FOSTERING CHILDREN
Fostering a child is a great service to brighten their future. Fostering is defined as taking temporary parental responsibility for a child outside of your own family. This is usually a child that has been placed into the care of the local authority who will then seek to settle the child into a family home environment.
Fostering Children
Fostering a child is a great service to brighten their future. Fostering is defined as taking temporary parental responsibility for a child outside of your own family. This is usually a child that has been placed into the care of the local authority who will then seek to settle the child into a family home environment.
Choosing to foster children can be a challenging but ultimately rewarding experience, providing a child with a secure, safe and loving environment is one of the most generous gifts that you can give.
At any one time, there are around 65,000 children in the UK being cared for by local authorities for a variety of reasons, these children vary in ages from babies through to teenagers, each with their own different personalities and needs. Providing a temporary home for a child is something that a lot of people have considered but may not know very much about how it works and who is eligible to become a foster carer. Put most simply, if you have a spare room and can offer a safe, nurturing environment to a child in need then you’re halfway there.
There are many reasons why children need foster care when their biological family is no longer able to look after them. Most of the time this is temporary and in some cases permanent. A child can be with a foster family for as little as one night and there are plenty of cases where the child or young person has stayed with the foster family until reaching adulthood but remaining part of the family.
Why Do Children Need Foster Care?
There are many reasons, why your foster children or young people come into care, two cases are not the same and each child will have different needs.
Most of us hear the words foster care and think of problem teenagers being passed from home to home and making the lives of the foster carers difficult but the range of services provided as a foster carer differ from person to person depending on their skills and experience much less of the lucky-dip scenario that is generally presented by TV programmes. If you would like to foster a teenager that’s great but there are other options too for those who would like to foster babies or younger children.
Matching According To The Children’s Needs And Foster Carers’ Skills And Strengths
Some people may be better suited to foster babies and small children. Others may have more experience with older children and may want to foster teenagers.
There are then special cases where a child may be born with difficulties or a disability. In these cases, a foster parent who is approved for children with disabilities is identified.
These babies can be very ill due to being born into difficult circumstances such as being born to parents with drug withdrawals or being born with disabilities, in these cases a specialist foster carer will be asked to look after the baby as these children have different needs to other babies.
Similarly to this, someone who is experienced with toddlers and babies would not be matched with caring for teenagers. Fostering a teenager comes with its own set of complex challenges and a foster parent who has experience with teenagers would be better suited in this situation.
These are just a couple of examples to show just how different each situation can be, every foster parent has a unique set of skills that helps foster children relate to them.
There Are Several Types Of Fostering Service Provided To Children:
01. Emergency Care:
02. Respite Care:
03. Long-Term Fostering:
04. Bridging Placements:
05. Solo Placements:
06. Asylum Seeker Placements:
Will I Be Paid For Fostering Children?
All foster carers receive a fostering allowance which will be paid by your Local Authority or fostering agency. The rates do depend on your Local Authority but the government has set a minimum rate of pay for foster carers. The payments depend on a few factors such as the age of the child, their needs, and your location. As a foster parent, you will be classed as self-employed but income from foster care is not counted towards any DWP benefits, there are also other tax reliefs available for people who foster children.
You may decide that you can accommodate more than one foster child. This is generally the preferred case for siblings, it can be far less traumatic for the children if they can be kept together while in foster care as it provides them with a sense of familiarity and continuity.
Choosing to foster can be tiring, stressful but one of the kindest and most selfless acts that someone can do. Providing a home to some of the most vulnerable in society has its own reward, many foster parents say that this gives them a sense of fulfillment, unlike any other career or vocation. Knowing that you have played a vital role in the nurturing and development of the lives of these children and young people is something to be proud of and something to cherish. Foster families are often a key part of helping struggling families get back on track. Unspoken heroes of many communities, the country relies on its network of foster parents to provide stable loving homes for children and teenagers who would otherwise have nowhere else to turn.
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