Any foster carers or wanting to foster out there ?

alwaystryyourbest

Hi I am a newly approved foster carer (2 weeks ago) we are approved for newborn to 3 years..
Hoping to get our 1st placement soon.

Any other foster carers out there and how long was your 1st placement wait?

Any tips on helping the wait go quicker ?

Anyone want to foster in the future ?

I would be happy to answer any questions, just getting a bit bored waiting and it's only been 2 weeks..lol ..

So excited to getting started .....been waiting a long time to do this...

shoe*diva79

Hi

My parents foster have have done for over 10 years now. They have just changed agencies and gone through panel again. They got a newborn baby and its mother come to stay within 3 days and over the years they have rarely been without children. However, they are not restricted to 0-3 years, they can foster 0-16 and also parent/baby.

Its a very tough job but also very rewarding, good luck!

Hard_Up_Hester

My DD is a foster carer & has been for about 6 years, she fosters any age & is also never without children, her first group were 3 teen sisters 13, 15 & 16. They arrived about an hour after DD was approved!
Her current children are 9 & 10 year old siblings & a 17 yo from a different family.
As you will be caring for younger children it probably won't apply to you, but with older children they usually arrive with head lice & worms, or maybe DD has just been lucky, lol.

Pricivius

Congratulations and good luck.

My grandparents were foster carers, although mostly before us grand kids came along but gran used to tell me about it and I am very proud of the work she did.

My OH and I looked into foster caring as it is something I was hoping to get involved with, and I still look at websites, truth be told. Unfortunately, we were put off at the first hurdle by both our then local authority (we have since moved) and an independent agency. At present, both OH and I work full time but this is something we would obviously change if we were to foster. Unfortunately, at the LA info evening we attended, the focus was completely on what benefits you can claim whilst fostering and how much money you receive as a foster carer - as a financially stable couple, this is the least of our concerns and the vibe seemed all wrong. When I told them we were currently both working FT, they seemed shocked and insisted at least one of us should stop completely, and were almost suggesting we did it immediately to show commitment. We were only at the very early stages so this seemed crazy. If we failed vetting, of course I would want to continue working FT so quitting this early would be foolish and potentially career-damaging.

I then spoke with an agency to see if things were different and I got the same vibe from them. It was all about the money. I appreciate people need to know that they receive financial support to care for the child, but surely this is a brief part of the role, not the central, core discussion point?

So I gave up, very disappointed and disillusioned with the whole thing. We are a stable couple, well-educated and financially secure with time and love to give, but apparently we are not foster-carer material. I figured we would at least be considered, but apparently not.

Kayalana99

Good luck I hope it goes well, I would love to do this but my OH doesn't want to on the basis he would fall in love with child and couldn't see it go again. (Plus ours are currently 1 and 2 so I am hoping to change his mind in 15 years or so but we do both need to be on board lol)

alwaystryyourbest

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

Hi

My parents foster have have done for over 10 years now. They have just changed agencies and gone through panel again. They got a newborn baby and its mother come to stay within 3 days and over the years they have rarely been without children. However, they are not restricted to 0-3 years, they can foster 0-16 and also parent/baby.

Its a very tough job but also very rewarding, good luck!

Hi I am hoping I am still fostering in 10 years time, we are only restricted to 0 to 3 years at the moment due to the ages of my children we will move to older children when mine get older.

alwaystryyourbest

Hard_Up_Hester wrote: »

My DD is a foster carer & has been for about 6 years, she fosters any age & is also never without children, her first group were 3 teen sisters 13, 15 & 16. They arrived about an hour after DD was approved!
Her current children are 9 & 10 year old siblings & a 17 yo from a different family.
As you will be caring for younger children it probably won't apply to you, but with older children they usually arrive with head lice & worms, or maybe DD has just been lucky, lol.

I am hoping I will never be without children once I get started, it must of been hard starting with a sibling set at that ages, and wow a hour after they were approved, I was hoping that we would be approved straight away but I know in a way it's a good thing I am not needed straight away, it means parents are taking good care of their children.
And I am quite good at getting rid of lice, my children has often caught them at school, but I don't know a thing about worms.( suppose I better learn )

iammumtoone

Well done on taking the commitment.

It is something I would like to do but unfortunately I would never get off the ground with it as I don't have a spare room or the space

alwaystryyourbest

Pricivius wrote: »

Congratulations and good luck.

My grandparents were foster carers, although mostly before us grand kids came along but gran used to tell me about it and I am very proud of the work she did.

My OH and I looked into foster caring as it is something I was hoping to get involved with, and I still look at websites, truth be told. Unfortunately, we were put off at the first hurdle by both our then local authority (we have since moved) and an independent agency. At present, both OH and I work full time but this is something we would obviously change if we were to foster. Unfortunately, at the LA info evening we attended, the focus was completely on what benefits you can claim whilst fostering and how much money you receive as a foster carer - as a financially stable couple, this is the least of our concerns and the vibe seemed all wrong. When I told them we were currently both working FT, they seemed shocked and insisted at least one of us should stop completely, and were almost suggesting we did it immediately to show commitment. We were only at the very early stages so this seemed crazy. If we failed vetting, of course I would want to continue working FT so quitting this early would be foolish and potentially career-damaging.

I then spoke with an agency to see if things were different and I got the same vibe from them. It was all about the money. I appreciate people need to know that they receive financial support to care for the child, but surely this is a brief part of the role, not the central, core discussion point?

So I gave up, very disappointed and disillusioned with the whole thing. We are a stable couple, well-educated and financially secure with time and love to give, but apparently we are not foster-carer material. I figured we would at least be considered, but apparently not.

Hi Thanks for your congratulations, and lovely you are thinking about fostering as well, my local authority have never talked about money once yet, all I remember them saying is they only want people who want to do it for the children and not for the money, which they could see we love children.
It would be mad to leave a full time job just to see if you might get accepted, But we were a bit mad we moved house to fostering as our last house wasn't big enough, but luckilywe got a yes...

Maybe you could still look into in the future.....

alwaystryyourbest

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Good luck I hope it goes well, I would love to do this but my OH doesn't want to on the basis he would fall in love with child and couldn't see it go again. (Plus ours are currently 1 and 2 so I am hoping to change his mind in 15 years or so but we do both need to be on board lol)

Thanks ...hope you do look into in the future, but if you did want to do it soon, you could always go into it to long term fostering, where you get them and you keep them until they turn 18 or 21 (I think now a days .)

alwaystryyourbest

iammumtoone wrote: »

Well done on taking the commitment.

It is something I would like to do but unfortunately I would never get off the ground with it as I don't have a spare room or the space

Thanks,,,, we are hoping we get a call soon, and I am quite jumping when the phone rings, my mobile is always in my pocket now, here's hoping my 1st call comes soon.

We didn't have a spare room, we did a silly thing and moved to a bigger house in the hope that we would get accepted, and luckily for us We did..

Can't wait we are all ready now...:j