Becoming A Foster Carer

Do I need to be a British citizen? 

You can apply if you have full-time residency in the UK to Foster. We need foster placements from people from all avenues of life. Consideration will be given to people who are in the UK for a time-limited period 

 

Can I foster if I’m LGBTQI?

Yes, you can, fostering is about what you bring to it in terms of your personal strengths, attributes, and qualities, and what this offers to children to enrich their lives, this makes you a wonderful nurturing carer not your gender or sexual orientation. Providing a stable home and a secure base for a child is what we want, and this is regardless of whether you are male or female, straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, non-binary, or transgender.

At Embrace Fostering and Absolute Children’s Services, we welcome and are proud of LGBTQI carers and open and inclusive to diversity.

The assessment process for LGBTQI people is identical to the assessment that single or heterosexual persons have.

Can I Foster with a long-term health condition? 

Your health is considered as part of the assessment process, and the key focuses on you being well enough physically and psychologically to embrace possible demands fostering may bring. This may vary depending on the age of the child you wish to foster. 

 
Can I foster if I’ve had depression? 

This would not prevent you from fostering, nor would any other health condition. Foster carers have a medical as part of the assessment process, as well as your GP's recommendation and a discussion with the fostering team. Your health and emotional well-being is explored along with matching a foster child. 

  
Can I continue to work if I foster? 

As you need to be available for meetings with social services or a Child's school or contact arrangements, as you would do with your own child, it is advantageous if you did not work or if you had a flexible job or you worked from home. This would fit in really well with fostering. 

 
Can foster children share bedrooms?  

We believe in safeguarding for all children. Foster children should have their own bedrooms unless they are siblings 

 
How long will foster children stay with me? 

This can be anything from a couple of nights or until a child reaches 18. The assessment process will support us to decide what duration of foster placement best matches your family. 

 
How much information will I get when I take a foster placement? 

Embrace fostering endeavour to get as much information as possible when a child is placed with you. This is shared with you before you accept a placement. However, sometimes with emergency placements very little is known. So in this case we might offer a 48-hour assessment placement with review, just so that we can see if this is going to work. 

 
Can I foster if I have a dog?  

Embrace considers all pets during the assessment to ensure that there is no risks posed to either the animal or child. 

 
Will we have contact with birth parents? 

In some cases where it is deemed appropriate you will have contact with birth parents and in other cases it may be deemed not appropriate. However, your supervising social worker will support you with this and any contacts that your first child may have with the birth family. 

 
What support will I get in meeting the child’s needs if the child had a disability? 

You would be specifically assessed and matched to be able to offer any type of specialist placement. The agency will support you to access resources, equipment and training to meet the child’s needs. 

 
Can I take a child on holiday? 

Here at Embrace, we encourage that all children go on holiday with foster carers. However, this cannot disrupt a child's school and education and at times we have to get consent from birth parents. However, your supervising social worker at Embrace will do this for you. Although foster children need to have their own bedrooms, we are aware as with birth children that sometimes room shares on holiday may have to occur subject to risk assessments. 

 
Can I foster in a rented property? 

Yes, there is no problem with this. However, the fostering agency would clear this with your landlord to ensure they have no opposition to this. 

 
Can I foster if I’m retired? 

Yes, there is no problem with this. 

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Can I foster if I’ve got a baby? 

Yes, there is no problem with this. However, in discussion with yourself and looking at matching, we can decide on what fostering would best suit your family. 

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Can we foster if we have not had children of our own? 

Yes, there are no concerns in this area, and we would look at what training and support you require. 

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Can I foster if I’m unemployed? 

Yes, you can foster if you are unemployed and your supervising social worker will look at any benefits you are on, and if there are any implications, which there usually isn't.
 
What support supervision or training can I get? 
Here at Embrace we fully understand how challenging fostering can be, and we are able to offer an extensive support package in terms of a generous fostering allowance, generous short-break allowance, 24 hour advice line 365 days a year, 20 group therapeutic sessions to reflect, bespoke training package, needs lead support and, foster carers support groups, children’s consultation days and birth children support groups.