Hammersmith & Fulham, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster

Fostering Shared Services

Fostering Shared Services includes Hammersmith Fulham, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Councils. Foster care offers children a safe and caring home when their biological families cannot take care of them. Choosing to foster for Fostering Shared Service means that children and young people can remain geographically close to their family home. This means in most cases they can continue going to the same school or nursery, church or faith group and regularly see the friends they have made. Most importantly they can continue to see their parents, siblings and extended family members on supervised visits without having to travel too far. Fostering with your local council, keeps children and young people who need foster care in the local community, in familiar surroundings which we know can provide a better outcome for them as they grow up.

There are various types of foster care to consider, allowing for flexibility in how you can provide support. You might start with part-time fostering, often called respite care, where you look after children during weekends or holidays. Additionally, you can choose to foster on a short-term or long-term basis, support children with disabilities, assist refugee children, or even foster, parent-child pairs. Each option offers unique opportunities to make a positive impact in a child's life.

To foster, you must be over 21 and have suitable living accommodations, including a spare bedroom for the child, if you're not fostering infants. It's essential to have no criminal convictions related to children and some level of experience in childcare, although this can be flexible. Additionally, you should have leave to remain or be in the final stages of approval for your status. Each of these criteria helps ensure a safe and supportive environment for children who need foster care.

Fostering Shared Services provides a fostering allowance for each foster child, which covers their day-to-day care. In addition to this allowance, foster carers receive a professional fee, serving as an income payment for their efforts. Together, the allowance and fee average a minimum total payment of £428 per child, per week. Foster carers who foster for Fostering Shared Services also enjoy additional benefits, including council tax reimbursement during the time the child is living with you and a 6 months' retainer for continuous placement.

Foster carers receive a range of support to enhance their experience, including skills fees for specific competencies and allowances for the child's daily expenses, such as savings and pocket money. Fostering Shared Services allows expense claims for mileage, holiday allowances, and support for Christmas, birthdays, and basic clothing needs. Training is offered both before and after approval, while various support groups and assigned buddies provide valuable connections and guidance. Each carer is allocated a Supervising Social Worker (SSW) to ensure they have the necessary resources. Additionally, online groups, including Facebook communities, facilitate information sharing, and memberships to organisations like FosterTalk and the Fostering Network offer further advice and resources.

How do I become a foster carer for Fostering Shared Services?

Step One - Make Contact

Call Foster with West London on 020 8753 1075 or join us to hear more at one of our information sessions. During this initial call we will provide you with advice and support you to make a decision as to whether it is the right time for you to foster.

If you are ready to progress with your journey to becoming a foster carer, an initial enquiry will be completed over the phone to learn more about you and your family. If you meet the initial screening criteria, you will be passed to the Local Authority you want to foster for who will book an initial home visit and a member of the team will visit you.

Step Two - Training

Attend our Skills-to-Foster three day course which will equip you with essential skills required to care for a vulnerable child or young person. Attendance at the course forms part of the assessment process and all applicants are required to attend. Depending on when the training course starts, you may be invited to attend the course before the assessment begins or during the assessment.

Step Three - Assessment (Stage One and Two)

Once we have completed your Initial Enquiry and an Initial Home Visit has been carried out, a decision will be made to progress to Stage One.

Both you and your allocated worker will sign an Assessment Stage One agreement outlining the process involved. During the Assessment Stage One a number of checks, required by the Government under the Fostering Regulations, will be undertaken which includes:

your Local Authority
probation
finance
employment
education

In addition to the above we will complete personal references and education checks for your children. You will be expected to undertake a health assessment with your doctor. We will need to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on you, your partner and any members of your household who are over 18 years old.

We will also agree on a timeframe for this work to be undertaken. You will be offered the opportunity to undertake Skills-to-Foster training at this stage.

Upon completion of Assessment Stage One, you will be allocated a social worker to carry out an assessment of your background, life experiences and the qualities you would bring to fostering.

This is called Assessment Stage Two of the fostering process. This will be reviewed halfway through by the principal social worker within the team to check any plans that need to be put into place.

Step Four - Approval

You will be invited to a Fostering Panel that will assess your application alongside the Government Fostering Regulations and make a recommendation for your approval as a foster carer and the final decision will be made by the Agency Decision Maker shortly after.

Step Five - Post-approval

You will be enrolled on our payment system and allocated a supervising social worker who will help you prepare yourself and your home for a child or young person coming into your care, and your life as a foster carer begins!

After one year, you will go back to a Fostering Panel which will review your first year as a foster carer.