Member News: Being a single foster carer at Team Fostering

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.

---

If you are thinking about fostering as a single carer, we would encourage you to think about the support network that you have around you. Do you have close friends or family who could offer you support in challenging times? We have many foster carers who are single and the agency provides a great support package for all of our carers. If you enquire about fostering, we will work with you to consider who in your life might offer that support, whether practical or emotional.

Once you become a foster carer you will be allocated a dedicated Supervising Social Worker, who will visit you fortnightly for the first year, and then review the frequency with you and the local authority social worker/s for any child you are looking after. We also host regular carer support groups, activities and workshops, that allow you to form relationships with other foster carers and their networks from the very start of your fostering journey. Many of our foster carers become close friends due to their shared experiences of fostering and time spent together at agency events, and they are incredibly welcoming to any new foster carers at the agency.

In summary, even if you are a single carer you will never be alone in your journey, with a team of fellow foster carers, social workers and other agency staff that are with you every step of the way.

If you’re interested in learning more about fostering, or if you’d like to ask any questions, you can reach us in the following ways:

By telephone on 0800 292 2003
By submitting an online enquiry form here
By emailing us via [email protected]

Many of our single foster carers have agreed to speaking with prospective carers about the fostering role, our agency and how they find fostering. If you'd like to arrange an informal discussion with someone, just get in touch and let us know.

Source:
www.teamfostering.co.uk