Becoming a foster carer – where do I start?
Lucy Stevens - 5th March 2018
Take that first step.. Nationally, there is a real shortage of foster carers. The situation is no different in Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire where Eastern Fostering Services are looking for families to foster. If you're reading this, you've already taken the first, important step. So what now? Do your research There are lots of independent fostering agencies and Local Authorities with whom you can foster; therefore check where the most local providers are, visit their websites, read their FAQS, look their Facebook pages. The Fostering Network is a good source of information. Get talking Our Foster carers say that what they love about us is the quality and quantity of support they get. Talk to the fostering providers that you've
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Moon Landing – Part One
Lucy Stevens - 23rd February 2018
I’ve often thought that, for our foster son, coming to live with us must have been like being plucked from your bed and finding yourself firmly ensconced on the moon. This is not because we are particularly strange per se but because of all the foreignness we came wrapped in. Think about it. One day you are with your family and the next you are on a journey through who-knows-where to who-knows-what. Up to this point you’ve only ever known home, you’ve only ever known a life manacled by war and violence; you’ve had to live your life in hiding. You’ve lost family members, friends, freedom. But you’ve also had the comfort of a loving family, the familiarities of home:
Tags: fostering, refugees, UASC
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Watch EFS on ITV’s Lorraine Kelly’s Show – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
One of our carers, Tracy, talks to Lorraine about fostering teens...
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Fostering Coffee Mornings – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
Come and have a chat to us about fostering. Meet the team, chat to our carers, have a bit of cake! All welcome. Call 01206 299775 for more information.
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A Journey into Foster Caring – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
The view of Narnia This is the first post from Lucy Stevens who, along with her family, is embarking on the process of becoming a foster carer. She will be chronicling the story of her journey via this regular blog. I’m on a journey into foster caring. This journey of mine is a little different from the norm. For me, it’s a bit like the C.S.Lewis book, ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’ For those who are unfamiliar with the story, the main character, Lucy stumbles upon a whole new world on the other side of a wardrobe she is hiding in. The world she ends up in, Narnia, is full of new, life-changing things to discover. The way is littered with potential pitfalls
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The Experience of Going Through The Fostering Process – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
Home sweet home Last week I went on a home visit to a lady who had enquired about fostering through our agency. She’d been on our website, liked what she’d seen and dropped us an email. I’d been the one to call her and answer her questions. I’d been the one to book in a suitable time to visit her at home to talk in more depth. And, along with my colleague, I’d been the one to go to her lovely home. For an hour and a half we chatted and she asked us lots of questions, which we answered honestly. We gave her a realistic picture of what she might expect from fostering. We also asked her
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Foster Caring – The Application Form – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
I’m not going to lie to you. The application form? It’s a brute. My brother has a bit of a phobia of application forms and if he caught sight of this specimen, he’d be running to hide behind the sofa quicker than he did when he first saw Michael Jackson’s Thriller. How have I gone two years working for Eastern Fostering Services without truly studying the application form? Careless, that’s what I’ve been. Well, this week I’ve had my eyes well and truly opened. There I was serenely thumbing through the application form when my eyes fell upon four relatively harmless words: Every. Address. Since. Birth. For about three seconds my thumbing continued unabated until…
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An Assessor Calls – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
An assessor calls… It’s Saturday morning and the house is now (reasonably) tidy. This is unusual for any day of the week but particularly for a Saturday. Today, however, is no ordinary Saturday – today is the day our assessor is coming. The assessment form is a document compiled by an assessor (who is usually also a social worker) which presents you as foster carers to the approval panel. Once approved, the document is also used to present you to the local authority when you’re being put forward as a potential carer for a child. It highlights your motivations, your family dynamics, your strengths and your weaknesses. Our assessor will visit us approximately eight times to gather all the
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Skills to Foster Training – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
Skills to foster My husband Jim and I first met each other at work. He always struck me as a great person to be around: intelligent, insightful and fair but with a wicked sense of humour. As we headed off together last week to attend the Skills to Foster training, I was taken straight back to the days when we used to work together every day. I was thinking how nice it was to be going to the same place at the same time for once. I was thinking that spending two days during the working week together was a rare boon. I was excited that, as a couple; we would be learning more about something we care
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The Early Years – Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 8th November 2017
The assessment is underway and we’re starting from the beginning, or as the form F calls it, the Early Years. Our assessor has sent us a list of questions as homework in preparation for her next visit this weekend. As I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs I work for Eastern Fostering Services but I am also a ghost-writer. Specifically, I write people’s autobiographies for them. I ask my clients all manner of questions about their childhood, their parents, their experiences; their journey. I am rarely more comfortable than when I’m listening to people talking about themselves, and generally I don’t enjoy talking about myself to the same degree. So for me this is a little weird. The worm
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