Eastern Fostering Services – How do we nurture our Community of Foster Carers?
Lucy Stevens - 18th May 2023
At Eastern Fostering Services, we recognise that our Foster Carers are the lifeblood of the agency. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to offer high quality care to the children we look after. We also know that the best way to ensure we provide stable fostering homes which promote the needs of the children is to look after the well-being of our foster carers. Why is it important to nurture foster carers? Whilst fostering is incredibly rewarding, it is hard work! We ask a lot of our foster carers. They care for some of the most vulnerable children, all of whom have experienced some degree of loss and trauma. And they do this 24/7 in their own homes. It is
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The Fostering Community at Eastern Fostering Services
Lucy Stevens - 17th May 2023
Today we’ll be celebrating the fostering communities which exist within fostering providers. We at Eastern Fostering Services are a small team but we have a wonderful community of carers who support, encourage and motivate one another. Why is our fostering community so important? Foster carers know that being part of a wider group of carers is important for many reasons. A warm and supportive community of foster carers provides other foster carers with: A source of encouragement, particularly when times are tough. Foster carers have seen it all! When carers encounter difficulties or challenges with the children they are fostering, it is so important that they can seek the support and counsel of someone who knows exactly how they feel.Resilience.
Tags: applying to be a foster carer, becoming a foster carer, Fostering Cambridgeshire, fostering Essex, fostering Suffolk
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Eastern Fostering Services – What fostering training do we offer?
Camilla Simson - 21st April 2023
Training and development are an integral part of fostering. Foster carers need to be equipped emotionally, spiritually and intellectually for the task that is asked of them. At Eastern Fostering Services, we provide a range of training for our carers, but one course in particular is particularly popular and impactful. It’s been fantastic. Feel privileged to have attended the course….I found it invaluable and learnt so much. I have a far better understanding of children’s behaviour and hopefully many new skills with how to support children. Careapy Careapy is a trauma informed course (6 sessions) looking at trauma (where does it come from/how does it express itself), the effects of trauma on child development (both biologically/psychologically) through to separating the behaviour in
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Our Fostering Community: Meet Eastern Fostering Services’ Fostering Panel Member, Tricia.
Lucy Stevens - 6th April 2023
This week, we hear from Tricia who is a long-standing member of our Fostering Panel. She brings to panel a wealth of experience working with children and foster carers. Her personality and sensitive approach help all fostering applicants feel relaxed and comfortable when they appear at the Eastern Fostering Services Panel. We asked Tricia to give us some insight into how panel works and what people can expect when they appear at fostering panel. What is the fostering panel? I have been a member of the Eastern Fostering Services’ panel for over ten years. The purpose of the panel is two-fold, to read the application documents of the people who are applying to become new foster carers for Eastern Fostering
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One Big Family: The story of Angela and Mark*
Josh Brightmore - 28th March 2023
In previous discussions with Angela and Mark we’ve explored how Eastern Fostering Services supported them through their initial journey to become foster parents, but, in my latest chat with them we looked at how they fared after all of the initial excitement of their first match with their first foster child. Angela and Mark have been foster carers for Eastern Fostering Services for a number of years now. Those years have been full of wonder and challenge, but throughout it all, the “family” that they describe to me (made up of Eastern Fostering Services staff and other Eastern Fostering Services foster carers) has helped them navigate through it all. “The first thing that comes to mind is the training they
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What is it like to be part of a family who fosters? – TJ’s story.
T J - 25th March 2023
I’m TJ. I was 7 years old when my family and I started fostering. It’s mad to think that that was over 7 years ago. A lot has happened in that time! It takes some getting used to at first. When we first started fostering, everything was new. I had to get used to having another person in the house when it had always just been Mum, Dad and my brother. When my foster brother arrived, he needed a lot of help and support and so I suppose we had to share my parents much more. I never really minded this because I always knew that Mum and Dad had enough time and love to go round. Most of the
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Is fostering a viable alternative to adoption?
Lucy Stevens - 6th March 2023
We know at the moment that many Local Authorities are reducing their intake of adopters. But is fostering a potential alternative to those who may have their hearts set on adoption? What are the benefits of fostering with Eastern Fostering Services? Ongoing support One of the biggest advantages to fostering is the ongoing support that you will receive. When you foster a child through Eastern Fostering Services, you will receive regular supervision with your Supervising Social Worker. This is an opportunity to discuss any challenges and share ideas for how to tackle them. Your supervising social worker is also there to advocate for you and your child. This can be in relation to education, health and emotional needs and unlocking
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Fostering: A child’s view – K-L’s story
Josh Brightmore - 23rd February 2023
Firstly, I am not K-L. She is not quite ready to tell her own story, it still has the power to destroy with each retelling. What I share with you now, I do so with her blessing but it is unlikely she will cast an eye on it. Yet. Sometimes as a foster carer you consider how different the lives of children could be if we lived in a more equal, fairer society. If families weren’t living in poverty, had equal educational opportunities and access to better support services. At other times it’s all too clear that there are families who actively harm their own children and this is an even more bitter pill to swallow. K-L is one such
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Fostering: A child’s view – M’s story
Lucy Stevens - 17th February 2023
When I was 17, I thought I knew it all. I’d had a rough childhood and when I was a teenager I got in with a gang. I did drugs and did some drug running up and down the country. There was something comforting in that life, being on the edge, always a step away from violence. It was what I knew but it was also something I belonged to, something I didn’t have with my own family. Their rejection still hurt, and I would take the drugs to cope and to just numb everything. My boyfriend was also a gang member and had a list of offences as long as your arm. We were both pretty well-known to the
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The Panel: The story of Angela and Mark*
Josh Brightmore - 3rd February 2023
“It’s only now that they’ve gone that we’re re-discovering all these little notes from them. It’s so heart-warming”. Talking to Angela and Mark about their first foster-child – Alex* – I’m struck by the warmth they still have for them, and while it wasn’t always a bed of roses, they both seem to be incredibly enriched by the experience – both the good and the bad. I had expected Angela and Mark to tell me that the process of finally being approved as foster carers – by a panel including a previously fostered person, foster carers, local authority staff and staff from Eastern Fostering Services – was at least a little bit nerve-wracking. But Angela assures me that this wasn’t
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