When a child comes into our care
We have a corporate parental responsibility for Medway’s children in care.
As a foster carer, you look after these children on our behalf. It's our aim to ensure that all Medway children are placed with Medway approved foster carers.
Our matching process enables us to seek the best possible foster carer for our child's needs and support requirements. In the event that we are unable to suitably match with an in-house foster carer, we'll approach an independent fostering agency (IFA).
As corporate parents, we have decision-making responsibility for our children's care.
Fostering is rewarding
Of course, there can be a focus on the challenges of fostering. However, it's rewarding and there are many benefits that both you and our child in care experience.
"No feeling in this world beats a young person you have helped to shape turn out to be the remarkable person they have become today."
Our foster carers have reported that they would not consider fostering as a 'job' as the satisfaction they gain from being a foster carer is the core reason that they chose to foster in the first place.
Further benefits include:
- positive outcomes for the child and the foster parent
- children can benefit from positive attachments with their foster carer and an opportunity to grow up in a safe and loving environment
- foster carers have the amazing satisfaction that comes from making a huge difference to a child’s life, as well as all the guidance, support and monetary compensation they need.
3 ways becoming a Medway foster carer will change your life for the better
Becoming a Medway foster carer is a big decision, but one that has the potential to change your life for the better.
You learn so much when you go through the process of fostering and these skills and lessons will help you to grow as a person.
Here are 3 important ways that becoming a foster parent will change your life for the better.
Becoming a foster carer can help you to realise just how big an impact you can have.
The love and kindness that you show the children can help to shape them into the adults that they will become and can even change the way that they see the world.
The impact that you have on an individual child cannot only improve their life but can also help to change the world for the better.
When you foster a child, you will realise that you have a capacity to love that you never knew you were capable of.
Your heart will grow to encompass this love and will continue to do so as you foster more children.
This ability to love will be felt by the children that you foster and will help you to feel how rewarding it is to love someone selflessly.
Service in any form is a wonderful thing, but you might not understand just how important and rewarding service is until you have a personal experience with serving someone.
Fostering a child or young person is an act of service that requires a great deal of love and patience.
It is an act that will give you both a deep understanding of service and also a desire to serve more.
Not only will becoming a foster carer change your life, it will also change the life of the child that you are caring for.
Here, we look at how both the foster carer and young person benefits from fostering with us.
How the foster carer benefits
Fostering can be extremely rewarding to the foster carer and the family.
Helping others is extremely satisfying.
Knowing you're providing a child with a stable environment when they need it most is one of the most positive aspects of fostering.
Fostering comes with its own challenges and issues. Being able to offer love and security to young people, which could have a huge positive impact, is extremely important to foster carers.
Money should never be the driving force to fostering. But the financial allowances, rewards and concessions help provide the child with certain needs.
It also makes it possible for you to open up your home and allow the child to benefit from an opportunity that might not otherwise be available.
Fostering offers opportunities to expand your skills through training courses.
These are aimed at helping you to deliver a high service to young people in your care, but some of these skills will be transferable across other areas of your life.
For example, better foster care leads to better parenting of your own children. Foster carers and their families benefit from their involvement with fostering.
The opportunity to develop relationships that could last a lifetime can be a joy to foster carers.
Goodbyes are never easy, but the reward of supporting children to develop in confidence and to reach their full potential is the best part of being a foster carer.
Foster carers benefit greatly from engaging and building relationships with children and young people in their care.
Relationships develop and grow through the different personalities involved, helping you to also evolve as a person.
Sometimes fostering can lead to long-term placements, or even adoption.
A secure attachment is the ultimate reward for a child and a foster carer. Many relationships forged through fostering become lifetime benefits through friendship or companionship.
How children and young people benefit
All children and young people deserve the chance to live in a safe and secure home where they are nurtured and loved.
For many children, entering the care system can be stressful and scary. Some children may have experienced neglect or even abuse.
A foster home provides a safe place for them to grow and progress.
Trouble at home can disrupt a child’s academic achievements.
The birth family of the child may also not have been able to promote their educational needs and they may be behind other children of the same age in terms of their education.
A safe home environment where a child feels safe and supported can allow them to be more focused at school and improve their academic experiences and capacity to achieve.
Children need to be supported in their emotional and physical development.
A foster family can greatly improve a child’s emotional state, giving them the space and support they need to grow, learn and develop.
The foster child can still benefit from seeing their family and friends. This may vary and take place when it’s known they can do so in a safe environment and with the guidance of the social worker.
This allows the child or young person to continue to build a secure and stable relationship with family members with the support of their foster carer.
Summary
Undoubtedly, there are difficulties in fostering, but by concentrating on the benefits it’s easy to understand why carers carry on fostering for many years.
The satisfaction and pride in helping a young person with difficulties develop into a rounded individual is the ultimate reward for the majority of foster carers.
There are many myths surrounding who can become a foster carer.