Foster Care Careers

Foster Care Careers

Are you looking for a career with life changing potential? If you can offer a vulnerable child a safe place to stay, then foster care could be for you.

Foster Care Job Description

Foster Carers are child care experts working with a team of professionals. They receive specialist training and career development opportunities.

As a Foster Carer, you’ll receive a full package of practical, financial and professional support, including competitive fees and paid respite, as well as career progression and bespoke training.

Discover some of the top reasons why people choose to foster with Five Rivers.

Role Profile

Though fostering is paid, we try not to look at fostering a ‘job’ as it is so much more than this. It is a vocation that is likely to be life-changing for both the Foster Carer and the children they support.

It takes a very special person to foster. You must be kind, resilient and passionate about making a difference to a child’s life. In addition to this, there’s practical criteria you must meet. To foster you must:

Be over the age of 21.
Have the right to reside in the UK.
Have a furnished spare room that is not used by anybody else.
Be committed to undergo training and development.
Be able to work in partnership with the team involved in caring for the child/young person.

To express your interest please fill out our Foster Carer enquiry form.

Types of Foster Care

Foster care careers can take many different shapes, as there are many different types of foster care, including:

If you’re not sure what type of fostering you are interested in then don’t worry – our friendly Carer Enquiry Team can talk to you about the different options and give you an idea of what may be best suited to you.

Benefits

Training and Progression

Our research-based training is unique to Five Rivers Child Care and provides our Foster Carers with a strong foundation in therapeutic care.

Working in partnership with University College London and the Anna Freud Centre, we have carried out studies to understand the impacts of childhood adversity. As a result, we have developed the Attachment and Trauma-Informed Care Model™ (ATIC) – a pioneering model of therapeutic care that we embed across the whole organisation.

Delivered by an in-house team of clinicians, our ATIC training helps Foster Carers to become trauma-informed, enabling them to better support children and minimising the risk of placement breakdown.

Fostering Support

Round the Clock Support

Day or night, we’re available to help you – not something Local Authorities or other agencies always offer. With our 24 hour helpline, highly qualified staff are always on hand to help. We also offer therapeutic support when needed to the children living with you.

Experienced Social Workers

Fostering with Five Rivers means you will have support from a highly qualified supervising social worker. Based at a local office, regular meet ups will help you form a strong relationship, receiving the support you need.

Paid Short Breaks When Needed

We know that having time off is crucial, so we provide our Carers with up to 14 days paid leave. We have ‘short break’ Carers available to ensure that you can take time off when needed.

Support Groups

Speaking to other Foster Carers will help you to feel supported in your role. We help facilitate this as much as possible through:

Organised meet ups with other local Carers.
Fostering support groups
Foster Talk Membership: an independent organisation that provides a range of support and advice services to our Foster Carers.
New Family Social Membership: a charity for LGBT+ Foster Carers and adopters.

Find out more about the support we offer our Foster Carers.

Can you Work and Foster?

Often we are asked if it is possible to work and foster. The answer here is yes, most of the time – but the child’s needs must always come first. Having another job should not detract from a Carer’s ability to carry out the fostering role.

When assessing whether it will be possible for a Carer to work and foster, we treat each case on an individual basis. We look at the needs of the children likely to be placed with the Foster Carer, as well as the number of children in the home and the flexibility of the Carer’s workplace.

Find out more about working and fostering.

We’re a Fostering Friendly Organisation

If you are currently an employee of Five Rivers Child Care and you are interested in becoming a Foster Carer, we offer the opportunity to work flexibly where this is compatible with the demands of your job. Our flexible working, emergency time off for dependents, and parental policies all apply to Foster Carers and approved kinship Carers.

Foster Care Careers

Enquire Today