WHY CHOOSE SUNBEAM FOSTERING AGENCY ?
At Sunbeam, we are proud of our standards and the support and training that we provide to our foster carers. We are driven by children’s needs, which means we take time with every child to tackle the problems he/she faces while encouraging positive behaviour as well as offering support with education, employability, and addiction and self-harm issues. We would welcome you take the opportunity to speak to one of our existing foster carers to hear this first hand. We have a good record in maintaining placements and this is due to our excellent matching process at the placement stage and also our prompt actions to address any concerns quickly.
Excellent care standard and support across the group. Our latest Ofsted report for London + South rated ‘Good’ with no recommendation and improvement. We offered 1,000s placements and over 1000 new placements made in the last 3 years. All our foster carers have 24-hour access to staff and support which is not just a promise but delivered 365 days per year. We offer a career path into social work and further national qualifications of fostering. Currently, we offer over 100 different trainings to our foster carers. Extensive information will be provided on fostering to help your approval process. Our strong focus on quality and better outcomes for children. Full support will be provided to you including a comprehensive induction to fostering once approved. Sunbeam Pride is sister registered agency in Luton and has the full support from the parent company, Sunbeam Fostering Agency, who have a proven track record. We have strong Local Authority relationships and secure many contracts to secure placements for you.READ MORE*
Why foster carers choose Sunbeam?
Foster Carers choose Sunbeam because we provide:
- High quality, professional extensive support
- Careful matching of placements with your family
- The chance to be treated as a fostering professional
- Regular support groups for foster carers and children
- Competitive fostering allowances to cover children’s needs
- Insurance cover for wilful damage caused by foster children
- Full support on a 24 hour basis through our out of hours team
- Comprehensive and progressive up to date training programme
- Management that values the work you do and cares about welfare
- Professional, experienced, qualified staff to undertake your assessment
- A supervising social worker who will be local to you and dedicated to supporting you
- Good placement levels due to our tenders with local authorities and several preferred provider relationships
- The opportunity to become an Enhanced Foster Carer for children with challenging needs. This may be a child with disabilities, autism or learning difficulties. We are following ARC Model for this which is being rolled out across the group to develop and promote foster carers’ skills, understanding and ability to intervene therapeutically.
Local Authorities choose Sunbeam because we provide:
- Good geographical coverage
- A prompt, professional, committed service
- Specialist placements for challenging children
- Highly trained and well supported foster carers
- Excellent outcomes against key performance indicators
- Fast response to referrals with in depth and careful matching
- A wide range of diverse placements to meet the individual needs of looked after children
- Competitive fee rates whilst not impacting on our quality of care or service
To support our foster carers, we provide free on-going training throughout the year on regular basis. This includes onsite, online and one to one trainings. All of our trainings are held locally to make sure it’s convenient for our foster carers. We also arrange for regular local support groups where newly approved foster carers have the chance to meet up our experienced foster carers and share their experiences with them. During working hours, all our team members (from supervising social workers to senior management) are available to speak to, if required. During out of hours, our dedicated team will be on hand to support you, should there any situation arises.
Full Support Provided
All children and young people placed with Sunbeam foster carers should have their own social worker from the relevant Local Authority who will keep in touch with them throughout their placement, make statutory visits and make care planning decisions with and for them. However, in addition to the child’s social worker, every Sunbeam fostering agency’s carer has his/her own supervising social worker to ensure that they are fully supported.
Full Support Provided
All children and young people placed with Sunbeam foster carers should have their own social worker from the relevant Local Authority who will keep in touch with them throughout their placement, make statutory visits and make care planning decisions with and for them.However, in addition to the child’s social worker, every Sunbeam fostering agency has his/her own supervising social worker to ensure that they are fully supported.
Your supervising social worker will
- Keep careful records of the progress of children placed with you.
- Support you in report writing and dealing with birth parents and local authorities.
- Arrange for any additional support services needed such as access to Support Services or respite care.
- Keep in frequent touch with you, your family and children/young people in placement through visits at least once a month and regular telephone calls.
- Identify training needs and help you to achieve your learning and development objectives including meeting the TSD (Training, Support & Development) standards.
Apply To Become a Foster Carer
What foster carers are saying about us!
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.
Hannah and Kashif
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.
Asma
“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.”
Karen Thorn
“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.”
