Fostering Plus for 12–17 year olds

If teenagers are ‘your thing’ you might interested in offering a family home to young people who might otherwise be in residential care.

The carers on this scheme

The foster carers on our Fostering Plus scheme are a special bunch of people, they just seem to understand the problems of adolescence and aren’t fazed by any of this. They can be firm in a laid back way!

Recruitment

We recruit straight into this scheme if you have the right qualities and skills. Whether you are single, have a partner or family all of you would need to be enthusiastic about caring for teenagers. Either you or your partner would need to be available to care during the day as often the young person will have been excluded from school.

Fostering is very demanding; it takes a lot of time … the good things completely outweigh the changes we’ve had to make.

After putting in a lot of time and effort the boys are both doing extremely well and this makes it all worth it.
Caring for two boys aged 12 and 14

The young people

These young people have got more problems than most. As a reaction to the difficult experiences they have had, they often have problems at school and may have been excluded, they may be taking drugs, getting on the wrong side of the law, be vulnerable to prostitution or possibly harming themselves.

They often don’t feel good about themselves and may take this out on other people. They may need care for anything from a few weeks to a few years!

Our foster carers are able to get through to the young people they look after and help them to begin to build up their confidence. The young people may then accept some help with things like their school work, enjoying fun activities and making good friendships.

Help and support for our carers

We give extra support to foster carers on our Fostering Plus scheme through our fostering workers who are available when needed and a monthly support and training group which meets in the Hastings area. Our allowances and professional fees are also higher for this scheme.