Fostering in South West England - Five Rivers Child Care

Become a foster carer with Five Rivers Child Care

Five Rivers Child Care is recruiting foster carers in the South West area. We’re looking for caring, supportive and compassionate people who are able to provide a safe and stable home to our children and young people.

We have dedicated local offices in Bristol, Gloucester and Somerset here to provide you with local 24-hour support and specialised on-going training. Our South West offices cover many towns and cities in the Gloucestershire and Somerset area, including Gloucester, Bristol, Bath, Chippenham, Cirencester, Taunton, Forest of Dean, Weston-super-Mare, Cheltenham, and Stroud.

Fostering is an immensely rewarding career, helping to shape the future and well-being of children who need it the most. If you’re over 21 and have a spare room, you could be eligible to foster. Call us on 03452660272 to discuss joining our Five Rivers family – or simply fill in our online forms to apply to foster or book a call.

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Why foster with us?

Five Rivers has over 30 years’ experience in foster care. We’re also a Social Enterprise which means we reinvest our finances into our service development, including researching, developing and providing better therapeutic support for our children and carers. We’re also an Ofsted Good/Outstanding agency.

We’ll help you to become the very best foster carer you can be. We provide comprehensive ongoing training tailored to your needs and the needs of our young people. We’re also by your side every step of the way. Our local offices are always on-hand to help and are only a phone call away. You can rely on our support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Exceptional training and support

Our local area offices allow us to provide localised and personalised training and support to our carers. It also means we can get to you quickly and that you’ll always speak to or see someone you know. We have a close-knit team of social workers who work with carers to create a sense of family and community around the child. Our carers say they join us for our “excellent reputation” and care leavers say it is this “family feel” that really makes us stand out amongst the rest.

Read fostering stories

Another way we bring carers together is our incredible monthly carer support groups. These are attended by our social workers and provide foster carers a safe space to meet like-minded people, share experiences and get to know one another. The service also has its own dedicated clinician so that our carers receive high quality therapeutic support and advice in relation to the children they care for.

We really value our carers. That’s why our carer reps visit you regularly to hear your thoughts, needs and recommendations. We then hold regional forums once a month to shape and improve the service we provide. Talk to us today about joining the Five Rivers family and becoming a foster carer.

Hear Catherine’s fostering story

Start your fostering journey with Five Rivers.

Call us on 03452660272 today to talk to one of the team about becoming a foster carer.

Alternatively, book a call with us or fill in our online application form and we’ll get back to you.

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Who can foster with Five Rivers?

It doesn’t matter if you’re new to fostering or an experienced foster carer – we need you. If you’re not sure your application to become a foster carer will be accepted, or would like to chat with an expert in a little more detail, give us a call or send us an email. We’d love to hear from you.

Alternatively, you can find answers to lots of questions about fostering with Five Rivers Child Care on our FAQ page.

Read FAQs

Meet our Bristol Office

We’re a friendly and extremely dedicated team who is available at any time, any day. There’s always a supervising social worker, practitioner, fostering support worker or administrator ready to help our diverse range of carers around Bristol and Somerset.

We’re committed to our carers’ development and offer all our carers the opportunity to attend accredited therapeutic training that offers a formal qualification on completion. Join us for monthly foster carer support groups and regular get-togethers, trips and activities. There’s always something for our foster carers and young people to look forward to.

A career as a Five Rivers foster carer means you’re a valued and respected member of our team. If you’re thinking of becoming a foster carer and joining our team, then please get in touch. You can apply now, book a call or call us directly on 03452660272 for an informal chat.

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“We considered both adoption and fostering, but after looking into it we found that foster care was closer to what we’d been doing in our careers and we were really impressed with the level of training and support from Five Rivers.” – carer

“We feel thoroughly supported as a whole family. Nothing seems to be too much and our experience with our supervising social worker has been great. We feel like part of a fostering Five Rivers family, with a local support group, local training and a fantastic children’s awards celebration every year.” – carers

Meet our Gloucester Office

Like our Bristol office, we’re a friendly team with extensive experience working in fostering services. Our Gloucester office is made up of a specialist, caring team whose passion it is to find the best carers for our children and young people. Our fostering support workers benefit from local knowledge and are always around to offer help and support.

When you become a foster carer with Five Rivers, you become part of the family and part of the team. Equality and collaboration are important and we regularly meet with our carers to hear their views on our service. We are committed to building strong relationships with all our carers and we organise carer recognition events to show our overwhelming appreciation for all you do. Watch our ‘Thank You’ video on YouTube.

Start your career as a foster carer with us today. Apply now, book a call or call us directly on 03452660272 to talk through your application.

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“You will become part of a warm, supportive community of professionals. From the very first point of contact, our experienced team will listen to you, and support you and your family every step of the way through the assessment process, and develop you to become confident and skilled professional foster carers.”

“Parenting our young people is different to parenting our own children; they need many more therapeutic techniques and these skills are all available to learn through Five Rivers and the agencies they hire to support us.” – carer

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Are you engaged and passionate about helping children and young people in your area? Become a foster carer with Five Rivers today.

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