Becoming a Foster carer with Rainbow Fostering is not complicated. If you like children and young people and have a spare room then you can be eligible to foster. What is important is to understand that providing foster care can at times be very challenging. With the kind of training and support that we provide, it can also be a great pleasure. Our foster carers tell us how their lives have been changed for the better through helping a vulnerable child or young person.

So, if you have been thinking about fostering there comes a point when you decide to take the plunge. Make that all important first call. You can relax when you do as there is no obligation. You will get through to one of our Team Rainbow recruitment specialists who will be pleased to hear from you. Once they have taken a few basic details they will want to chat with you about your motivations to foster. And they will also take a note of your preferences. Some people want to foster babies or very young children only. Others are interested in providing foster care for teenagers or others have a preference for looking after a sibling group. Wherever your interest lies, you will be given an accurate picture of what is involved.

Some people contact us who already have professional experience of working with children or young people. We will try and discover whether they might be interested in a more specialist type of foster care called therapeutic fostering. This is a branch of foster care where carers look after children who have complex needs. Such children may also have behavioural issues – often the result of abuse or neglect prior to coming into care. Foster carers specialising in this type of care will be expected to have additional training and be part of a team that will include a professional therapist. This is because they have to support the work a therapist does with a child in order to help them recover from their negative experiences. Therapeutic foster carers are paid an enhanced rate, which recognises the additional skills they have.

We think of becoming a foster carer as a journey…one which starts with six easy steps.

1. You can register your interest with us by calling or emailing our recruitment team via our website.
2. After establishing you have a spare room, we arrange an initial home visit to discuss fostering with you in more detail. We will ask for proof of identity and collect references.
3. We then make checks with your employer, friends and family and we arrange a DBS check. this is a standard check which is made by all agencies to prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups.
4. Whilst we are processing your application, you are requested to attend a special 3 day ‘Skills to Foster’ course. This is designed to give you much more information about the different aspects of fostering – as well as the options you might wish to consider.
5. A Rainbow social worker will then carry out your home study report. This establishes that your home will be a safe environment for a child or young person.
6. When this is completed, you will meet with our Panel members. they will make a recommendation as to whether you are ‘Approved’ to foster.

The entire process can take between sixteen to eighteen weeks from your initial inquiry to being ‘Approved as a foster carer. If successful, we will start to plan your first placement with you. We will also let you know about all the additional training opportunities we offer our foster carers.

Who can be a foster carer?

We need foster carers from all kinds of backgrounds: single people, couples (married or living together), same sex couples, families – with or without children – and whatever your ethnicity, religion or cultural background, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll inform you as to how your life skills and experience could make such an important difference to the life of a child or young person.

You’ll also discover that fostering can be FUN and rewarding in so many ways. So if you are looking for a career that is flexible, well paid and enable you to live a life with real meaning, we are just a phone call away: 020 8427 3355 – or  our National number 0330 311 2845. Whatever you want to raise such as fostering allowance, foster carer requirements, how long does it take to become a carer, how to foster a child uk, types of fostering, fostering babies, carer payments and what is fostering.

All blogs written by Will Saunders: Rainbow Fostering – Content Management/Marketing

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You could transfer to Rainbow today

Rainbow are a leading fostering agency with twenty years experience so there are many good reasons to consider joining us if you are already a carer. We are looking forward to you calling us to hear about the benefits of becoming part of ‘Team Rainbow’. This could include a special introductory bonus.

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