Becoming a Foster Carer: Home Visits

Hi, I'm Sandie and I'm the fostering manager here at St Christopher's in the West Midlands. My top team of social workers complete our home visits. These take place after you enquire about fostering and we think you might be suitable to start fostering our young people. We're all local people who work in the area and we believe our team is special because we really want to make a difference for children and it's important that our foster carers want to do the same.

Children shared what they
thought a foster carer looked like

We'll call you and introduce ourselves. We think it's good that you know who'll be coming to visit you! Our visit will always be at a time when you (and your partner, if you have one) are both at home. Yes, we can visit at weekends and evenings! If you think it's appropritate for your own children to be there as well, that's okay too. We think they're an important part of any foster family.

We always ask that you keep your house how you'd have it on any other day. This is because the home visit is chance to get a peak into your everyday lives.

Although we do have questions to ask and paperwork to fill in, this is a really great chance for you to ask us lots of questions too.

We like to start by having a look around your house, especially as we'd like to see the bedroom you'd intend for a foster child. We need to make sure it can fit all the right furniture in and that it's a good space for a child to call their own. Of course, we don't expect it to be all ready for someone to move in. You'll have plenty of time to sort that out if you carry on with the process of becoming a foster carer.

Alongside the bedroom, we'll generally check that your home is a safe, clean space for someone else to come and live there with you and your family.

After we've had a look around, we can then chat with you and your family. Our questions cover lots of topics, including what fun things you like to do as a family, your life experiences, your family's health and your understanding of fostering and fostered children. We always like to discuss your answers and we always want you to ask questions as well. We want you to feel confident and comfortable with us as we'll be supporting you throughout your fostering journey.

Your social worker will check through all the paperwork after the visit and make sure it has as much detail as possible so we get the best picture of your family. I'll then decide whether to invite you to our preparation training. We'll always be transparent with you and we might sometimes ask for more information and we'll always explain if we can't progress you to the next stage. Honesty is always the best way forward and it's always great to talk to potential foster carers. Remember, your life experience is good. It makes you who you are today!

Foster Care Fortnight: Fostering and the Arts

Did you know that it's Foster Care Fortnight (June 1 - June 14)? For the next two weeks, we'll be taking a look at what fostering is and how St Christopher's supports young people and foster carers. 

Today we're focusing on fostering and the arts. Here's Joanna Treharne, supervising social worker, from our West Midlands fostering team, talking about the drama group she runs for local fostered children.

The Sparkling Stars drama group started in September 2014 as an opportunity for fostered young people and birth children to come together and explore expressing themselves through the medium of drama and performing arts. It's evolved into a regular monthly group. The initial target group was 11 to 16 years old but the young people who are committed are aged six to 14 years old. The group is made up of children who have experienced early trauma, attachment difficulties and some who have additional needs.

Jo does fantastic work with her
drama group for fostered children

Due to the young people's age and experience a lot of focus has been on group and social skills, voice projection, confidence raising, calming techniques and understanding how emotions affect physicality. The children have also picked up a range of drama skills, such as script writing, storyboards, costume design, developing characters and learning skills. This has been achieved through icebreakers, team building activities, drama games, singing, tongue twisters, dressing up, using musical instruments and learning meaningful poems.

The young people chose to perform their poems at our celebration event in November 2014 in front of 120 people. They said that they felt they had achieved something they were not sure they could have done before!

The young people wanted to continue developing their drama and speech and language skills on a regular basis and undertake new projects. The group provides peer support and a safe place for young people to be themselves and share their experiences of being looked after. We're also developing social interaction skills and helping young people to develop an understanding of participation and having a voice about the services they receive.

The group focuses on a particular area of our group agreement each session, such as showing respect and taking part and have a discussion about this. They can also share issues that they are worried, happy, angry about or proud of. Each session is evaluated by the group using scales and visual tools. Young people are always encouraged to share positive feedback about their peers.

Future plans are to prepare, practice and perform a young people's play chosen by the group to an audience in October 2015. They're also preparing poems to interpret and perform at our next Celebration of Achievement event in November 2015.

Meet Our Team: Kerryann, Recruitment Officer

Hi, I'm Kerryann and I've been the Carer Recruitment Officer here at St Christopher's for two years. I've spoken to more than 3,000 people like you who are interested in fostering.


You might be worried that fostering isn't for you but we're always looking for people from all sorts of different backgrounds to start supporting our young people. Your age, sexuality, relationship status or faith aren't barriers to becoming a foster carer. We're just looking for patient, dedicated people who want to change children's lives. I really want everyone to know that many different people can provide a family that will match many of the children in the care system.

If you want to have a chat with me about fostering, why not get in touch? You can enquire about fostering in a number of ways, including by email, telephone, Facebook or face-to-face. It all depends on what's more convenient for you.

Meet Kerryann

I make sure every single enquiry is followed up and I'll be able to answer any questions you have. I'll even ask you some questions but they're just so I can check you meet the minimum requirements, such as having a spare bedroom where young people can stay. Your information will be completely confidential and I won't judge your answers. Any questions are just so we can get the best possible carers for our young people. I'll also send you a booklet about fostering so you can take a look at home with your family and friends.

I think it's really important that you know about the support that's offered by St Christopher's throughout the fostering process. So many people would love to start fostering but we know you might have worries or concerns about things like financial and practical support. I and the rest of the fostering team will be with you every step of the way to make sure you're supported throughout your fostering journey. We pride ourselves on the training and support we offer so you'll be in good hands.


If you can and want to continue, I'll send your details to your local fostering team and a social worker will arrange to visit you. This also means that your social worker is never far away if you need help or support. Your social worker will have an Information Meeting with you and they'll go through up-to-date information about children who need foster carers. Again, this is all to help you decide if fostering is the best option for you and your family and you can ask all the questions you want. That's what we're here for!

I want you to know that all these stages of the fostering process are informal and it's a great way for you to get to know more about St Christopher's. You'll also get to meet our team who you'll work with closely if you're approved to foster.

If you want to change young people's lives, why not start your fostering journey today. Find out more and enquire about fostering by clicking here.

Becoming a Foster Carer: Training

Thanks for coming back to the St Christopher's blog. We're excited that you want to find out more about fostering young people. This time we'll be taking a look at the training and support you'll receive that will prepare you for fostering.

St Christopher's provides all our foster carers with great introductory training so that you feel confident that you can provide the best possible care for young people. Your introduction to fostering is made up of four parts:

• The Skills to Foster course
• Induction programme
• The foster carer's manual
• Ongoing training and development

Fostering is a challenging but rewarding career

Skills to Foster is a course that you'll be invited to attend following your successful enquiry. It's based on information from the Fostering Network and is a great way for you to learn exactly what fostering means and how important it is as an option for young people who can't stay with their families.

Skills to Foster covers three days and includes sessions on what foster carers do, understanding children in foster care, and how you can care for children safely.

You'll also find out about social workers and other professionals who'll support you in caring for young people and you'll even meet some of our existing foster carers. We encourage your family and friends to also attend the Skills to Foster course as we know they'll play an important role in your fostering journey.

As a potential foster carer, you'll also be invited to our induction days. These sessions are really useful as you'll learn about St Christopher's and our work with children and young people. This includes fostering, of course, but you'll also find out about our other wide-ranging services for young people and families.

The foster carer's manual is given to all our foster carers and you'll be given a copy once you're approved. It contains all the information and policies, which you can refer to whenever you need them. It's a handy tool that you can also use with your own supervising social worker.

As well as all this fostering preparation, we pride ourselves on our ongoing training and development opportunities for our foster carers. Your supervising social worker will always be on hand for advice and support and you'll have lots of chances to meet other foster carers at St Christopher's as well. There's lots of training sessions covering topics like safeguarding, equality and diversity, first aid, and attachment (an important psychological theory we use a lot).

Fostering is a challenging and rewarding career and we want to help you support young people to recognise and achieve their potential. Everybody has skills and experience that can help them be great foster carers, including you, and we'll help you every step of the way.

If you want to change young people's lives, why not start your fostering journey today. Find out more and enquire about fostering by clicking here.

Becoming a Foster Carer: Part 1

Becoming a foster carer for young people is a hugely rewarding career. So that you can help young people reach their full potential, prospective foster carers have to be approved by going through an application process. This process is the same for all fostering agencies, whether they're independent or a local authority. It takes up to 6 months to be approved but it means you're completely ready to start supporting young people.

Start your fostering journey today

Over the next few weeks, we'll be guiding you through the application process and giving you more information about what to expect. We know from listening to you that you can find the application process daunting, especially if you don't know much about it. That's why we're here to help.

There are four main stages to the process of becoming a foster carer:

1. Training
2. Assessment
3. Panel
4. Approval

Training

As a potential foster carer, you'll be invited to take part in courses to prepare you and help you learn about fostering young people. The courses are really helpful and give you a realistic view on what fostering involves and the different children you could be caring for.

Assessment

The assessment stage includes the checks that must be carried out by your social worker. These are required by law and help us ensure our foster carers can provide the best possible care for children and young people.

Panel

Our fostering panel is made up of childcare experts and people independent of St Christopher's. A report about your assessment will be discussed and you'll be invited to join the discussion. The fostering panel will recommend whether to approve someone as a foster carer.

Approval

The panel's recommendation will be given to St Christopher's agency decision maker. This person will confirm your approval and you'll be added to our register of foster carers, ready to start supporting young people.

Over the next few posts, we'll go into more detail about what you can expect at each stage. Next time, we'll take a look at the training stage and some of the things you'll learn about fostering.

If you're still thinking about fostering young people and want to know more, enquire on our website by clicking here.