Fostering Communities: The professional community
Lucy Stevens - 25th May 2023
It often comes as a surprise to prospective foster carers when they first realise the number of professionals that work with children in foster care. Often the first introduction foster carers get to the professional community is during the Preparation to Foster training, which takes place during the assessment process. “It was the first time, I fully appreciated just how many professionals are involved with the children and how important it must be to invest in these relationships,” said one of our recently approved carers. This was an astutely made point. It is indeed important to build good relationships within the professional community, to understand their roles, their objectives and how best to work with them to promote the well
Tags: becoming a foster carer, fostercare fortnight, fostering, Fostering Cambridgeshire, fostering Essex
More Info
Fostering communities: fostering social workers
Eleanor Newman - 24th May 2023
Reflections of an old Social Worker Today, I am reflecting on one of those life events that makes being a Social Worker for nearly 30 years worthwhile. I claim no credit for the achievements of this incredibly special woman, I am just grateful for being part of her journey. I first met ‘Belle” (she is a Disney fan, so we agreed on this as her pseudonym) in the 1990’s as her fostering Social Worker. She was a feisty, mixed-up teen, rightly angry with the world but also clearly possessing a strong and positive spirit. We immediately struck up a great rapport that has now stood the test of time, having just been to her wedding in 2022. As I write
Tags: becoming a foster carer, fostercare fortnight, Fostering Cambridgeshire, fostering Essex, fostering Suffolk
More Info
What do Fostering Communities mean to us at Eastern Fostering Services?
Lucy Stevens - 23rd May 2023
As we celebrate fostering communities this Foster Care Fortnight, some of the team members at Eastern Fostering Services share their views. Sandra Sandra is one of our senior supervising social workers. She has many years’ experience supporting carers and children and she is a fierce advocate of both. “I have been part of the Eastern Fostering Services community for nearly 7 years, as a supervising social worker. I grew up in a fostering family from the age of 6 months and my parents were LA foster carers. Fostering was very different then with no Independent Fostering Agencies and very little support for carers. Eastern Fostering Services offers amazing support and I’m sure anyone who fosters for us feels part of
Tags: foster care, fostercare fortnight
More Info
Being part of a fostering community when you’re a man
Steve Ellis - 19th May 2023
“It would be easy to think that as a male foster carer, you might be overlooked or treated differently but that’s not the case at all at Eastern Fostering Services.” Lots of people think that foster carers are all women. It’s true that women make up the majority of the fostering community but at Eastern Fostering Services, there are many men who take an active role in fostering. I really like the fact that our community of foster carers at Eastern Fostering Services is so diverse. We need to be when you think about it as the children we care for are also a diverse crew! We’ve got men, women, couples, single carers, carers of different ethnicities, different religions or
More Info
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
More Info
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
More Info
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
More Info
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
More Info
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
More Info
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
More Info
