Overview
A Foster Carer provides a safe, nurturing, and supportive environment for children and young people in need of care outside their family home. This role involves building trusting relationships, offering emotional support, and ensuring the child's well-being and development are prioritised. Foster Carers play a vital part in helping children overcome past difficulties and thrive in a stable, caring setting. The position is paid and requires a compassionate, patient individual or couple who are committed to making a positive difference in young peoples lives.
Why foster?
There are so many great reasons to foster. Here are just a few that we hear from our carers:
- It’s rewarding to make a difference to the lives of children and young people
- It’s a chance to give back to society by helping others
- It’s an opportunity to work with children and young people and develop new skills
- It’s a role that fits in around your lifestyle, particularly if regular working patterns don’t work for you
You can foster a child if:
- You’re under 30
- You’re retired
- You’re single
- You have children
- You don’t have children
- You’re LGBTQ+
- You’re disabled or have a health condition
- You rent your home
As part of the fostering assessment process we’ll talk to you about your experience, your lifestyle and your support network, as well as visiting your home. This will help us decide if you could be approved as a foster carer.
To be able to foster a child, you’ll need to meet the minimum foster care requirements.
You’ll need to:
- Be 21 years old or above
- Be able to pass an enhanced DBS check
- Have a spare room that's suitable for fostering
If you meet these basic criteria for fostering, the next step is to understand your lifestyle, for example, your home, your work schedule, your health and your support network. This helps us to understand if you’ll be able to meet all of a foster child’s needs.
Things to know about your foster care payments:
- You’ll be paid a fostering allowance for each child you look after
- You usually won’t pay any tax on your fostering allowance
- Most state benefits aren’t affected by your fostering allowance
- You’ll need to register as self-employed and pay National Insurance Contributions
When you apply to become a foster carer with National Fostering Group, we’ll support you every step of the way. We’ll talk to you about fostering and how it could fit in with your life, so you can decide if it’s the right choice for you. Then we’ll guide you through each stage of the assessment process. We’ll even introduce you to some of our current carers, so you can learn firsthand what fostering’s really like. Throughout, we’re always on hand so you can ask any questions.
The first step is to get in touch.
Benefits:
Work Location: Remote
