Hi, I’m T. I am 18 and I have been in care for the last 4 years, recently moving into semi-independent living in Rotherham, just before my 18th birthday.

This is my story.
Coming into care was scary, we all have different reasons for being a looked-after child, but it is for the best if our circumstances at home aren’t great or we are at risk of harm. Our first steps into our new home for a few months or years are scary, we don’t expect it to be easy and it isn’t, but we eventually overcome that feeling thanks to the support we get. I personally think that the hardest part is leaving care and leaving the home we spent most of our time in, Christmas, bonfire night, Halloween and many more memories we make. We make a bond with our foster carers that is unbreakable at times, but sometimes they aren’t as strong due to reasons that are from both sides.

Our first thoughts are, ‘are we going to have someone to talk to?’ The answer to that daunting question is yes you do get someone to talk to, you get a decent amount of support, there is always support and a person that you’re able to talk to when you need to. Staff at Team Fostering are only a phone call away, your foster carers are only downstairs. Teachers at your sometimes new school are always very supportive of your move to your new home, and maybe your parents if you still have contact.

My experience of being in foster care is that it is scary, the problems from your birth home may follow you to your new home, but there is always a solution and there is always help if you need it and support. In my time at my previous foster carer’s home I experienced some problems, for example my foster mother became critically ill and she was in a coma, but she had numerous operations that in the end saved her life☺️YAY! I was supported and helped to cope with these problems, everyone at Team Fostering made sure I was safe and wasn’t worrying about anything!

At Team Fostering they held so many activities for children to keep them happy. There were activities such as Diggerland, Drayton Manor, Lightwater Valley, laser tag, swimming, ice skating, and many others. We even have a residential that kids are able to go on to learn life skills, making our own food, having our own room with responsibly to keep it clean, different activities throughout the weekend. At all of these activities there are new children to talk to, interact with and bond with! They are all so sweet and polite and they all make you feel wanted and welcomed!

Leaving care was scary but we all have to do it one day! The feeling of responsibility can be horrible but at the same time it sounds great! It’s hard living on your own, bills, budgeting so we have enough money to sort out our bills and food. But, the thought of finding my own place and starting my life and children is an amazing thought and feeling and I love thinking about it! 

My journey towards my independence started at supported housing in Rotherham. Here I am provided with a key worker, she supports me with budgeting (I’m not very good at this), attending appointments, cooking, workshops and many other things. There are staff there 24/7 for support and to make sure every child and young adult is safe and feels safe. There are also numerous other accommodations that you can choose from once you leave or are ready to leave care.

Personally I LOVE TEAM FOSTERING! Being a care kid has changed my life and changed my views on everything in life!

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

It’s National Siblings Day and we’re promoting keeping siblings together when they are in need of a foster home.

Many different types of children need looked after and this can include groups or pairs of brothers and sisters. Foster carers can provide a loving and caring home to siblings helping keep them together rather than separate them to live in different homes. Foster carers with one spare room can look after a pair of same-sex siblings, while those with more than spare room could offer mixed-sex siblings or a larger group of brothers and sisters a home.

At Team Fostering, we believe in doing our utmost to keep brothers and sisters together unless there is a reason that this shouldn’t happen. Often this is the only tie children have to their families and to separate them could create anxiety and instability. When children are first placed in a fostering home they are likely to be frightened and having their siblings with them can be a comfort and a sense of normality during what is a turbulent moment in their young lives, creating better emotional wellbeing and a smoother settling in period.

Fostering siblings can be extremely rewarding for foster carers, too. At Team Fostering there are currently a number of brothers and sisters living with our foster carers. In fact, one of our foster carers is currently looking after a sibling group of 4!

Team Fostering is an independent, not-for-profit agency that offers a very comprehensive support structure, innovative training opportunities and competitive fees and allowances. If you would like to learn more about providing a home for siblings, you can speak to us in a number of ways:

Call our Recruitment Administrator, Sam, on 0800 292 2003
Email our friendly team via info@teamfostering.co.uk
Submit your details on our online enquiry form

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

Making the decision to pursue a career in fostering is one that takes a lot of thought. Once you’ve decided to enquire about the role, the next step is finding the agency that’s right for you.
So, what are the top things to consider when looking at agencies?
 
1) Are they clear about the support they offer?
Ask about the support the agency offers. How long have the staff team been in place? Is the agency happy to provide you with current foster carer details so you can get a direct overview of life at the agency first-hand?

Team Fostering ensures that foster carers are supported by local staff, with a low staff turnover and with out of hours’ workers getting to know all foster carers. In our recruitment process we offer you contact details of some of our current foster carers, so you can gain an honest overview of the support at Team directly from them. You can read more about our support, fees and benefits here.

 2) Read their Ofsted reports
Most agencies will share their Ofsted reports with you on their websites. If they don’t, you will be able to locate reports yourself on Ofsted’s website. Read them in detail, recognise the positive comments and consider how Ofsted perceive the agency as a whole, what local authority social workers have said about their staff and how foster carers report on life with the agency.

Team Fostering was rated Oustanding (North East November 2018) and Good (Yorkshire and East Midlands March 2018), and our Ofsted reports are available to read on our website here. We’re very proud of them, and we encourage you to read them if you’re considering our agency.

3) Look at their social media pages
Current foster carers likely follow their agency’s social media accounts. Does it seem like the agency operates with a true sense of community? Has its current foster carers left Facebook reviews or comments on posts? Are pictures of staff visible or does everything look a little bit like a collage of royalty-free photos?

Our foster carers and staff are very active on social media and this is visible on our accounts. You can look at our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

4) Read between the lines
Is their website upfront about the types of fostering on offer? Do they explain fees and allowances in a clear and honest fashion?

Our fees and allowances are available on our website and we have a whole page dedicated to the types of children and young people we work with (click here to view). We are regularly adding to our website to ensure that all prospective foster carers are provided with a transparent overview of the agency. New pages currently being worked on include ‘The History of Team Fostering,’ 'Our Relationship with Local Authorities' and 'A Day in the Life of a Foster Carer'.

5) Consider how important it is to you that the agency operates in an ethical way
Many prospective foster carers might not know that there are some agencies operate 'for-profit' and some that operate as not-for-profit organisations.

Before I worked in the fostering industry I assumed all fostering agencies would be not-for-profit. Working at Team Fostering is particularly rewarding for me because the agency is a truly ethical, not-for-profit one that invests any surplus funds into putting children’s futures first. Our staff and foster carers value this ethical approach to fostering immensely, and I’m proud to be part of an agency like ours. Not-for-profit agencies are able to offer similar fees, support and training as for-profit agencies, often with additional opportunities made possible by the reinvestment of funds! Read more about our support by clicking here.

6) What is your gut instinct telling you?
You’ll know within minutes of looking at a website, a social media channel or an article whether you think an agency is putting children’s futures first.

Speak with the agency on the phone and consider the way their staff speak to you. Are they quick at answering your queries? Are they polite? Fostering is an amazing role and it’s important that, if you start a fostering journey, you do it with an agency that you’d like to call home.

Team Fostering is an independent, not-for-profit fostering agency operating across the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands.

You can enquire with us about becoming a foster carer in the following ways:

Complete our online enquiry form here
Call our Recruitment Administrator, Sam, on 0800 292 2003
Email us via info@teamfostering.co.uk
 

When you’re considering becoming a foster carer there are some standard eligibility criteria that we, as an independent agency, need to ensure you meet. For example, we need our foster carers to have a spare room that could be used as a bedroom for a child, and be able to drive with access to a car for attending training and taking children to and from school.

However, there are still some myths that people believe when it comes to fostering and eligibility, and recently we’ve been hearing from people who thought that being single meant they were unable to be considered as a foster carer. At Team Fostering, all of our fostering families are completely different! Some are married or unmarried couples, single male or female carers, some with adult children living at home and some who’ve never had children. Being single certainly does not impact your ability to provide a loving and stable home for a child who needs it.

​Karen and John have fostered for Team Fostering in the East Midlands for almost 4 years, and shared their fostering journey with us... 

"Fostering was something that we thought about doing over 20 years ago, but with our own children we wanted to spend time bringing them up before starting our journey as foster carers.
We loved raising our family and we wanted to share the safety, love, respect and guidance that we had together with a child or young person who hadn’t had that in their own life. Basically, we wanted to make a difference.

During our time as a fostering family we have learnt so much about ourselves. It’s made us realise how strong and grounded we are as a team and the tight bond that we share. Sharing this with a child and bringing them into a family that cares about them and wants them to succeed is so rewarding and has developed us as a family and individually. It’s brought out qualities that we didn’t realise we had.

We mark occasion today as we approved our first ever foster family on the 31st January 2001, a couple living in the North East. We’re delighted that 18 years on, Allison and Garry are still with the agency and have never looked back. The world of fostering has undoubtedly changed over the past 18 years, but Allison and Garry have remained dedicated to their role and to Team Fostering as their chosen agency.

Team Fostering was set up in 2001 by Walter Young who remains a Non-Executive Director and Peter Richardson who sadly passed away in 2009. The aim of the agency was to operate as an independent agency that would always put children before profit and would have children’s futures at the very heart of everything it did. This appealed to Allison and Garry who became our first foster carers.
‘We never thought the agency would become as big’ says Allison, ‘Team began as a small group with big dreams to provide quality care to children and young people as a not-for-profit agency. Fostering has continued to change since the agency began and Team have adapted during the years to take on those changes but still provide the best possible service to the children.

‘I recall a child’s Social Worker once saying that Christmas had come early for the young person because they had been placed with a Team Fostering carer.’

During their career Allison and Gary have looked after many young people, ‘We have so many memories of children we have fostered over the years whose uniqueness always leaves a place in our hearts’ Allison explains. ‘We received a message from a young person we fostered many years earlier thanking us for all we did for her and that her life was all the better for the time with us.’

Team Fostering is dedicated to recruiting foster carers and staff who really believe in putting children’s futures first, and this shared belief is what really unites the agency. Our foster carers are truly remarkable and Allison and Garry reflect on this. ‘We would never be the carers we are today without the support of our fellow foster carers, who laugh with us and cry with us. We also recall many times when our Supervising Social Workers have gone above and beyond for the children and remained consistent.’

From relatively small beginnings our agency now runs from 5 offices across the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands. We continue to work with an exceptional group of foster carers to make sure that children's futures are at the very heart of everything we do.

Jane Butler, our CEO who joined Team Fostering in 2017, has commented: “What a privilege it has been to join such a positive and high quality fostering agency. The agency really does work as a team with staff and carers dedicated to getting things as right as we can for children and young people. Their commitment shines through to always seek to improve and be the best that we can.”

​Many of our foster carers have been with the agency for a long period of time, with Allison and Garry not the only family that have been here since the very beginning. We are so proud to work with these families who continue to dedicate their lives to changing the lives of children and young people. We pride ourselves on being an agency that offers foster carers a great deal of support, training and benefits, and we think this conversation with Allison and Gary speaks volumes.

If you'd like to speak with us about starting your career in fostering, or transferring to us from another agency, you can reach us in the following ways:

Complete our online enquiry form here
Call our Recruitment Administrator, Sam, on 0800 292 2003
Email us via info@teamfostering.co.uk

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

Making the decision to pursue a career in fostering is one that takes a lot of thought. Once you’ve decided to enquire about the role, the next step is finding the agency that’s right for you.

So, what are the top things to consider when looking at agencies?

1) Are they clear about the support they offer?
Ask about the support the agency offers. How long have the staff team been in place? Is the agency happy to provide you with current foster carer details so you can get a direct overview of life at the agency first-hand?

Team Fostering ensures that foster carers are supported by local staff, with a low staff turnover and with out of hours’ workers getting to know all foster carers. In our recruitment process we offer you contact details of some of our current foster carers, so you can gain an honest overview of the support at Team directly from them. You can read more about our support, fees and benefits here.

2) Read their Ofsted reports
Most agencies will share their Ofsted reports with you on their websites. If they don’t, you will be able to locate reports yourself on Ofsted’s website. Read them in detail, recognise the positive comments and consider how Ofsted perceive the agency as a whole, what local authority social workers have said about their staff and how foster carers report on life with the agency.

Team Fostering was rated Oustanding (North East November 2018) and Good (Yorkshire and East Midlands March 2018), and our Ofsted reports are available to read on our website here. We’re very proud of them, and we encourage you to read them if you’re considering our agency.

 3) Look at their social media pages
Current foster carers likely follow their agency’s social media accounts. Does it seem like the agency operates with a true sense of community? Has its current foster carers left Facebook reviews or comments on posts? Are pictures of staff visible or does everything look a little bit like a collage of royalty-free photos?

Our foster carers and staff are very active on social media and this is visible on our accounts. You can look at our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

4) Read between the lines
Is their website upfront about the types of fostering on offer? Do they explain fees and allowances in a clear and honest fashion?

Our fees and allowances are available on our website and we have a whole page dedicated to the types of children and young people we work with (click here to view). We are regularly adding to our website to ensure that all prospective foster carers are provided with a transparent overview of the agency. New pages currently being worked on include ‘The History of Team Fostering,’ 'Our Relationship with Local Authorities' and 'A Day in the Life of a Foster Carer'.

 5) Consider how important it is to you that the agency operates in an ethical way
Many prospective foster carers might not know that there are some agencies that make an enormous profit from placing children in care.

Before I worked in this sector, I assumed all fostering agencies would be non-profit, which isn't the case. Luckily, I work here at Team Fostering, a truly ethical not-for-profit agency that invests all surplus into putting children’s futures first. Our staff and foster carers value this ethical approach to fostering immensely, and I’m so proud to be part of an agency like ours. If you believe that giving children the best start in life is more important than profit, you’re far better off approaching a not-for-profit agency. These agencies are able to offer the fees, support and training that for-profit agencies do, and far more! Read more about our support by clicking here.

 6) What is your gut instinct telling you?
You’ll know within minutes of looking at a website, a social media channel or an article whether you think an agency is putting children’s futures first.

Speak with the agency on the phone and consider the way their staff speak to you. Are they quick at answering your queries? Are they polite? Fostering is an amazing role and it’s important that, if you start a fostering journey, you do it with an agency that you’d like to call home.

Team Fostering is an independent, not-for-profit fostering agency operating across the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands.

You can enquire with us about becoming a foster carer in the following ways:

Complete our online enquiry form here
Call our Recruitment Administrator, Sam, on 0800 292 2003
Email us via info@teamfostering.co.uk
 
Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

Closing Date: 21st January 2019 at 5pm

Team Fostering is a not-for-profit fostering agency, with an annual turnover of £9m, based in the North East, Yorkshire and the East Midlands. We have been successfully supporting children and young people living in foster care to achieve positive outcomes since 2001.

We are looking for a fourth Non-Executive Director, based within this geographical footprint, who has an extensive background in business management in a commercial environment with demonstrable recent success in developing a business with a multi-million pound turnover and proven skills in delivering excellence in customer satisfaction.

This person must also be able to work within our values and behaviours framework, demonstrating an understanding of our Not for Profit status and subscribe to our principles of working as an ethical agency.

This successful candidate will also provide a creative contribution to the Board via objective criticism and independent judgement on issues of strategy, performance and resourcing of the agency, including involvement in key appointments and standards of conduct. The post holder will be independent of any of the company’s interested parties and bring a degree of objectivity and impartiality to the Board’s deliberations and play a valuable role monitoring executive management.

This is a part time role requiring, as a minimum, 30 day’s work per year and a minimum of 1.5 days worked each month equating to £13,101 per annum. Part of this monthly commitment is attendance at a monthly board meeting which will be held in either our North Shields, Middlesbrough, Sheffield or South Normanton office. An annual retainer of £3,218 is also paid and other responsibilities and pieces of work taken on, at the direction of the Board, are paid at an hourly rate of £58.23.

The closing date for application for this role is the 5pm on 21st January 2019, and the interviews are scheduled for the 13th and 14th February 2019 in our Sheffield office.

For further information, please ring Jane Butler, Chief Executive Officer, on 07769 908129 or Walter Young, Non-Executive Director on 07508 055643.

The full job description and person specification for this post are available below.

To apply, please send a completed Application Form and Equal Opportunities Form (below) to hr@teamfostering.co.uk no later than 5pm on 21st January 2019.

 Full details and application documents can be found here

Please note Team Fostering does not accept CVs.

All posts are subject to Enhanced DBS Disclosure.

Please note if you are shortlisted for interview we will contact you via the email you have provided. Please ensure you check your emails regularly.

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

By Walter Young, Non-Executive Director

'There are many ways to constitute a company. It can be limited by share capital, limited by guarantee, a charity, a mutual, a community interest company or one of a number of other options. This might sound like a dry subject to write about but it’s crucial to us that we are transparent about the way in which we operate. Plus, it’s something that we are proud of and have recently strengthened.

When we set up Team Fostering, we were determined that there should be no shareholders, no payment of dividends and no bonuses. We felt that everyone working at the agency should be paid fairly for their work but that no-one should be able to sit back and watch the money roll in. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens in many other Independent Fostering Agencies, but that’s their business.

We were determined to do it in a way that fitted with our values and put children’s futures first. One option would have been to set up as a charity, but we didn’t want to do that. Charities have to have trustees (usually unpaid) and that would introduce the need for a group of volunteers who had the ultimate say over everything we did. At the time that didn’t feel right for us either.

After taking professional advice, we decided it should be a company limited by guarantee, in other words a not-for-profit private company that has guarantors rather than shareholders.

Every so often over the years we were challenged about this. Some people argued that although we were clearly not-for-profit now, it wouldn’t be that difficult to convert to being for-profit (as many agencies have), which would mean that the directors could make all of the agency’s assets their own. In practice, that could mean taking money and resources away from directly meeting children’s needs. Current and past members of the board have always known that we wouldn’t do that, but that’s not enough to future-proof Team’s not-for-profit status for new directors to come.

With that in mind, in 2018, we decided to take steps to ensure that Team Fostering would be protected from this type of takeover into perpetuity. The directors met with solicitors specialising in company law and agreed a set of measures that would make it almost impossible for anyone to seize the agency’s assets for their own personal gain. The agency’s constitution, referred to as its “Memorandum & Articles of Association” was amended and a member agreement was created that now safeguards Team Fostering into the future as an ethical, not-for-profit organisation.

Foster carers do something amazing when they welcome children into their lives. Yes, they are paid an allowance that enables them to look after those children, but essentially foster carers open their homes and hearts to children who need a family. No-one should make money by exploiting their generosity. We’ve always believed this and we’ve always attracted staff and foster carers who share this belief. That’s why the constitution of the company matters so much.                                                                                                                                                                     
If you’re considering fostering, I would strongly recommend looking at not-for-profit agencies like Team Fostering. Not only can agencies like ours offer high levels of financial, emotional and educational support, but you’ll be able to flourish in your role knowing that we are not there to make money, but are there to help you to look after children in care as part of a stable, sustainable and forward thinking agency.'

If you’re interested in speaking to us, you can reach us in the following ways:

Send an online enquiry by clicking here 
Speak with us on 0800 292 2003
Use our Live Chat facility
Email us via info@teamfostering.co.uk

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk

By Jane Butler, Chief Executive Officer

First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year!

This was my second year in post at Team Fostering, and 2018 was a busy and exciting year for the agency.

In 2018 we opened a new office in South Normanton, appointed a non-executive director with first-hand experience as a foster carer and recruited a number of new foster carers across the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands. The entire agency was inspected by Ofsted with our Yorkshire and East Midlands office achieving a ‘Good’ rating with ‘Outstanding’ elements, and our North East office achieving ‘Outstanding’ in all areas. This meant our North East office has achieved an ‘Outstanding’ in Ofsted reports for over 11 years now, since their current grading system began! As always our children and young people attended some fantastic activities arranged by our Education and Support Service, and we celebrated their own achievements at our two Celebration of Achievement Awards Ceremonies. The agency launched a new psychological support service in partnership with a clinical psychologist, renewed its membership to New Family Social and celebrated our very own Douglas Shearer receiving his MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018.

This January, Team Fostering is running a campaign to showcase the not-for-profit status of the agency, with a look at how this impacts our children and young people, staff and foster carers. Some of the above achievements may not have been possible without the ethical values of the agency that ensure surplus made is reinvested into the services which are provided to foster carers and our children and young people. Our mission statement is ‘Putting Children’s Futures First,’ and we are a proud member of The Fairer Fostering Partnership, a group of agencies that each operate as charities or social enterprises to ensure that children come before profit. Over the course of the month we’ll be celebrating some of our achievements and the history of Team Fostering, speaking with those who have been at the agency since day 1 and sharing why our carers and staff value our ethical status.

If you’re considering fostering, I would recommend thinking about how working for a not-for-profit agency might be right for you. Keep your eyes peeled over the course of the month for further details and, of course, if you have any questions you can reach us on 0800 292 2003.

With very best wishes to each and every one of you for 2019!

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk