Have you thought about fostering children in your own home as a full-time job?
What do foster carers do?
Foster carers offer children and young people a safe, loving and nurturing home when they can't live with their birth families.
What does fostering involve?
Some foster carers will look after children in emergency situations. This usually means a child will stay with them overnight or for a couple of days. Others will look after children on a 'short-term' basis, which might mean a child stays with them for a few weeks or months, until they can return to live with their birth family or move on to a permanent new home. But many foster carers look after children for much longer than this - often for all of their childhood. Foster carers can choose which type of fostering is best for them.
As well as providing day-to-day care for children and young people, they are expected to advocate on behalf of the child, support their educational, health and social wellbeing, manage sometimes challenging behaviour, keep records, attend meetings and work with the wider team, as well as developing their own skills.
It is often important for children and young people in foster care to keep in touch with their birth family – mum, dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles or grandparents – through regular meetings. Foster carers play a big part in making these meetings happen.
All foster carers receive a sum of money called an allowance to cover the cost of looking a...