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Foster carer perks and benefits

We’re delighted to complement our generous fostering allowance with additional perks and benefits. Save money, feast on all the information you need, and enjoy the reassurance of a wide support network.

Bridging retainer payments

A guaranteed regular income is important to many of our foster carers. Sometimes there’s a gap between placements. We provide a weekly bridging retainer payment for a maximum of 6 weeks in a rolling 12-month period, plus a payment at the start of your next placement.

There are qualifying criteria and decisions on eligibility are at the discretion of your local National Fostering Group agency’s registered manager.

Finances

High Street Discounts through The Hub

Our foster carers can get exclusive discounts and cashback from more than 800 high street retailers and service providers from The National Fostering Group Hub. From holidays to groceries, our hub will help you save money on everyday purchases, utilities or special occasions.

The Hub is an online area managed by our partners Reward Gateway. New carers receive a welcome email within a month of approval.

Log in to The Hub

Discounts using The Max Card

All our carers can get cheaper activities and days out across the UK, thanks to the free Max Card. As a National Fostering Group carer, you can choose to receive a card assigned to yourself (not a child) so you can continuously access deals for all your fostering placements.

Max Cards are an established national scheme for foster carers and they’re great for helping you create positive lasting memories for the children in your care.

Max Cards

Blue Light Cards

Blue Light is a scheme that recognises the hard work and commitment of people carrying out some of the most important jobs in the community. It’s open to frontline workers – emergency response, NHS, coastguard, as well as familiar organisations like St John Ambulance and the Red Cross. And, now, foster carers like you.

To apply, you will need a National Fostering Group ID card to evidence you are an active foster carer.  With your card, use the button below to go to the Blue Light website and click on ‘Register Now’.   There’s a £4.99 admin fee, which will soon be recovered by your savings.

Blue Light

Free membership of The Fostering Network

The Fostering Network is the UK’s leading fostering charity. They support foster carers to transform children’s lives and work with fostering services (like National Fostering Group) to develop and share best practice.

All our carers receive free membership to The Fostering Network. Membership gives you discounts on legal expenses, mortgages, holidays and family days out, including Haven, Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures, Madame Tussauds, Sea Life centres and sanctuaries, and much more.

The Fostering Network also provides advice on many aspects of fostering via its helpline.

The Fostering Network

Free access to LGBT+ foster parent support

New Family Social is the only UK charity led by LGBT+ foster carers and adopters. National Fostering Group’s membership gives our LGBT+ foster parents free access to its services.

It’s a peer-to-peer support network that you can use throughout your fostering adventure. This includes training, advice, information, events, plus secure online forums. New Family Social’s website can also recommend an LGBT+ friendly fostering agency – National Fostering Group is proud to be listed.

New Family Social

Discounts on London West End shows

The National Fostering Group Theatre Club is a special service to help book tickets to London theatre – and save money. Our foster carers can get news on discounts and special offers to a wide range of West End musicals and plays in London, plus special theatre and dinner packages and hotel and theatre breaks. Carers receive a log in once they are approved.

West End Shows

Foster carer ID card

All carers in the National Fostering Group can have access to a Foster Carer ID card to help make things run a little smoother. As the name suggests, it provides you with evidence of being a foster carer, which might come in handy when you’re arranging appointments or ordering prescriptions.

The card is free to you. When you’ve been approved as a foster carer for National Fostering Group, speak to your Supervising Social Worker or Carer Engagement Officer to find out more.

Free access to Britannica School and ImageQuest

Throughout their education, your foster child – and birth children too –will need quality online resources.

Online access to this trusted source of information comes free for all National Fostering Group Carers. It includes access to ImageQuest, Britannica’s online library of more than two million images.

Searching for information is simple and leads you to the most recent articles as well as archive information and linked facts. Encyclopaedia Britannica can be used by any child, young person or adult in your fostering household.

Britannica

Recommend Us Bonus

There is a shortage of foster carers, which of course means there is a substantial number of children for whom we can’t find a foster home.

If you’re an approved carer already, and you know someone you think would make a great foster carer, please let us know. For every recommendation we approve as a new National Fostering Group foster carer, we will reward you with a £1,500 Recommend Us Bonus. You can either recommend by speaking to your Supervising Social Worker or on our website.

Recommend Us

Specialist home insurance

Foster carers sometimes struggle getting adequate home insurance. With this in mind, we’ve partnered with Bollington Insurance to bring you a policy that is tailored to the needs of fostering and at a market-comparable cost.

Bollington is a well-established insurance broker with good connections to the big insurance companies and their own in-house experts. This means they can offer a wider range of products that have specific benefits for foster carers.

This fostering home insurance policy gives you:

  • Insurance against damage or loss caused by a child in your care, including malicious damage by a foster child
  • Cover against theft committed by the foster child of items in your home
  • Cover for the belongings of the foster child
  • Legal liability cover for injury to the foster child
  • Legal liability cover for injury or damage caused by the foster child (excluding criminal actions)
  • A £10 Amazon voucher to treat yourself or children in your household

Bollington Insurance

The Outcomes Team

We all know that from the statistics available, children and young people in care are less likely to achieve well at school, suffer from mental health issues, enter the criminal justice system or, as an adult, other social care systems. At the National Fostering Group, we are working hard to change this bleak picture on an individual basis for our children and young people, and have a dedicated team to boost and improve outcomes. Foster parents, Supervising Social Workers and Registered Managers can access these additional resources at any point, and the support offered aligns with our Pledge to Children and Young People.

The Outcomes Team

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award – for birth children too

The National Fostering Group are proud to be a national licence holder with The Duke of Edinburgh Award which gives any of our young people AND foster parents’ birth children, aged 14-24, the chance to undertake one of the three levels of awards (bronze, silver or gold) through their fostering service. The Duke of Edinburgh Award is well-recognised as an opportunity which inspires, raises aspirations and builds confidence.

Duke of Edinburgh Award

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