What do foster carers do?

What do foster carers do?

Key qualities of foster carers include being a great listener, having a good sense of humour, being optimistic, having their feet firmly on the ground and showing resilience. They must also be able to offer the time, commitment, space and skills to care for children separated from their families.

Here are some of the things you will be expected to do as a foster carer:

Provide support

You will need to ensure that you do all you can to support children and young people in their education, look after their health and promote their social wellbeing.

Attend meetings and manage information

Being a foster carer involves more than just looking after a child. As well as the day-to-day care of the child, you will be asked to attend meetings about the children in your care, keep written records, and manage information that is confidential and sensitive.

Manage behaviour

No longer being able to live in the home, or with the people, you are used to is a traumatic experience, whatever your age. Fostered children and young people can display difficult or challenging behaviour as a way of coping with this upheaval. As a foster carer you need to be able to recognise the possible causes of such behaviour and, with the support of your fostering service, develop strategies to help the young person manage their feelings and experiences. 

Promote contact with families

Contact with their own families is very important to children and young people in foster care and, as a foster carer, you will need to help maintain this if it is felt to be appropriate. This is important, regardless of any personal feelings you may have about the child's parents. Contact can be direct (face-to-face) or indirect (telephone, email or letters) and you will receive training to help you manage this. Contact arrangements may change over time.

Manage relationships

You must be able to communicate effectively, not only with children and young people but with social workers, the children's birth families and others concerned with the wellbeing of the children.

Commit time and energy

You will need to have time and energy to invest in a child or young person.

Who can become a foster carer?

Almost anyone can apply to be a foster carer, but as with any career, some people will be more suited to it than others. You do not need any formal qualifications to become a foster carer. However, you do need skills and experience that will enable you to meet the needs of the children and young people you care for.

Fostering services need to recruit a variety of foster carers to offer as much placement choice as possible to children and young people. You can apply to foster regardless of your marital status, sexuality or residential status. Foster carers come from a diverse range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds which reflect the children and young people who are in care.

When you can't be a foster carer

There are certain offences that will prevent you becoming a foster carer, so if you have ever been convicted of a sexual offence or a violent act towards a child then you will not be able to foster.