What you can offer
All children and young people who are referred to the scheme are carefully matched to a specialist foster placement. It's essential that carers commit to the child or young person for the duration of the placement. Specialist foster carers will only have one child or young person in placement at a time to ensure that they can provide the support that the child needs. Relevant experience may be helpful but we welcome all applicants and assess each application individually.
You can become a specialist foster carer if you have existing caring commitments but you must have the capacity to care for a child or young person and each case will be reviewed on an individual basis. If you have children living at home, they must be over the age of 5.
There are some key requirements that we need from specialist foster carers.
You must:
- be over 21
- have a spare room
- be available on a full time basis. If you are applying as a couple then at least one of you must be available full time
- have access to a car and be prepared to transport the child or young person to and from school and contact sessions
- be prepared to attend regular supervision sessions
- be committed to training and development
You should:
- have a caring nature
- have a desire to help people
- have the ability to see the positives where possible
- be patient, flexible and resilient
- have a sense of humour
You could have:
- previous experience as a foster carer
- experience caring for children or young people
- a background in childcare, youth work, social care or teaching