Parent and Child Fostering
Wiltshire Council are recruiting approved foster carers to look after a child and (one or both parents) in their own home, for an agreed period of time.
This is to ensure a child is looked after while checks are being done on the proposed parents, to see if they are able to care for a child in the community.
Laura Mayes, cabinet member for children’s services said: “Foster carers in Wiltshire are the unsung heroes who provide a stable home for children at some of the most difficult times of their lives. We are grateful to all our foster carers and I hope more people will come forward and provide that valuable support for some of our most vulnerable children and young people.”
There are two types of placement; support placements where the birth parent provides the day to day care of the child and the foster carer has a supporting role. The second type of placement is an assessment placement. These happen when there is a more serious concern about the parent’s ability to look after the child and the foster carer contributes to the assessment being carried out by the social worker. In these cases, the carer will probably have to take a greater role in the support, supervision and monitoring of the parent and child and may have to look after the child from time to time. For both these types of arrangement, the carer receives a fee recognising the skills that they need and an allowance for the care of the child.
To find out more information, contact the fostering team on 0800 169 6321. Alternatively, they run information sessions the details of which are on their website at http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/fostering
Emergency Fostering
They are also recruiting a team of foster carers to provide emergency care for children.
You will form a rota and be on call during the day and out of hours, to receive emergency, same day, placements of children of all ages – but more likely to be older children.
Laura Mayes, cabinet member for children’s services: “Providing emergency fostering is vital to children and young people in Wiltshire. It is a very challenging but hugely rewarding role and I encourage anyone interested to call us or better still, come along to one of our information sessions where current foster carers are on hand to give great advice.”
The placements will be very short term and you will help provide an initial assessment of need and work with professionals to either return the child home or move them on to a longer term placement. You will need to be flexible, resilient and able to work with uncertainty often with little information about the child.
To become an emergency foster carer you need to have at least one spare bedroom and time to give to the role. You will need to complete preparation training and be assessed and approved by a social worker and the Foster Panel. All our foster carers have an allocated worker to support and supervise them, they have access to training and support groups and there is a dedicated out of hours support phone line to help support you.
To find out more information, contact the fostering team on 0800 169 6321. Alternatively, they run information sessions the details of which are on their website at http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/fostering
