Fostering a child

What is fostering?

Fostering places a child into the care of a family when it cannot live with its own parents. This may be because its parents have problems, cannot cope and need a break or to help the child itself through a difficult time. Some children return to their own family if and when the problems are resolved and the parents are able to look after them properly; others may stay in foster care until they’re adopted or able to look after themselves independently.

The foster carer will be expected to provide a safe environment for the child and, working with a local authority, provide it with high quality care. The foster carer may also need to interact with other professionals such as therapists, teachers or doctors to help the child deal with emotional problems or physical or learning disabilities.

Types of fostering

• Emergency - where somewhere safe is urgently needed for the child to stay, usually just for a few nights.
• Short-term – a child is placed with a foster carer for a few weeks/months while a plan is formulated to ensure the child is looked after in the future.
• Short-breaks – this usually involves pre-planned, regular stays with a foster carer for children who are disabled or have special needs or behavioural problems. It allows their parents or usual foster carers to have a short break from caring for them
• Remand fostering – a child is sent to stay with a specially trained foster carer on the order of a court after it has been charged with or convicted of an offence and bail has been refused. It will stay with the foster carer until its trial or sentence hearing comes up.
• Long-term – some children who can never go back to their own families may not want to be adopted (or perhaps no-one can be found to adopt them). They will therefore stay in foster care until they are ready to look after themselves.
• Kinship fostering – this is where a child, who would ordinarily need to be looked after by the local authority, is taken in by relatives and cared for without outside involvement.
• Specialist therapeutic - for children and young people with very complex needs and/or challenging behaviour.

Who can be a foster carer?

As long as you have the right qualities to properly look after a child, and tick all the boxes required by the local authority, you can become a foster carer whatever your age, marital status, sexuality, religion or race. It doesn’t matter whether you are in or out of work or whether your own a home or rent.

Applying to be a foster carer

Steps to follow:

1. Contact your local council with which all foster carers have to be registered with and contracted to. Some local authorities use fostering agencies to get children into foster care so you can also contact your local agency directly.
2. The council or agency will arrange a meeting, talk you through what fostering involves and assess with you whether you’re suitable to become a foster carer.
3. If you fit the bill you will be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) to ensure you have not committed an offence which would exclude you from fostering (eg, an offence against a child). You will also have a health check. Other household members over 18 will also be CRB checked.
4. You will need to provide references which will be checked before your application can progress.
5. You must attend group preparation sessions with other people who are applying where you’ll find out about the needs of foster children.
6. A social worker will visit and interview you and write a report on your suitability for being a foster carer.
7. The social worker’s report and your completed application form will be sent to an independent fostering panel which will recommend whether or not you should be allowed to be a foster carer. The process can take up to six months.

Training

Apart from the preliminary group preparation sessions you will need to attend before your application is approved, if you become a foster carer, you will be regularly visited by a social worker and will need to have an annual review. This will throw up any additional training you’ll need to ensure you’re suitable to carry on fostering. Some carers also take a national qualification such as an NVQ level 3 Caring for Children and Young People (SVQ in Scotland).

Pay

All foster carers can get an allowance to cover the cost of looking after a child in their home which varies depending on where you live and how old the child is that you are fostering. Many local authorities, voluntary and independent fostering agencies now also pay foster carers a fee. The amount you get may depend on the needs of the child plus the skills, abilities, length of experience or professional expertise you have.

There is a fixed tax exemption of up to £10,000 per year (less if for a shorter period) which is shared equally among any foster carers in the same household. This means you don’t have to pay tax on the first £10,000 income you make from fostering.

You also get tax relief for every week (or part week) that a child is in your care. This means you don’t have to pay tax on some of your earnings over £10,000 (current tax relief is £200 per child under the age of 11 and £250 per child over 11.

If you foster, you’ll be eligible for National Insurance credits, which counts towards your state pension and payments for fostering don’t affect the amount of benefit you get if the payments come from a local council, a voluntary organisation or a private organisation on behalf of the local council.

Adoption

When you are fostering, legal responsibility for the child stays with its parents or the local authority. If you decide you want to adopt the child, all legal parental rights and responsibilities are transferred to you. The child becomes a full member of your family, taking your surname and has the same rights and privileges as a birth child. You will need to ask to be assessed as a possible adopter for the child and your suitability will be considered in the same way as anyone else applying to adopt (Overview of adoption).

Getting legal advice

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