Finance
25 years of delivering high quality fostering services across Lancashire
Call: 0800 652 6955
We have established that foster care is a unique kind of career. Perhaps the kind of job you dreamed you would one day have, far from the regular 9 to 5?
A vocation through which you can ‘give something back’, share inspiring and uplifting experiences with your family and friends, meet extraordinary people and change the course of a young person’s life for the better. But reality creeps in.
Can you afford to feed another mouth at the table?
If you have to be available for childcare and appointments, how will you be able to work?
What if you have already retired?
What if you are on benefits?
That’s why our foster carers get paid an allowance when they have a child in their care.
The actual amount depends on the age of the child but it will cover the extra household bills and be enough to meet the child needs, from new trainers to savings for their future. It also provides a personal reward element for your commitment and dedication and we can talk to you about that in more detail if you want to have a further chat.
Some of our foster carers have other jobs and that’s great, as long as you can prioritise the needs of your foster child, if they are unwell for instance. Plus you’ll need to attend meetings, appointments, training events and support groups throughout the year. Some of these can be held in the evenings, but others will be during the day.
We’re always here to have a chat about your own situation and, if necessary, we can revisit the idea of foster care at a time more suitable for you.
Case Studies
I wasn’t in a financial position to adopt but I also liked the idea of helping children. I liked the idea of keeping children close to siblings and family. I wanted to make sure that I could still provide for Robert and any child that came along and that we wouldn’t be scrimping. The allowances I’d say are very generous now. We can go on holiday, my foster child has a horse…they can do the things they want to do. It allowed me to give up work and concentrate purely on the fostering.
We had already paid off the mortgage so we weren’t under any financial pressure. We knew we would get some money for looking after the children, but it just wasn’t a concern at all. When I was running the Junior Football Club I met kids from disadvantaged families, they had nothing. We would take them home for a Sunday dinner. It meant the world to them and to me. It just felt amazing to be able to help. Fostering has been a natural progression of that.
