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Fostering in Hitchin

Fostering in with Sunbeam Pride Fostering Services:

Become a foster carer in Hitchin with Sunbeam Pride Fostering Service.

Sunbeam Pride Fostering Service (part of Sunbeam Fostering Group) is an Independent Fostering Agency registered with Ofsted providing high quality and well supported fostering placements for a diverse range of looked after children and young people across Hertfordshire.

Over 70,000 children live with almost 55,000 foster families across the UK each day. This is nearly three-quarters of the over 98,000 children in care away from home on any one day in the UK. Every year thousands of new foster families are needed (Fostering Network). More than 9,200 foster carers are needed only in the current year (2023) and this is increasing every year as more children are coming into care. To support and provide a loving family home to these looked after children, Sunbeam Pride is always looking for foster carers in all over Hertfordshire. If you live in Hitchin want to know more about fostering and would you like to become a foster parent, then we can help with your fostering enquiry. We provide free training and support with generous fostering allowances to those fostering in Hertfordshire.

To begin fostering in Hitchin, fill our call back request form and a member of our local staff will be in touch with you soon.

Sunbeam Pride works closely with Hertfordshire council and currently hold framework contract with them. We are one of the small numbers of agencies work with Hertfordshire. We have a number of foster carers and looked after children in Hitchin. We are committed to building the availability of foster carers within Hitchin, to meet the needs of the children and young people living in the local community.

Sunbeam Pride Can offer:

  • Dedicated local support from the social work team
  • Regular home visits
  • Free ongoing training and development programme
  • Local support groups for foster carers
  • Local support groups for children and young people
  • Family fun days and activities throughout the year
  • Annual Awards ceremonies

We are recruiting across Hertfordshire including:

  • Watford
  • Hemel Hempstead
  • St Albans
  • Stevenage
  • Welwyn Garden City
  • Cheshunt
  • Bishops Stortford
  • Hatfield
  • Borehamwood

Fostering children is a way of providing a stable family life for children and young people who are unable to live with their birth parents for different reasons. We always want to hear from people who are new to fostering and would like to know more or experienced in fostering who would like to transfer to Sunbeam Pride Fostering Service.

If you are new to fostering, you don’t have to make a decision straight away. You can read more on our website. Some useful pages are, become a foster carer, fostering children, and fostering allowance. You can also download our guide to fostering which gives useful information about the role of independent fostering agencies, and foster care payments structures with Sunbeam Pride Fostering Service; as well as how to foster a child in your area and the main requirements for fostering children.

Sunbeam Pride was established in 2009 to provide specialist placements for children with complex and challenging needs as well as mainstream foster care. Sunbeam Pride is part of the Sunbeam Fostering Group, one of the largest and most progressive independent fostering agencies in London and the Midlands.

What our foster carers are saying

This job is probably one of my favourites. Every day is different, every day has new challenges and every day has new rewards. It’s not always easy but each challenge you go through with the child bonds you and makes you both stronger for each other.

We have been fostering for the last 8 years and feel proud to be a part of the Sunbeam family. At the beginning, we thought it’s a tough job, but the skills to foster initial training and the whole assessment procedure to become a carer was interesting, and it gave us both a broad insight into both the tough and rewarding side of what we were likely to encounter.

Hannah and Kashif
Hannah and Kashif

“Fostering is a rewarding experience as it allows you to actually make a difference for a child/young person. I feel happy being able to make such a difference whether it is for one day or several years.”

Asma
Asma

“When they told me that I had been approved for fostering, well I just cried. I was an emotional wreck and was so happy that I just couldn’t hold back my very, very, happy tears.”

Karen Thorn
Karen Thorn

I have grown both professionally and personally at Sunbeam.am very grateful for that, as fostering is my passion, and my job allows me to use my skills whilst doing what I love.

 

All the staff at sunbeam are friendly and helpful , I truly feel like we are all a family and its nice when we all get together when celebrating foster carers and children’s achievements as it shows off everyone’s hard work.

 

It’s a great place to work. All the managers are super helpful and are always looking after their team. I have grown a lot at this agency.

 

Working for Sunbeam has been very fulfilling for me. As I get to work for the community and get a chance to make a difference as child welfare is at the core value of this agency.

I have been in placement with my foster carers for 11 years. Sunbeam placed me with foster carers who have always treated me like a family member. Sunbeam has also been very supportive throughout all these years

 

Fostering changes life, I have experienced this first-hand. My foster carers have been very supportive of me and my siblings. They keep us motivated to do good in our studies and always stay involve.

 

Sunbeam organises many fun and informative days out for us regularly. We recently went to the University of Cambridge and attended their seminar on ‘Realise’ program for care leavers. I am really thankful to Sunbeam for organising this trip.

Children and carers receive practical and therapeutic support from the agency and enjoy regular social occasions to relax, enjoy and celebrate alongside staff and managers.

“All children make good progress within this agency, in all areas of their lives. They benefit from committed and dedicated foster carers who are effectively trained, and supported to meet the individual needs of children”.

Staff and foster carers alike referred to the agency as being like a ‘family’ when describing their experiences. The registered manager consults well with carers and staff, incorporating their views when monitoring the quality of care provided to children. The registered manager has good audit systems in place and maintains good oversight of practice.

“The agency delivers a consistently good quality of care to foster carers and children. Management and staff support carers and children in ways that exceed what they might expect. Foster carers spoke about the flexibility, motivation and wide ranging support they receive from the agency”.

We love to work with children and are really happy with the support that we are getting from Sunbeam. Our social worker is wonderful, we couldn’t have done it without her.

We are very happy with the support that we are getting from Sunbeam Fostering. We are provided with many interesting trainings and support group throughout the year which help us immensely.

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