May 2007 News
Fostering Fun Day
Wednesday 16th May
Hackney Town Hall Square 12 to 3pm
Thinking about Fostering?
Want to know more?
Then come to along to our Fun Day and learn more about Fostering and Adoption in Hackney and how you can make a difference to a child or young person's life.
There will be information stalls, face painting for the kids and music from Choice FM radio.
More information
Please tel 08000 730 418 or visit www.hackneykids.org.uk
Space in your home and in your heart?
Ever thought about fostering? It can be hard sometimes, frustrating and exhausting. But it can also be an incredibly fulfilling experience.
In Hackney there are currently around 450 ‘looked after children’, but fewer than 180 carers. These children come from diverse backgrounds and are in care for a variety of reasons. Their birth parents may be seriously ill, have special needs, or problems with addiction, also the children may have experienced mistreatment.
Fostering gives a child a loving, stable home, while they are temporarily unable to live with their own families, but wish to maintain contact with them.
Fostering is a partnership between families, foster parents and children’s services.
There are a number of different types of fostering arrangements in Hackney: short-term; long-term; caring for disabled children; mother and baby fostering; family and friends or kinship fostering; and private fostering.
There are also specialist schemes such as Hackney LIFe – Local Intensive Foster Care Programme – which seeks foster carers for 10 to 16-year-olds who have shown complex and challenging behaviours. It is a six-month programme based on social learning theory.
The Council’s Adoption and Fostering Unit recruit people from all backgrounds. Although right now, it is particularly looking for carers from the Turkish, African and Caribbean communities, in order to reflect the diversity of children in care in Hackney.
Fostering - how to get started
People interested in fostering can find out more by attending a Fostering Fun Day (see above) or one of the Open Days run by the Council’s Adoption and Fostering Unit.
The next Open Day is on 24 May, from 4-8pm, at the Adoption and Fostering Resource Centre, 186 Homerton High Street.
Once approved as a foster carer, following a thorough vetting process, people have access to a network, which provides training and ongoing support.
The Council offers: preapproval and post approval training with the opportunity to obtain an NVQ in Children and Young People; a link worker for each carer; finances and equipment needed to support the child and a professional fee.
Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, Cllr Rita Krishna, said: “Foster carers are extremely important people in the lives of children who come into our care, to encourage children to believe in themselves and make the most of their lives. If you even think that you could do it, do find out more.”
Page updated: 10 May 2007