Skip to main content

Fostering support worries


One of the worries I’ve heard people discuss when thinking of fostering is whether they will be supported.


In essence, what support will they get if they, as the carer, are having a difficult time.

We all have trying times. Whether with our own kids, the grankids, at work, or with our pesky neighbor whose dog barks early in the morning.

But in most situations there is someone you can have a whinge and a moan to, or let loose with.

But fostering is different. Due to issues of confidentiality you cannot go telling every Tom, Dick and Harry that young George is being a pain in the you know what this week because he saw his Dad at contact and is now confused.

So, how do you get support as a carer?

The main two areas of support come from social services and other carers.

Every carer has their own social worker who are the first port of call.. however you may not want to email in or ring up for things that seem ‘trivial’ but are still an issue.

For me social workers are for more practical issues, like advice on how to register the child at your GPs, not for moaning that George keeps pulling the cat’s tail.

This is where another side of social services can help. There are organised support groups where in complete confidentiality you can discuss issues with other carers.  These are great for letting off steam.

However what if you need practical support too?

Well social services offer this too. They have 24hr of support on the phone. During 9-5 you can ring your social worker or the duty social worker. In the evening you can ring Out of Hours for help and advice and from midnight til nine you can ring the Emergency Duty Team. Basically there is always someone a phone call away for help.

However for all of this I feel the best support for foster carers is one’s own family and close friends and other carers.

Family and friends, whilst you can relay details, can still help out. Maybe babysitting or driving your child to youth club. Or helping with the weekly shop when you’ve got your hands full.

Other foster carers provide brilliant support though and are often on ‘standby’ to help each other out, particularly when you are looking after ‘difficult’ children. There is no better support than from a carer who knows what it is like to love a child but have them want to go home to the mum and dad who hit them, or knows how it feels when you child gets reunified and your heartaches.

Support networks after correctly a concern of potential carers, but you know, the more carers that live in a neighbourhood, the more support you can give each other, then the more help carers have, and the easier caring can be.

It’s never going to be a easey-peasey role, but if we have each other’s backs, then we can help each other help the children we look after.

So, I guess what I’m saying is don’t worry about support. There is plenty of it and when you become a carer you’ll be helped out by professionals and fellow carers and you yourself will become a carer that can help out others too.

You’ll join the supportive family that exists around foster care so we can look out for each other to do one of the best roles you can imagine: providing a safe, secure, loving home for Bristol’s most vulnerable kids.

All the best, Bristol Fostering.


Check out are FB Here

NB Bristol Fostering is a personal blog and not affiliated with any fostering agency. The author just happens to be a foster carer in Bristol, UK

We do recommend Bristol Council though as they're fab. Bristol Council fostering enquiry form

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Those kids are so lucky to be living with you'

We have heard this numerous times. And each time whilst the person saying it is well meaning I feel like bopping them on the head. Lucky? Really. Lucky that they were sexually abused as a young child, filmed and the abuse put online for thousands of paedophiles to see. Lucky that their parent has become slowly more unwell and has increasingly relied on them to bring up their younger siblings to the point where they have no friends and barely go to school as they're too busy doing all the jobs mum should be doing. Lucky that their parent lost their job through no fault of their own, became depressed and turned to alcohol, becoming abusive and forgetting to do even the basics in their household, neglecting them. No children in care aren't lucky. They've experienced difficult times and been plucked from their life and asked to live with strangers in a house that looks and smells different to the one they call home. They may have to move areas and schools too. S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brave new world

Where to start? With details about me, about the kids I look after and will look after in the years to come? With the answers to the questions you're undoubtedly thinking? Can I foster? Am I too young or old? Do I have to be in a relationship? Can I be LGBT+ and foster? Do I have to own my own home? Well, first off, understandably I wont be able to share the details of any kids in my care. Privacy is paramount. Instead I will offer tidbits and snapshots and little insights that I hope you find helpful. About the title... well I am based in Bristol, UK, a city which I love, and whose people I adore. But, like every town and city in the UK, there are not enough foster carers. I hope that by reading this blog you may be spurred into picking up that phone and making an inquiry with your local authority, or you fill in that online form, or attend a local drop in meeting. Btw I'm not tied to any agency or authority, this is my own brainwave. The first step, as they say, i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Things I hate about fostering

Some people see fostering as a job, some a calling, some a social necessity or duty, but no matter how you see fostering, there  will be things you hate about it. Don't get me wrong, vast majority of the time fostering is fab. Even when your tired, frustrated and wondering why you are taking your young person to meet their father for contact knowing they'll be upset for a day, fostering is still worth it. There are a whole host of reasons why it is worth it, but that is for another time. There are most certainly things we hate about it. Number one pet peeve is paperwork. It's to be expected in some senses. I mean you are looking after a child who has a corporate parent (the local authority) and with that will come a certain amount of paperwork. You have to be organised. From the get go you need some sort of lockable filing cabinet or container. Something that can be organised with tabs. Because you will get paperwork for each and every child you get. Paperwork rel...
Post a Comment
Read more