Fostering is a rewarding and recognised profession. It means looking after a child or young person in your home who is not able to live with their birth family.
Every child in our care is unique and all have different needs. They come from all sorts of backgrounds and different family situations, so each needs a different type of care.
Some children will only need to stay with foster carers for a few days while their family accesses support, while others will need to remain on a longer-term basis.
Sometimes it won’t be possible for you to know how long a child may stay with you, but we’ll always keep you informed.
Fostering involves working very closely with our team of social workers to support the child’s social and emotional development. As well as caring for their health and wellbeing you will also help them keep in touch with their birth family.
As a foster carer, you will receive our generous payments and allowances, enabling you to concentrate on being the best carer possible with the financial backing that comes with such a rewarding profession.
You will also receive ongoing professional support and high-quality training.
About the children you could foster
You can choose which age group or gender you would prefer to foster although it’s worth bearing in mind that if you’re flexible and willing to take children of all ages, you’re more likely to have continuous placements.
Most fostered children will stay in contact with their ‘birth’ families. This could be through visits or in writing. Your social worker will talk to you about this.
In Devon, we currently need foster carers for children up to the age of 18 years, including sibling groups and some with behaviours that carers will need support to understand.