are alternatives to the foil packet, including small casserole dishes. Of course, these alternatives don’t have the same mess-eliminating power! Just saying!

Ready-To-Go Homemade Pizza

And back to the freezer we go for yet another mess-free hack for busy moms. The homemade pizza is so easy to thaw, add stuff to, and bake in the oven. Just pre-slice fresh mozzarella cheese and add fresh basil to the homemade marinara you’ve already spread on the pizza dough (which is insanely easy to make). You’ve got a Margarita pizza to pop in the oven, emerging uber-fragrant and savory. Don’t feel guilty if you cheat and buy the frozen pizza shells. No one will ever know!

A food saver with compartments holds the pizza toppings. You toss just toss them on to order! Then, into the oven they go where they’ll all land, one by one, on the waiting, warmed-up pizza stone. This is one of my favorite mess-free, nutritious meals, especially when adding items like fresh goat cheese, tomatoes, and sage, as well as seasonal vegetables.