Find out if you could be a foster carer
In a few simple questions, you’ll know if you’re suitable to apply to become a foster carer.
If you’re a foster carer or thinking about becoming one, we have opportunities in Sunderland including emergency, respite care and long-term. We’re a welcoming, active foster agency that offers 24/7 support, training and peer support.
If you’re considering becoming a foster parent, choose a fostering agency with local teams who will be with you every step.
National Fostering Group is the largest independent fostering agency in the UK with superb agency coverage across all regions – meaning you have the support of a team close to you.
One of the most established fostering agencies in Sunderland, we work with local authorities to place children and young people in homes where they can thrive.
As a foster carer with us, you’ll have unparalleled access to professional support and excellent free training in and around Sunderland. We want you to thrive too, being the best you can be in your role as foster carer.
On top of this, carers who are fostering in Sunderland have a large and active peer network that includes more than a dozen local support groups.
Since becoming a single foster carer with Alpha Plus (part of National Fostering Group), I love and enjoy the work I do with the children placed in my care.
Sometimes it can be challenging but mostly it is very rewarding. I get to train in a wide range of subjects, which has helped me understand my role as a foster carer, and helped me to care for my foster children to the best of my ability.
I also have great support from my supervising social worker and all the staff, who are always there to help and advise or just to chat if I need to. Alpha Plus also arrange activities for the children and support groups for carers, which is a great time to meet with other carers and have a good chat and share experiences.
Reach Out Care provide dedicated foster carers with an industry leading round-the-clock support service, generous carer fees and allowances as well as industry and specialist training. Reach Out Care have foster opportunities for a range of placement types, including short term, long term, emergency, siblings and parent & child. Reach Out Care believe that people from all backgrounds and walks of life can become a carer, including you.
Our average foster carer pay is around £24,500 a year (£2,040 on average per month), which is far higher than the government’s recommended weekly allowance. For most foster carers in Sunderland, this will be tax free! Some types of fostering placement pay more than £35,000 a year. Foster carer pay doesn’t affect state benefits you’re currently receiving.
Our foster carers come from all walks of life. With training, support and a generous fostering allowance, they provide homes where children can thrive and experience the childhood they deserve. More than 8,000 new foster carers are needed UK-wide to provide homes for children in need of a foster family. If you’re thinking of becoming a foster carer, now’s the time.
Source: The Fostering Network
If you think you’d like to become a foster carer in Sunderland, your next step is to have a chat. You can book a call by using our enquiry form. After this, if you decide to go ahead with an application, this usually takes around 16 weeks and we’ll help you every step of the way. We’ll help you decide what types of fostering you want to do and we’ll even get you started with foster carer training.
We are looking for foster carers in Sunderland. We welcome people from ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, physical abilities and the LGBT+ community. You can be single, married, a homeowner or a tenant. Your ability to care for and nurture a child is what really matters. If you’ve worked in sectors like education, the emergency services, care or healthcare, you’ll be especially suited to this role.
I have a single female carer who took two siblings as her first short term placement, then three siblings as a short term placement, before moving on to being able to offer a long term home to another group of three siblings.
The carer has grown from strength to strength and been well supported by the agency as well as her own support network. National Fostering Group and the local authority have been able to offer the carer opportunities for self-development, particularly behavioural management and therapeutic insight, to underpin her fostering career and support the children in placement.
The children are excited to be undertaking the agency’s summer challenge again this year and hope to win a prize again.
Around 3,750 children live with a foster family in the North East. There are approximately 45,370 fostering households and 76,640 foster carers in England.
Sources: Department for Education, Ofsted
Many children and young people are awaiting a foster parent in Sunderland – hundreds in the North East.
National Fostering Group has local offices that support foster carers across the region, including Newcastle, Darlington, Gateshead and Durham.
