Fostering - could you be a foster carer?
More than 7,000 children are currently in care in the East of England. We need your help to look after them. Fostering is a flexible career choice, which can work around you, your family and your job.
Foster carers provide a safe home, on a short-term or long-term basis, when it's needed the most. All children and young people have individual reasons for needing foster care. Some looked after children and young people come into care on a short-term basis, due to an incident, accident, or illness. Sometimes the circumstances mean that children need looking after for longer.
Discover more about fostering
When a child can't live at home or with a close relative or family friend, they become a child who is cared for by the local authority. Foster parents provide children with a safe home on a short-term or longer-term basis.
Most people can foster. Fostering can fit flexibly around you, your family and your career. Fostering is an inclusive role - you don't need any specific qualifications to start with. Training is provided before you start and continues once you're approved.
Foster carers come in all shapes and sizes, and so do the children you will look after. This includes the length of time they may stay with you. Depending on the child's needs, foster carers can step in from just a weekend a month to offer respite care.
Foster carers are paid for the work they do, and receive money to cover the costs of having a child or children living with them. These payments are called fostering fees and allowances.
When you foster with your local council, you're never alone. You receive training locally from experts, and support from a team dedicated to helping you foster with confidence.
You are warmly invited to come to a fostering information event to find out more about fostering and to see if it could be the right choice for you.
