Have you ever thought of a career in foster caring?

Date published: 21 February 2018


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Rewarding, fulfilling and incredible are just some of some of words which describe the feelings of foster parents up and down the country.

It can be a challenging profession, of course, but caring for someone else’s child in your home while they cannot live with their own family can be extremely rewarding in so many ways, as children and young people need fostering for all sorts of reasons and for different lengths of time.

Foster carers are in particularly short supply in Oldham, so the town’s Fostering Service team has begun a recruitment drive.

In Oldham, carers are needed for older children, including teenagers, brothers and sisters who need to stay together, children and young people on a long-term basis, children with disabilities, young parents and their babies, and children from ethnic minorities.

There are lots of different types of fostering to suit potential local families, including parent and baby fostering, where a young parent and their baby live together in a foster family.

Long term fostering is where a child or young person who cannot return home lives with the same foster carers until they reach adulthood and are ready to live independently.

Short-term fostering is looking after a child or young person for anything from a few days to a couple of years, while One2One fostering involves looking after a specific child or young person who has complex needs, either through disability or very challenging behaviour.

Children in foster care come from all walks of life and are of all ages, from babies through to teenagers. They are likely to have experienced difficult and sad times in their lives.

Lisa Lawson, Oldham Fostering Service recruitment officer, said: “We always need more foster carers in Oldham, especially for teenagers and children on a long-term basis.

“Fostering is the most rewarding anyone can ever do.

“Helping children, seeing them develop, even just giving children a simple, stable home can mean so much.

“Some of them haven’t had this in the past.

“Foster parents can help the children learn new skills, and then you can watch them do well at school.

“There’ll be ups and down of course, like any normal family, but is is so rewarding knowing that you can help these children when they need it the most.”

Meanwhile, a newly-introduced scheme, parent and baby fostering, is also something Oldhamers could take up as a potential caring career.

That is where both a parent and their young child live with a foster family.

Lisa added: “This is a relatively new scheme where a young parent and baby live with you, so the roles are slightly different in that you’re not there to look after the child, carers are there to help the young parent develop the skills to look after their own child.

“You’d be there to offer support and guidance – just with things like cooking, budgeting with money, and general life skills really.

“If someone has been in care themselves, or not had a particularly good upbringing and they have a baby when they’re young, it is hard enough.

“This scheme helps the young person develop those parenting skills everyone needs.

“The main aim is for the mum and the child to go on and live independently, so this is a great way of putting in support early on.”

You can apply to foster regardless of marital status, sexuality, race or religion, or whether you are in work or have a disability.

All the Oldham Fostering Service require is that you are over 21 years old, have room in your home and have the time and flexibility to be able to care for a child or young person.

If you are interested in becoming a foster carer, please call 0161 770 6600 or visit www.oldham.gov.uk/fostering

As at February 19, 2018, there were 372 children and young people in foster care in Oldham.

In terms of shortages, the Fostering Network estimate that there is a shortage of 1,700 foster carers across the north-west, and 9,000 UK wide.

Lisa Lawson, from the Oldham Fostering Service, speaks to the Chronicle