Blogs Fostering

Tell us about yourselves and why you started fostering

I’m a primary school teacher and have been for 15 years. Rich, my husband works as an environmental health officer for housing. In both of our jobs, we have worked quite closely with social workers and social care and have also had a lot of dealings with the other professionals that work alongside the social care community.

Through some of the experiences we have had with different children and families through work, we realised that we could make a difference ourselves. We don’t have children ourselves and felt that we had something to offer. We started exploring fostering about four years ago – we went to a fostering information evening and really caught the bug! We started having a look at networks and speaking to people who have done it, and then began the assessment and training.

We got our first child to stay with us in January 2019 – a 12-year-old girl, and she stayed with us throughout lockdown. We then had an emergency placement of a seven and four-year-old who were brother and sister, who stayed for four to five months. We now have two sisters aged 14 and nine, who are staying with us long-term, which means until they are 18.

How did you find the fostering assessment and the time commitment that was required for that?

It was brilliant. As a teacher I also work for Buckinghamshire Council, and my husband works for another local authority. Both Buckinghamshire Council and my husband’s local authority are Fostering Friendly employers, which means we get an extra 10 annual leave days per year. We use that for training, childcare, and to take part in any meetings related to the child. We used four days of this annual leave for the training, but some of it took place in the evening so we could be flexible. What worked really well for me as a teacher was that a lot of training doubled up, so I had already done the Child Protection training and Prevent training through my school, so I didn’t have to do it again.

How did you both talk to your employers about fostering?

Talking to our employers was one of the first things we did. Working in a school, you tend to have a good relationship with your managers. I work in a small school and we’re quite a tight-knit community. During the assessment you have to ask your employers for a reference, so my husband and I took time to meet with our employers and tell them about our intentions to foster. We raised any concerns we had about needing time off work and went into the meetings with solutions, for example we already knew about Buckinghamshire Council’s Fostering Friendly status.

Our employers were both ever so supportive. All levels of management were supportive in helping us to write our application and helped us talk through our character references. They wanted to be a part of our support network. Our working friends have been some of the most supportive we have. My colleagues as fellow teachers understand that there are vulnerable children out there and the help they need, and they understand that sometimes family does have to come first.

How do yourself and your husband balance full-time work with fostering?

With childcare, my husband’s workplace is flexible and allows him to start a little later and finish later, so he can do the school drop offs. Now that the girls are settled with us and will be with us long-term, they take part in various after-school clubs, which is something we really wanted to promote to give them experiences they might not have had before.

Before beginning fostering, we had to look carefully at our wider network and links with our family and friends. During the assessment, we had to show that we had someone who could be there in an emergency if we were stuck at work and someone who could pick the children up from school if we couldn’t. We got a lot of advice throughout the training and through the networks we made. We haven’t really had to use the resources, but it’s good to know it’s there.

What advice would you have for other teachers considering fostering?

Firstly, sit with your managers, talk to your head teacher and your deputy, as well as your SENCO. Have the conversation and talk through your concerns – quite often they will have solutions that you haven’t thought of. Make sure you know what your local authority can offer you, for example, whether they are Fostering Friendly. Sit down and talk through your support network, because it’s not just about the team around the child but the team around you, too.

You went from fostering one child to fostering siblings – how did you find that?

You would usually think that having more than one child makes it more difficult, but actually, it doesn’t. They have each other, and you get to see the relationship they have and how they can support each other, play together and share things. In some ways, this makes it easier than only having one child! It’s daunting to think of going from one child to more, but in a lot of ways it’s easier – like when you’re going on day trips, getting meals prepared or getting schoolwork ready. They help each other and we all work as a team.

What would your final message be to teachers considering fostering?

It’s amazing how much your professional role and role as a foster carer overlap. It can really work to the benefit of you – a lot of the techniques you apply in the classroom you will apply at home, like behaviour management strategies, working with multiple agencies and knowing who to call on. It’s been very useful going to meetings and already understanding the jargon and knowing what people are talking about. It’s been invaluable to me.