Consider a 4 week fostering pledge
Fostering is more flexible than many people realise; your skills are already making a difference, and they could continue to do so as a short breaks foster carer!
There are many crossover benefits with experience, training and also income in both roles – weekly fostering payments might enable you to stay in the educational role you enjoy.
If you’re currently working in an education setting and have school holidays off, you might consider becoming a ‘short breaks’ or emergency foster carer.
Offer a total of 4 weeks’ fostering over a year
What might this look like? A planned and regular weekend each month would really support our full-time foster carers. Add a week or so during one of the school holidays which could be something the young person would look forward to, and allow a full-time foster carer time to focus on their own children, take a family holiday or catch up on personal appointments.
Balancing work and fostering
Options like short breaks fostering or emergency care allow you to provide care outside school hours. This part-time (self-employed) role makes a huge difference. Short carers support our full-time foster carers and enable a young person to build another trusted relationship too!
Older teens are more independent, indeed, they need support and guidance to become fully independent and move on to live by themselves. So, if you love working with young people, you could alternatively become a 16+ foster carer which is more suited to those continuing to work full-time alongside fostering.
I loved it. We were busy from the moment they arrived whenever they stayed - parks, beach, train rides, watching films together
Catherine teaches in a primary school. She began her fostering journey in 2021 caring for a 5-year-old boy for 24 hours once a fortnight and a 12-year-old girl one weekend a month.
We can arrange for you to have a chat with a foster carer who works in education and balances that role alongside fostering. If you would like to find out more, please get in touch for an initial chat by phone 01323 464129 or
- Join an online information session
- Send in an enquiry form