Tell two people and become a fostering ally
Get fostering confident and tell at least two people about it! Use your educational background in a wider context when you feel comfortable talking about fostering to people in your personal networks (neighbours, family, friends, ex-colleagues).
If somebody you know is interested to hear more, or if you think a couple of people you know might make great foster carers, please signpost them to East Sussex Fostering to get in touch and register up for an online information session as their next step. Encourage them when you explain why you think they could make a difference:
- Providing structure and safety
Routines and boundaries help children feel secure at home too, especially when life has been unstable. The children we care for have often missed out on school academically with their learning and socially maintaining friendships. They may also have missed out on routines like bedtime, teeth brushing and regular meals. Foster carers offer stability, modelling of positive routines, support school attendance, set expectations and praise children when they achieve and exceed them! - Offering local support and security
Keeping children safe is at the heart of fostering, as it is in education. We provide training to our foster carers (before and after they get approved) to enable them to advocate for a child’s wellbeing, support trauma experience and build secure attachments within fostering relationships. - Different types of fostering
Fostering can be flexible, and there are different types of fostering to suit varying childcare experience, lifestyles, life stages and family situations at the outset. Sometimes our foster carers change their original choices and explore fostering a different age group or begin fostering part-time and become full-time foster carers. There is support with training and new situations or challenges 24/7 – foster carers are never on their own. - Respect and rewards
Sometimes people feel awkward asking about fostering payments. We are very open about the payment structure for this unique and valued role. People rarely foster for the money, it is usually a personal and vocational motivation, but the majority of people wouldn’t be able to foster without it. So please encourage people to feel comfortable asking.
Being a foster carer is a well-respected role which inspires those around them. Foster carers make a positive difference and change lives. Rewards come in various forms with the greatest coming from the children themselves as they start to trust you and their new environment and begin to thrive.
