Foster Carer

Foster Carer

If you are passionate about giving children a loving caring home why not consider becoming a foster carer

If you’re a care assistant, youth worker, police, teacher or football coach then you already have the skills and experience needed in becoming a carer. Our foster carers are treated as professional people with a career and are made to feel part of a team.

**Put a smile back on a child's face, and yours....**

**Become a Foster Carer**

As a carer you will be looking after a young person, in your own home, who cannot live with their birth parents for whatever reason. Many of them have been the victims of profound neglect and serious abuse.

As a result of this some children have suffered trauma, which may subsequently be displayed in challenging behaviour. However, with the right combination of knowledge, life experiences and professional skills, together with the support you will receive from us, the chances of a successful outcome are significantly increased.

Children who require foster families come from a variety of social, ethnic and religious backgrounds.

We believe that all children deserve to have a positive experience of family life and should be able to live in a family home wherever possible. As a foster carer you will provide a safe, supportive and nurturing family environment to help support children through any challenges and difficulties they have experienced.

**Who Can Become A Foster Carer?**

Many people who work in the care and public sector would make excellent foster carers but never pursue it as a career because they don’t realise what is involved, or they think that it is too difficult for them. As a foster carer you do not need any formal qualifications as you will already have the life experiences and skills needed to guide someone in the right direction.

However, to join our team of foster carers, you must:

- Have a spare bedroom in your home
- Be over 21 years of age (ideally over 25)
- Be able to drive and have a car
- Live in the North West of England
- The main carer must have flexible working hours or be available full-time
- Be able to work as part of a supportive and collaborative team of health, care and education professionals
- Have the patience and personal qualities to support and understand a child who may have complex emotional needs and behaviours
- But most of all.you must have compassion, tolerance and a good sense of humour

**What Support Will I Receive?**

At Lorimer, we pride ourselves on the high level of individual support each of our foster carers receives, and this is something reflected in the views our carers have expressed.

“We have had lots of help from Lorimer....they are excellent to have on our side”, Lorimer Foster Carer.

We believe that in order for foster carers, and therefore a foster child's placement to succeed, a far more intense level of support is needed. As such we offer all of our carers a fantastic professional package which reflects all the hard work they do:

- A competitive professional fee per week per young person placed with you.
- Please note that you will not be an employee; you will be self-employed and will only receive a professional fee and allowance when you have a child in placement. You should therefore ensure that you have sufficient alternative income to cover periods when you do not have a child in placement.
- A comprehensive learning, training and development program.
- Access to our on-call service of qualified and highly experienced social workers 24 hrs a day.
- Complimentary membership to FosterTalk which includes a host of benefits and free services.
- Access to our dedicated Youth Engagement Workers, on an assessed needs led basis.
- Regular visits from your Supervising Social Worker, who has a low case-load.

**What do I do next?**

You're not committing to anything by getting in touch to find out more, and you could help make a huge difference to the lives of vulnerable children and young people.
- Please note: assessments can take up to 4 months and statutory checks will be sought including DBS checks._

**Job Types**: Full-time, Part-time, Permanent

Pay: Up to £61,880.00 per year

Application question(s):

- Do you have at least one spare bedroom for the foster child?
- Do you have full permanent residency status in the UK ?

(e.g. are you a British Citizen or have Indefinite Leave to Remain or does your spouse have one of the above. If you do not have one of the above, you will not be able to foster.)
- Please tell us what you know about fostering.
- To test that you understand fostering, please describe in detail the sort of reasons why a child might come into care and the sort of experiences they might have had before coming into care.
- What's your motivation to foster?

(please ensure that you provide as much information as possible to show that you are passionate about helping children and have a good understanding of the trauma that children have often experienced