Fostering as a career
More people every year are looking to improve the quality of their working lives or to start a new career doing something they are most interested in. Fostering can now be considered as a job which provides a reasonable income and which enables people to become self employed and to work from home.
Although many foster carers choose to look after children from time to time, such as respite or short term foster carers, there is a national shortage of foster carers who can be available full time and the more available foster carers are, the more foster care placements will be offered.
A fostering career can be short term or life long. Foster carers, choose the service they want to provide which suits their family circumstances and the income they are looking to receive.
Independent Fostering Agencies provide fees of approximately £400 per foster child per week and Local Authorities use the National Allowance Rates but also have other specialised rates.
Find out about how to apply to become a foster carer, the payments, allowances and the different types of fostering to choose from.
We help people interested in fostering children to act on the Government's advice to 'contact more than one Fostering Agency if you are interested in a fostering career'.
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