Sponsored: Could you foster a child in need?

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Family isn’t always blood, it’s the people in your life who WANT YOU – in theirs.

Safehouses is a well-established Independent Fostering Ofsted Outstanding Agency operating in South East England, offering warm, safe, nurturing homes for children and young people who cannot live with their families for a number of reasons.

Safehouses is looking for foster carers around the M25, East London, Kent, East Anglia, and Sussex.

Fostering is a professional career, and in order to become a foster carer you will need; a spare bedroom, time, patience, to be able to work in partnership with a variety of people and meet regularly with a Social Worker.

You’ll need to be open to participation and training with ongoing development and attend monthly Support Groups. You need basic IT skill and able to keep accurate records. If you have birth children we would prefer that they are over 5 years of age.

Safehouses offer our Foster carers a strong, stable and knowledgeable social work team, training opportunities, peer support groups for foster carers, sessional and therapeutic support for the children and young people in placement, a generous fostering allowance, and intensive 24 hour support, 365 days a year, we are here to support YOU!

We offer regular supervision, with experienced social workers, and a varied and exciting training programme.

Did you know that children and young people come into foster care for many different reasons and there are varied kinds of fostering?

The types of placement are: Long term, Short term, Respite, Bridging, Parent and Child and Asylum.

Safehouses are lucky enough to have our own dedicated Children’s Champion Co-ordinator who works with the team ensuring young people’s views are listened to and we offer a range of daytime activities during the school holidays, giving the children the chance to work within a group, developing team building and social skills and promoting independence, resilience self-esteem and confidence.

Some of the Looked After Children who are placed with Safehouses carers are currently taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. We really care what children and young people feel about being fostered and use their feedback to evoke positive change within our organisation.

You don’t have to be perfect to be a foster carer – just have a genuine desire to help others…

If you feel that you could foster for Safehouses, please phone us on 01689 822700 or look at our website www.safehouses.org for more information.

We’d love to hear from you!