Blogs
Accessing and understanding the benefits system can be difficult for foster carers and the young people they look after. Information from Jobcentre Plus does not always take into account their unique circumstances. For example, the under-occupancy charge (the bedroom tax) which can affect their fostering. There can also be complications when young people are required to claim benefits to fund a post-18 arrangement.
The Foster Care Transforming Lives conference taking place in Edinburgh on 20 November will explore the similarities, differences and developments in foster care systems across Europe, with a focus on how they can support children through childhood, prepare young people for adulthood and how foster care can support birth families.
Our Fostering Friendly employers scheme offers organisations of any size a chance to improve support for their employees and make a difference for children and young people in their local communities.
How would it feel to move from your foster carer in Lincolnshire to your Nigerian birth mother in London? Shola Amoo, artist and filmmaker from London, explores the feelings behind such a change in in his new film. The Last Tree explores identity and culture and shines a light on a young person’s journey trying to find himself. We spoke to Shola about his motivations for the film.
Shopping for food, cooking meals, washing clothes. There are many skills that young people need to learn before they are ready to live independently, but managing money is one of the most important.
Saying goodbye to children can be one of the most challenging aspects of being a foster carer.
In this blog, Vicki – a single mum of a 10-year-old boy and foster carer for the last seven years – talks about the grief she has felt when saying goodbye.
For many, retirement is a stage of life to settle down and take things easy. For Richard Haynes, a 75-year-old from Gloucestershire, it provided an opportunity to take on another challenge: fostering. Among other things, Richard worked with youth offenders and as a Scout leader, but since 2017 he has opened his home to unaccompanied asylum seeking children and local children in need.
We have created an exit interview toolkit for fostering services to capture all of the reasons why foster carers leave their services. Free to download for members, the information captured can then be used by the service to improve practice and inform foster carer retention and recruitment strategies.
Petrina Banfield is a writer and foster carer whose passion for adoption and fostering was shaped by the discovery that her father was an identical twin who had been separated
from his siblings during the Second World War. It was her father's experience of growing up in care that led her to become a foster carer in 2003.
Her fostering service has introduced a letter writing scheme from foster carers to the children they are looking after. Here she explains how the scheme works and some top tips for letter writing.
