Becoming a foster carer

It usually takes between four and six months from your initial inquiry to being approved as a foster carer. This is a thorough but supportive process designed to ensure that fostering is right for you, and that you have a good understanding of what will be expected of you as a foster carer.

Step 1

The starting point is making an enquiry to our fostering recruitment team. This gives you the opportunity to ask questions about fostering and clarify that you meet the essential criteria.

Step 2

Once you have formally registered your interest to become a foster carer, a social care worker will visit you at home to get to know you, provide more information and see your home and spare room.

Step 3

The next step involves carrying out essential checks, including with the Police and Probation Service, the local council and the NSPCC.

Step 4

You’ll then complete the Skills to Foster training course with other potential foster carers. This is a training course designed to prepare new applicants for fostering and covers a wide range of useful and practical topics including child development, safeguarding, understanding behaviours and the role of the foster carer.

Step 5

Once this training is complete, you will complete your full assessment with the support and guidance of an experience supervising social worker. Following this, applicants are invited to the fostering panel, and it is here that decisions are made to approve applicants as foster carers.