WHAT IS FOSTERING? – WHAT IS FOSTER CARE?
Fostering is a way of providing a stable family life for children and young people, who are unable to live with their parents at a point in time. This allows children the chance to thrive in a safe, secure, loving and caring home environment with foster carers.
WHAT IS FOSTER CARE?
Fostering is a way of providing a stable family life for children and young people, who are unable to live with their parents at a point in time. Foster Care allows children the chance to thrive in a safe, secure, loving and caring home environment with foster carers. The children and young people placed with foster carers are from a diverse range of backgrounds and will display different behaviour depending upon their various experiences.
All children and young people are different, making it difficult to define a “typical child”. However, what you can expect is that, as with any child or young person, they need security, stability and the chance to develop and thrive with carers who understand what is fostering and have empathy for the child’s situation.
Foster Carers
Foster Care is different from adoption, because an adoption order ends a child’s legal relationship with their natural family, whereas looked after children (the children in foster care) remain the legal responsibility of the local authority and/or their birth parents.
Foster carers placements can last for days, months or even years. Many children return home to their families but others may receive long-term support; either through continued fostering, adoption, residential care or by being helped to live independently.
Sunbeam strives to find fostering solutions for the many young people in care. For this reason, Sunbeam provides various types of foster care and training to teach carers all about what is fostering.
Sunbeam specialises in offering different types of placements and fostering solutions.
How To Foster A Child
The decision to foster is an important one. How to Foster a Child is an important question for anyone considering fostering, and requires a lot of thought and consideration. Sunbeam has created a specific Guide to Foster Care to help you decide if fostering is right for you, and answer the question of how to foster a child.
Foster Care
Although fostering a child is a major decision, Sunbeam has created an informative guide and a step by step online application, to make to process of Foster Care as streamlined as possible.
Fostering a child will no doubt change your life, and it is best to get as much information as possible. Read our insightful foster carer profiles on Foster Care and their experiences and advice to those seeking to enter the profession.
With the right background and support, fostering a child can be a rewarding experience. As an private fostering agency, Sunbeam aims to support and guide all its foster carers on how best to foster a child by providing up to date training and development, and staff committed to the welfare of both children and foster carers.
Can I Become A Foster Carer?
We aim to ensure that each child’s needs are met and matched as closely as possible, we use the following selection criteria:
Applicants able to accept teenagers
Applicants comfortable with parents visiting their home.
An ability to reflect on life experiences and to mature through them.
Previous employment or experience in children’s services – paid or unpaid.
If living with a partner/ spouse, the relationship should be established and secure.
Applicants who show a willingness to work towards meeting care standards for fostering.
An ability to see beyond children’s behaviour, and to link it to past trauma, where applicable
An empathy for and natural ability to nurture children traumatised by separation from their birth families.
Applicants with particular skills and experience in specific areas as learning difficulties, medical problems etc.
Applicants with experience of previous fostering and/or close involvement with someone who has already fostered.
About Sunbeam Fostering Agency
Sunbeam Fostering Agency has local offices around the country, and we continue to develop and maintain close, personal relationships with our carers and the local communities we support. We do our very best to make sure that every fostering experience inspires confidence and creates wonderful opportunities for the foster child and the fostering families.
We know that care is a community effort. That’s why we build excellent relationships with local authorities and the wider communities we serve. Together, we strive to meet the needs of foster carers and fostering a child, whatever the challenges these young people have faced in life so far.
Support is what keeps fostering working, and we’re dedicated to encouraging our amazing foster carers to grow with us. We support them totally so they can make real differences to a child’s life. Our unrivalled support and training is shaped by our carers and tailored to meet the needs of the children.
>We are delighted that so many other dedicated individuals, couples and families have joined us throughout the years to make Sunbeam Fostering the outstanding agency, it is today.
STEPS TO BECOME A FOSTER CARER
The process of becoming a foster carer is summarised below. You will receive full support at all stages and help with anything you are unsure of.