Fostering in
Newham
Fostering is helping one or more
children by looking after them in your own home. Children need to
be fostered when, for a variety of reasons, they cannot live with
their own families.
Fostering
Could you provide a loving, caring home to a child or teenager
unable to live with their own family?
If you think you could, fostering could be for you. Find out more
during Foster Care Fortnight which starts on 13 May and runs until
the 26 May.
You can go along to two recruitment events:
- Wednesday 15 May 10am-4pm - Morrison's Supermarket, Stratford
E15
- Sunday 19 May 12noon-4pm - Stratford and West Ham, Stratford
Shopping Centre, Broadway, E15
On this page..
We welcome foster carers who are:
- almost any age
- married, in a civil partnership, single, divorced, or living
with a partner
- from any cultural, ethnic, religious and social background
- heterosexual, lesbian or gay
- living within a reasonable commuting distance from Newham -
find out here if you live in our catchment area (pdf)
- renting or a home owner with enough space to accomodate a
child
- in good health
- a parent or not, although experience of what it means to care
for a child would be useful
If your or a member of the household, smokes, we would expect
smoking to only take place outside of your home and you will not be
able to foster children under five years of age. This is because of
the serious health issues for children from passive smoking.
There are different ways you can foster:
- Emergency - when you provide children
somewhere safe to stay for a few nights
- Short-term - when you look after children for
a few weeks or months, while plans are made for the child's
future
- Short breaks - when you provide disabled
children or children with special needs or behavioural difficulties
a short stay on a pre-planned, regular basis, and allow their
parents or usual foster carers to have a short break for
themselves
- Long-term - when you foster children who
cannot return to their own families but who do not want to be
adopted, or who wish to continue to have regular contact with
relatives. You will foster these children until they are ready to
live independently
Depending on your experience and the age of the child or
teenager, you can receive a weekly allowance of between £291 and
£500 for each child. This will cover the costs of caring for a
child or teenager and includes an allowance for you.
You will also receive training and you will be allocated your own
supervising social worker who will support you in your fostering
role.
Foster carers do not pay tax on their income from fostering up to a
maximum of £10,000 plus allowances for the care of the child.
If you make National Insurance contributions, you are entitled to
Home Responsibility Protection. This means you will not lose out on
your Basic Retirement pension if you have stayed at home to look
after a child.
Becoming a foster carer is exhilarating but challenging, so
Newham has a good support system in place. This includes:
- Continuous back-up from a supervising social worker
- An extensive ongoing training programme
- An NVQ-recognised qualification
- Newham's Foster Carer's handbook
See our step by step guide to becoming a Newham foster
carer
If you're interested in fostering, call us for a chat on
0800 0130 393 or complete our
online fostering and adoption enquiry form
and we'll get in contact with you.
We can answer any questions that you might have, and also tell you
the date of our next fostering information evening.
Becoming a foster carer can take time - approximately six months.
You will take part in assessment and training and will need to
provide references and have a health check. We will also carry out
a police check.
Useful information is also available from the
British Association
for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) on 020 7421 2600.