Fostering Jobs: Can You Make A Career Out of Fostering?
The long and short of this is yes. While fostering is more than just a job—it’s a vocation that requires dedication, compassion, and a willingness to support vulnerable children—it is possible to make it a long-term career.
Many foster carers choose to commit fully to fostering, finding it both emotionally enriching and financially viable. With allowances, fees, and additional support available, fostering can provide a stable source of income while allowing carers to make a profound difference in children’s lives. But like any career, fostering comes with its own set of challenges and rewards. Let’s explore what it means to make fostering your career.
Is Fostering Considered a Job in the UK?
If you’re fostering in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, then yes, it is considered a job. That said, fostering jobs are not the most traditional. Foster carers provide a vital service by offering care and support to vulnerable children, and they receive allowances and payments for their role. Even though, fostering can often be seen more as a vocation or lifestyle commitment rather than a conventional job.
Foster carers receive an allowance. This term refers to the financial support provided to foster parents to cover the costs associated with caring for a child as well as to reward you for the vital work that you do as a foster carer.
The fostering allowance varies based on several factors:
- Location: Allowance rates differ across the UK due to varying costs of living and local authority needs.
- Child’s Needs: Children with complex needs require more resources, which increases the allowance to cover additional meetings, training, or support.
- Type of Fostering: Different types, like short-term or parent and child fostering, come with varying allowance rates.
At Family Fostering Partners, we offer a generous weekly allowance, ranging from £365 to £950 per child, ensuring foster parents are well-compensated for their dedication and work.
What are the Different Types of Fostering Jobs?
Long Term Fostering
Long term fostering refers to a child or young person being placed in the care of a foster family or parent for a substantial amount of time. This amount of time could range from a few years, right up until they have reached the age of 18 and are ready to make their way as an adult. Long term fostering in England allows the carer to form a lifelong bond with the young individual, providing stability, guidance, and support as they grow. It enables foster carers to offer a nurturing environment where athe child can thrive emotionally, socially, and academically, all while maintaining important connections with their birth family when appropriate
Short Term Fostering
Short-term fostering in England involves caring for a child or young person for a limited time. These placements are typically used when children need temporary care while their long-term living arrangements are being assessed or decided. The duration can range from a few days to several months, depending on the child’s situation.
During this time, foster carers provide a safe, nurturing environment, offering stability while decisions are made about the child’s future, whether that means returning to their birth family, moving into long-term care, or being adopted. Short-term fostering is crucial for supporting children through transitional phases.
Parent and Child Fostering
Parent and child is one of the least common situations when it comes to fostering in England, but it is actually one of the most important and fulfilling. Here, one is not just opening their home and heart to a vulnerable child in need, but they are also supporting a parent, often the mother, who may be young or inexperienced and in need of guidance to care for their child. Parent and child fostering involves offering a safe and nurturing environment where both the mother and her baby or young child can live together. The foster carer plays a key role in mentoring the mother, helping her develop essential parenting skills, while also ensuring the well-being of the child.
Teenage Fostering
When looking at fostering jobs, fostering teenagers sadly gets overlooked in favour of fostering younger children, largely due to the misconception that teenagers might be harder to manage. On the flip side, this is the most crucial time of their lives, they are learning how to navigate the world as they develop independence, during this time it is essential they receive guidance, love and stability.
Fostering teens also allows carers to be part of important milestones, such as helping with education, preparing them for employment, and teaching valuable life skills. With the right support, foster carers can offer a sense of belonging and direction, which is critical in helping teenagers build a successful, independent future.
Respite Fostering
As a Respite Foster Carer, you will offer temporary care for foster children when their foster parents need a break. The care you provide is typically short-term, lasting anywhere from one or two days to about a week. Wherever possible, we arrange planned respite care, allowing the child to build a trusting relationship with the respite carer over time.
Emergency Foster Care
Emergency foster care needs little explanation. Essentially, you are there as a foster parent in the event of an unforeseen emergency. When a baby, child, or young person needs rehoming immediately. The urgency of these situations requires emergency foster carers to be adaptable, well-prepared, calm, and patient.
Working & Fostering in England
We often have potential carers asking us if they can work and foster at the same time. Ultimately, the answer is yes, however there are a number of factors that come into play when we consider fostering jobs are also very real. On one hand, retaining a separate job could:
- Make you a very good role model for your foster child.
- Act as a reference.
- Certain training might be transferable.
- You will continue to build a support network outside of fostering.
In spite of these points, it’s important to consider the demands of fostering and how they may impact your availability. Children who are fosteredFoster children, particularly those with complex needs, may require significant time, attention, and emotional support, which could conflict with your work schedule. Flexibility is crucial, as you may need to attend meetings, training sessions, or respond to emergencies at short notice.
Start Fostering in England with Family Fostering Partners
Do any of the fostering jobs above sound like your next career move? Family Fostering Partners are constantly looking to match children with families who are fill placements for fostering in England.
As an independent fostering agency, we’re here to guide you through every step of the way, providing the support, training, and resources you need to succeed. If you’re ready to explore the possibility of fostering, we invite you to reach out to us today or complete a fostering application form. You can also request an initial call by visiting our “Contact Us” page, or you can use our live chat feature to speak directly with a member of our team. Simply type the phrase “Become a Foster Carer” into the dialogue box on the bottom right hand side of your screen.
