Be Someone Amazing...Foster!

20th February 2012, 00:00

We think people who foster children are some of the best people in the world.

And you could 'Be Someone Amazing' with Wokingham Borough Council, as they are looking for people locally to provide a caring home for children and young people.

It’s a big commitment providing a child the love, care and home life they’d otherwise miss out on but, as all foster carers learn, it’s also one of the most rewarding experiences in life.

Fostering is looking after a child who is unable to live with their parents due to concerns about neglect, abuse towards the child or ill health in the birth parent and the child lives with you in your home from a few days or months to several years.

Fostering is about providing the best care through dedication, passion and a desire to secure the best outcomes for a child. It's a way of offering children and young people a stable family environment while their own parents are unable to look after them.

Fostering is usually a temporary way of offering children a home until they can return to their family, although many live with foster carers for years, some for their whole childhoods.

Foster carers play a key role in transforming children’s lives, it's not easy, but it offers the opportunity to make a huge difference to children's lives and can be a very rewarding. People who want to foster need to care about children, have great communication skills and be ready for a challenge.

It is vital that Wokingham Borough Council recruits and retains sufficient foster carers to meet the needs of children in care. Having enough local carers is vital to being able to offer local young people the opportunity to live locally and maintain links with their friends, family and community.

Fostering is a funded role with the amount you split into two parts. The first is a carer’s fee, which is dependent upon the level of experience, skill and training of the foster carer as well as the type of foster care you provide. The second is a child allowance to cover all the expenses incurred in caring for the child/young person and also upon the degree of the care the child needs.

Who can foster?

You must be:

• Aged over 18 (although we prefer carers to be over 21)
• Have a spare bedroom
• Live in a non-smoking household

Overall it is important that a carer is available to meet the everyday responsibilities, such as taking the child to school and appointments. The qualities needed are compassion, understanding, energy, patience, tolerance and just enjoy being with children.

There are different fostering options available depending on your circumstances but you’ll need to be flexible enough to meet the everyday responsibilities of caring for a foster child.

 

Click here to find out
how you can ...
'Be Someone Amazing'