Fostering – a journey like no other!
Lucy Stevens - 7th March 2024
“Fostering has changed our life for the better, we have our own family unit, and are part of something bigger.” This week, Georgia EFS Foster Carer Ambassador shares her fostering journey which took her from young coupledom to becoming a family of 5. First steps into fostering We began looking into fostering when we purchased our house together in 2018 as we knew we wanted to help children who needed us. Having spoken about it with friends and family, and having no birth children, we had the space to be able to make the difference. We had previously been to events put on by the local authority but hadn’t been really inspired. We welcomed El and Lucy from Eastern Fostering
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My journey into fostering.
Lucy Stevens - 29th February 2024
Meet EFS Fostering Ambassador, Philip as he talks us through his journey into the world of fostering. “Becoming a trusted person in a child’s life and helping them tackle major issues is what drives me as a foster carer”. Eastern Fostering Services foster carer and ambassador, Philip, started fostering 3 years ago and was inspired to do so through his experiences helping refugees. “I first enquired about fostering in September of 2020. I had seen a news article saying that Kent County Council was declaring that it could no longer safely house asylum seeking children and was appealing for other local authorities to help. I had spent many weeks in the makeshift refugee camp known as The Jungle in Calais and
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Safer Internet Day 2024 – Swerve trouble online
Lucy Stevens - 5th February 2024
We know you’re fed up of being told how to keep safe online but the fact is that it’s super important you know how to be wise online. Technology is evolving and you need to have your wits about you! All good things need some wisdom! Whenever adults talk about the internet, they’re always negative about it, right? The truth is the internet is amazing! It’s given you Tik Tok, Snapchat, Insta and numerous gaming channels. It’s helped you make friends, learn new skills, capture your finest moments and find others who like the same stuff you like. You know exactly how to use it and it’s a big part of your life. What’s not to love? Like anything good
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Safer Internet Day 2024 – How do you keep children safe online when fostering?
Lucy Stevens - 1st February 2024
In 2024 foster carers are caring for children who have grown up with the Internet. Social media is a spinal cord, giving structure and direction to and exerting massive influence on their lives. Undeniably the internet presents advantages but also challenges for children, young people and carers alike. The speed at which technology has enmeshed itself into modern life and culture and the rate at which AI is gathering pace, presents foster carers with a significant challenge when it comes to keeping children safe. So how do Eastern Fostering Services, out foster carers and our young people work together to reduce the risk of harm posed by the internet? It's good to talk At Eastern Fostering Services we are so
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What an Outstanding year
Eleanor Newman - 14th December 2023
This year we have continued to see our children thrive because of the standard of care you have given them. We have said goodbye to some children but we have kept hold of many more and we have watched them grow and blossom. We’ve seen new carers join us and welcomed new children too. There have been lots of opportunites to see just how well our children are doing. At the beginning of summer, we took a group of our young people to the Isle of Wight for a brilliant sailing experience with the UKSA-something we hope to offer again for our older teenagers in 2024. We were soencouraged to see how they grasped this opportunity with both hands. They
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What is it like fostering for an Outstanding agency?
Lucy Stevens - 13th December 2023
“Eastern Fostering Services are a first-class organisation!” Foster Carer, Essex. Our recent Ofsted inspection recognised the outstanding work we do with our children and young people and the exceptional support we offer our foster carers. The report itself states, “This agency provides outstanding care and support to children and foster carers. Children thrive because of the care provided by their foster carers and the wider network of support from the agency. Foster carers feel emotionally held and valued by the team of professionals around them. This enables them to provide the stability, nurture and understanding that children need to flourish.” What does this mean to me as a foster carer? All our foster carers receive the following benefits when they
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Ofsted rate Eastern Fostering Services OUTSTANDING
Lucy Stevens - 4th December 2023
We always believed we were outstanding but now it’s official! All fostering providers are governed by legislation, regulation, standards and statutory guidance. To ensure they comply with these regulations and standards, they are inspected by Ofsted, the regulatory and inspection body. A long week Amongst other institutions, Ofsted also inspects schools, nurseries, childcare providers and Local Authority children’s services. It’s not uncommon for some of these organisations to have an inspection over 1 or 2 days. For small, independent agencies, the inspection generally lasts a whole working week. The team at Eastern Fostering Services was feeling positive when the notification of inspection was received, but we knew that every file, every process, every decision would be under the microscope. This
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Fatima Whitbread speaks to Eastern Fostering Services
Camilla Simson - 31st October 2023
“Children can not only survive but thrive” – Fatima Whitbread speaks to Eastern Fostering Services about how fostering can make a lasting impact on children It’s not every day you get to meet a world champion javelin thrower. Not to mention seeing the cockroach that was once stuck up her nose! Fatima Whitbread MBE was a World and European gold medal winner in the 1980’s and won countless other medals, as well as being awarded BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1987 and appearing in “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” in 2011 (hence the cockroach.) But a fact that was little known about her at the time, was that she was brought up in the care
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Carry on Camping
Lucy Stevens - 6th September 2023
Every summer the Eastern Fostering Services team slap on their mosquito repellent, don their scruffiest clothes and pack their rucksacks in readiness for the highlight of the fostering calendar: The Eastern Fostering Services Summer Camp! This is a 2-night trip offered to our foster carers and the children we care for. The camp is in a beautiful, coastal setting and offers the carers and children the opportunity to build friendships with one another and enjoy some good, old-fashioned fun together. Festivities begin on the Friday night with a warm welcome that gives everyone opportunity to say hello to the friends they know and the friends they’ll surely make over the weekend. Everyone is given a chance to settle into their
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The rewards of fostering: Brotherly love
Lucy Stevens - 4th July 2023
Many people say that fostering is rewarding. It’s true that fostering can be very rewarding indeed, but often when you’re in the thick of it, the rewards can seem elusive and unreliable with their timing. So in this week’s blog, I wanted to encourage all of those foster carers who are overwhelmed with the challenges, whose chins are just above the water scanning the horizon for the rewards. Poor prom planning This week it was my son’s prom. A true rite of passage and a lesson to him of the importance of organisation! Despite months of me pressing him for what transport he wanted, there was no response forthcoming! 2 days before prom, he asked me to arrange a “smart
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