Fostering with the National Fostering Agency
The National Fostering Agency provides fostering resources designed to meet the varied needs of local authorities. Foster children are given the individual care they need in professionally supported and well managed placements with our foster carers. Accessible regional offices provide the support services throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
How can I become a carer
Click on the Request a callback button and one of our experienced team members will call you and answer any questions you might have. When we have received your application form, if it is considered appropriate we will contact you to discuss your interest further. If you match our criteria an appointment will be arranged to visit you in your home. This is called an Initial Visit.
The Initial Visit will be carried out by one of our Social Workers. If it is considered you have the basic requirements to become a Foster Carer, a report will be submitted to a Regional Manager for approval. If the decision is to proceed, you will be allocated to a Social Worker who will undertake the assessment.
What types of foster care are there?
We pride ourselves on finding the most appropriate placement when children need to be placed in foster care. All our foster carers are trained, assessed, approved and fully supported. We work in partnership with Local Authorities and all other agencies to achieve the best possible outcomes for children who are looked after.
Emergency Placements: We operate an out-of-hours service specifically for Local Authorities who can contact us when they need to place a child in an emergency.
Task Centred Placements: We are happy to arrange short-term placements and our foster carers and staff will work with the child to help them settle into their new home and prepare for their next move.
Parent & Child Placements: We have specialist foster carers who can provide accommodation for either one or both parents together with their child. Our foster carers can support the parents and help them with parenting skills, and our staff can undertake parenting assessments.
Bridging Placement: We can provide bridging placements for babies or very young children while permanency plans are being formulated.
Long Term Placements: If the best solution is for the child to remain in a foster placement for a longer period, we will work with the Local Authority to achieve this. Our foster carers and staff are trained to look after children in long-term care.
Fostering Assessments
The Assessment process takes approximately four to six months. The assessment is a thorough look at your life. The Social Worker is highly skilled and experienced in undertaking these assessments and will support you every step of the way.
At the beginning, we will require your consent to undertake checks on you and your family with the following agencies:-
- Criminal Records Bureau
- Local Authority & other agencies
We will then pay for you to have a full medical check with your own GP.
We ask you to provide three referees (non family members) who can comment on your suitability to become a foster carer.
We will invite you to attend the three day Skills to Foster training course. This course will give you the opportunity to learn more about the fostering process, meet an experienced foster carer and meet local people who are also in the Fostering assessment process.
A Social Worker will arrange to visit you and your family on a regular basis to enable them to collect all of the information for the assessment report. Once completed, this report is checked by the Quality Assurance department, prior to be presented to the Fostering Panel. You are invited to attend the Panel, where a recommendation will be made.
When do I begin to look after foster children?
Once approved as a Foster Carer with the National Fostering Agency. The duty teams will begin their search for a placement for you. When a potential match with a child has been identified, a member of the team will contact you, and if you are in agreement, brief details of your suitability will be provided to the local authority. The local authority will then make the decision as to whether they would like to proceed with the placement of the child.