North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership

What is fostering?

Fostering allows children and young people who are unable to live with their own parents the chance to live in a secure and loving family home.

The length of time children stay with foster families varies from a few nights to a number of years, depending on their individual situation. As all children are unique, we require different types of foster carers and short break carers to meet their needs. Some children also need permanent foster families who can love and support them until adulthood.

By becoming a foster carer, you will be one of the team of people around a child in foster care. You will provide them with warm, caring and nurturing family experience in a calming home where children and young people will be safe. You will support children and young people to grow and develop to their potential by helping to ensure they are fully included in family life and that their physical, emotional, social and educational needs are met.

Who can foster?

Foster carers come from all backgrounds and walks of life. You won’t need any formal qualifications, as full training and support is provided, but you must have an interest in making a difference to a child’s life. You must also offer a nurturing and loving environment and be willing to learn in the fostering role.

You can be:

• single, married, divorced or living together
• in a same sex relationship
• identifying as any gender
• from any ethnic or religious background
• a homeowner or living in rented accommodation
• employed or in receipt of benefit entitlements
• already a parent
• living with disabilities

Most people can be considered as foster carers, but there are some requirements.

You must:

• be at least 21 years of age
• if with a partner, you must have lived together in a stable relationship for two years
• have a secure home base (either owned or rented)
• have at least one spare bedroom, or be willing to consider relocating if your circumstances are such that local authority accommodation can be explored with you
• have some experience of caring for or working with children and young people
• be in fairly good health and active, as looking after children can be physically and emotionally demanding
• have no offences against children - any other criminal history you may have may also affect your ability to foster
• be willing to take responsibility for your professional development as a foster carer, engage in regular training and support groups to develop and enhance your understanding of the fostering task, and reflect your learning from this in your learning log

If you are a smoker or use e-cigarettes, you will not be able to care for children under 5 years of age or children with certain health conditions. If approved as a foster carer you would need to ensure that your home is smoke free at all times, and you or your visitors must not smoke around children.

If you are a couple, then you must be able to demonstrate your relationship is stable and you are both equally committed to fostering.

You may be able to remain in full time or part time employment, however this is dependent on the type of foster care you are interested in. Permanent carers may be able to work part time, and short break carers may be able to work full time. However, interim carers must be available during the day to attend meetings and support a child to attend family time.

If you are an approved foster carer for another local authority or fostering provider, you may be able to transfer between agencies to join our Families for Children team in North Ayrshire. Visit our Transfer between fostering agencies page to find out more.

What qualities do I need?

You must:

• have the time and space in your life to look after a child who has had very difficult and upsetting life experiences
• be kind and patient and understand that children require a lot of love, care and support to help them to move on from early experiences
• understand that children’s behaviour may be challenging, as it is the window through which they express their feelings, and be committed to help them with this in a sensitive and calm manner for as long as it takes
• relate well to children and young people
• feel able to work with the child’s immediate and extended birth family
• have the skills to work as part of a team who support the child and their family

What does fostering mean for my family?

Fostering involves your whole family, so it is very important that everyone is in agreement with the decision to foster.

If you have children, they will play a big part in fostering. They will have to learn to share their parents, home and possessions with other children. Foster carers tell us that their own children have benefitted greatly from fostering as it has given them an understanding of other people’s lives and circumstances.

Your children will probably build good relationships with foster children, but sometimes it may be hard for them to adapt, especially when it comes to children moving on from your care. Sometimes your children may struggle to get along with a particular child or feel that they are being treated differently from them, and as a fostering team we are here to support you with this.

As a foster carer, it is important that you spend time with your children on their own, possibly by setting aside time each day to chat and allow them the opportunity to raise any worries or concerns.

You will have individual support from a supervising social worker who will regularly spend time with your children, allowing them the opportunity to talk about fostering and any difficulties they may be having.

Fostering is balancing the needs of both your own family members and the foster children you care for, and we want your children to feel as if their views are equally valued and heard.

Who are our children?

Children require foster care for all sorts of reasons.

Many children in foster care have experienced trauma as a result of neglect and/or physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

Some of the possible reasons that children come into foster care include:

• exposure to parental drug or alcohol misuse
• physical or mental ill health of their parent
• death of a parent
• domestic abuse
• sexual abuse
• physical abuse
• physical or emotional neglect or abuse
• babies who have been relinquished for adoption

North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership has a statutory responsibility to ensure that children in these and other situations are cared for safely and nurtured.

We ask foster carers to have empathy and imagine how it feels for a child to turn up at a strange house after often being removed from their own family in difficult or distressing circumstances. They are faced with people they don’t know, at the same time as feeling scared and sad about being separated from their familiar surroundings and friends.

They may be worried about their parents or brothers and sisters and feel they are “betraying” them by living with someone else. Some will think they have been removed from their families as a punishment for doing something wrong, even if they can’t think what that could be.

Sadly, all children will be affected by leaving their families in some way, even if it’s not always immediately apparent.

Children express their emotions through their behaviour. Having an understanding of some of the experiences the child may have had will help foster carers to grow in confidence about how to support a child’s behaviour.

You will have a named worker who will offer support, guidance and strategies on how to care for children in foster care.

We aim to keep brothers and sisters together and appreciate any carers who can look after sibling groups.

We are actively recruiting for carers to look after children whose ages range from 0 to 18 years. We are also looking for carers who can offer short breaks to children.

Types of fostering

Interim fostering

This could be for a few nights, weeks or up to two years, depending on the child’s situation.

Permanent foster care

Permanent foster carers can look after children of all ages, including sibling groups. These children are unable to return to their birth families, live with kinship carers or move to adoption for a variety of reasons and require families to love and care for them into adulthood.

Short break care

Short break carers look after children who already live in foster, residential or kinship care. Care is needed for children for regular short periods, usually at weekends and school holiday periods.

Community-based short break care

Community Short Breaks are linked to the work of providing whole family, community-based support, offering parents and kinship carers a break from their caring role, whilst at the same time giving children the opportunity to have fun and stimulating breaks in a safe, caring and supportive environment.

The focus is on keeping families together, and short breaks can often be a key way to support existing family networks and prevent children from coming into care.

Similarly, Community Short Break Carers work closely with the child’s main carer, taking on board advice and guidance about the child’s likes, dislikes and routines to help them feel secure during short breaks.

Working as part of a team

As a foster carer you will work as part of a child’s care team, helping to decide what is best for the child. The child’s social worker is the lead professional who has the primary responsibility for the child when they are looked after in foster care. The child’s welfare is always prioritised above all else and the focus of the team is to keep the child at the centre of decision making.

Will I get any holidays?

As a foster carer, children will become part of your family and share all the activities and outings you are planning. Children should also have at least one family holiday with you every year.

As well as this, foster carers are entitled to seven days per year short break without this impacting on their allowance. Sometimes additional short breaks will be put in place if this supports the child’s needs.

Before you apply

Things to consider:

• Have you space and time in your life for someone else's child?
• Could you work with the child's parent, social workers and other professionals?
• Could you cope with a child's grief and anxiety about being separated from their parents and family?
• Could you care for children who come from a different heritage, culture or social background than your own?
• Could you support and nurture a child who may display difficult or challenging behaviour?
• Could undertake the training required to support you care of our children and young people?
• Could you be part of our fostering community in North Ayrshire?

If you can answer 'yes' to all or most of these questions, you may have what it takes to be a foster carer.

I’m interested in becoming a foster carer. What do I do next?

If you are interested in becoming a foster carer, please go on to read our Becoming a foster carer page, where you will find information on the assessment process and what that entails.