Hear from our Head of Fostering at St Christopher’s Pauline Griffiths, to find out more about what our in region teams are doing to support our young people and their carers and our future ambitions to help even more children in need. And how we are supporting parent and child placements and making a difference with different family set ups.
In the last year, the fostering service has experienced significant change and evolution, our teams are bolstered with new staff, and we are embarking on a fostering growth strategy to not only recruit, but to retain our foster carers.
As we know, there is a national shortage of foster carers and all Independent fostering agencies, and Local Authorities are struggling to recruit new families. Fostering is not a job that everyone can do, there are stringent checks, the process from when someone makes an enquiry to a carer being approved can take up to 8 months, and then the hard work begins, when you start to take young people into your home. But we have a number of outstanding carers who make such a difference and are encouraged and happy to continue to help make more new family memories, as what they do truly brings them joy as they see those in their care thrive. We want to enable more families to join us on this incredible journey.
For our agency recent, key developments include our parent and child service, where a new parent who is experiencing difficulties, and their child are placed together in foster family care. The parent will receive help and support from the foster carer for a specific time until they can safely care for their own child on their own. We now have a number of foster carers in both regions who are approved for parent and child families. This is great news, as the demand for such support is high.
Most of our young people are in long term secure families. For our children when they leave a home it is planned; where they go on to forever families, reach 18 and stay put in their foster family or are rehabilitated back home.
We have a committed and dedicated team of foster carers. It is so pleasing, when I visit or meet with carers in their support groups or at events to hear our families speak so enthusiastically and positively about the children in their care. Kindness is so simple, and I see kindness demonstrated repeatedly with our carers, who go above and beyond to be advocates for their children.
For me, there are always “moments” that we capture in fostering every day. There are moments that can make me smile, when a child tells me they are happy in their home, or moments that make me feel pleased when a foster carer reports that a child sat down and ate their dinner. It is those little steps or tasks that our children achieve all the time that create those special moments in the work we do.
As charity our focus is on the children that we care for and the carers who are making the difference. If you want to know more about how we can help you on your fostering journey please get in touch and find out more info here