Great Question!

You may have considered for some time now the possibility of becoming a foster carer. Experience tells us that people in the contemplation stage will be asking themselves a whole host of questions, and the likelihood is that you keep coming back to the same one…

Have I/we got what it takes/needed to become foster carers?

This is a very important question to ask oneself, however one that you may not feel you are able to answer yourself or that  you may not be best placed person to answer this. By this, I mean that many of us struggle to see what skills we have, what do we bring to the table?  As we like to be modest and not always shout from the rooftop the extensive ways that we have helped, supported, guided and cared for others, whether this be in a professional capacity, or personally. You may feel that your current work experience hasn’t had involvement with young people and therefore you can’t possibly have the transferable skills needed?  Well you may well be wrong! All of our foster carers bring something unique to their role, and it is this uniqueness that makes them special, this uniqueness is themselves, their LIFE experiences, something that we all have.

Going through the assessment…

The assessment process, whilst yes can feel like a daunting one, its vital as it helps the assessing Social Worker to look at your life journey, to look at the range of skills that you have possibly taken for  granted all these years, of which will have equipped you along the way.  It is the social workers role throughout the assessment to establish how these critical life skills can help to support the young people in our care. Whether you have worked with children and young people or not.  Whether you have parented or not, one thing that will be guaranteed will be that you have the life experiences where the skills can be transferred to caring for a young person. It’s OK if you need support to know how to take full advantage of these skills and our fostering team are here to help you to do this through their extensive training package, as well as the 1 to 1 support offered to all of our carers. SO if you have ticked the more practical boxes such as ‘we have a  spare room’ and are questioning your own ability, why not pick up the phone have a discussion with us to explore the possibility of letting us help you, help a young person! You can find out more about becoming a foster carer by attending one of our information events.  Click HERE for our event listings:

Get in touch by visiting our website www.caritascare.org.uk or call us on 0800 652 6955.