What is Foster Care?

What is Fostering?

It's about giving love back to people that have not had a greatest start... nurturing them to grow, have positive experiences and feel loved.

Foster care is a safeguarding system to provide safe, stable family homes for vulnerable young people.

When young people under 18 can no longer live with their birth parents for various reasons, they are placed within the foster care system, which provides temporary to long-term care in a family environment under the supervision of dedicated Foster Carers.

Young people come into care through their local authority and are placed with either the local authorities Foster Carers or a dedicated fostering agency, such as Empower Fostering.

While local authorities may have their own team of Foster Carers, they rely on independent agencies to offer additional support, not only to the Foster Carers but with placements where a young person may have additional needs, or when a sibling group needs to be kept together.

We take great pride in recruiting and training high-quality Foster Carers. We carefully match our carers with children and young people to achieve the best outcomes for every placement, including those in our care, and for our foster families.

What is a Foster Carer?

A Foster Carer is a self-employed carer who looks after young people under 18 whilst they can no longer live with their birth parents. Foster Carers take on the roles and responsibilities of a parent to provide the young person with a safe family home with care, support and compassion.

They must be willing to open their home to vulnerable young people and provide them with the best care to grow and thrive. Foster Carers must be responsible for the young person’s needs and welfare, providing a home, clothing, education, hobbies, and healthcare and giving love, understanding, support, and guidance.

Our Foster Carers don’t work alone. They are part of a team of professionals involved in the welfare of the young person and are given training, fully comprehensive support and guidance.

Who Can Foster?

Anyone can foster as long as you can demonstrate you have the skills and capacity to care for a child. You need to be resilient, kind and have a support network around you. You will also need to have a spare room for the child or young person.

We welcome applications from individuals of any age or gender; there is no upper age limit. Your sexual orientation is not important to being a Foster Carer and will not stop you from fostering. As part of your assessment to foster, you will have a medical with your doctor and as long as you are physically and emotionally fit enough to care and support a young person, then age is not an issue.

Your skills

Your skills and life experience will be an invaluable resource during your foster-caring career. Sometimes, you may not realise you have the qualities needed to foster, but you will be surprised how everyday life has equipped you with transferable skills. If you: