Are you thinking about fostering? That’s fantastic! At Caritas Care, we believe that every child deserves a secure and loving home, and we are here to guide and support you every step of the way. Our preparation process ensures that you feel confident and well-equipped for your fostering journey.
Fostering is a rewarding experience, but it does require careful preparation. Here’s how our friendly and experienced team here at Caritas Care helps you get fostering ready.
How Caritas Care Prepares You
Throughout the fostering process, we help you explore your motivations and readiness for fostering. We’ll encourage you to reflect on your own experiences e.g. how you were parented, your values, strengths, and help you to discover any areas for development. We don’t expect perfection, but we do value self-awareness and a willingness to learn and grow.
We provide a preparation training programme that covers everything from child development to arming you with practical parenting strategies. Our training ensures you understand the individual needs of foster children and how best to support them. These sessions include real-life scenarios, discussions, and expert guidance from our team to help you build your confidence.
If you haven’t parented before, we encourage you to gain experience through volunteering, babysitting, or engaging in community activities with children to build your skills and knowledge.
We understand that financial stability is important, and while fostering comes with an allowance, we help you assess your financial situation to ensure you’re prepared.
Fostering is a team effort, and having a strong support network is crucial. We work with your family and friends, offering training to help them understand your fostering journey and how they can give you the support you need.
If you’re working, that’s OK. We will help you to plan for the flexibility needed to meet a child’s needs. We will offer advice on speaking with your employer so they can support you with any necessary adjustments to your working week. It’s important that you are available for meetings and appointments for the child in your care.
Your allocated Social worker will conduct home visits to assess safety and suggest any necessary adjustments to make your home fostering-ready. We’ll support you in making any changes required to create a secure and nurturing environment.
Foster children need their own bedroom, and we help you determine the best setup. It’s important that a child has their own space and so a spare bedroom to accommodate a child is a necessity. Whether it’s assessing space for brothers and sisters or ensuring privacy, we’ll provide you with guidance and advice during your assessment.
If you have upcoming renovations, we talk to you about timings and plans as it’s important that there is minimal disruption for any child in your care. Our goal is to help you create a stable, safe, and loving home environment.
We understand that fostering is a big step, but you’re never alone – our support doesn’t stop there. Our team is always here to help – before, during, and after your fostering journey providing a 24/7 service and regular home visits and telephone check-ins. Our foster carers meet regularly and so you will also become part of a caring and supportive network. If you’re ready to take the next step, get in touch today. We’re here to prepare and support you every step of the way!
