Lucy Stevens - 14th May 2024
Carer Support Groups are an essential part of establishing and nurturing a healthy fostering community. Our Carer support sessions take place every 6 weeks or so and attract new Carers as well as some of the most experienced Foster Carers in our EFS family.
Something for everyone
Support groups offer a precious opportunity to share knowledge, offer encouragement, solidarity and a listening ear. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been fostering; everyone has something to offer, and everyone can find something to take away with them.
Fostering is really varied, and one person’s experience can be completely different from another’s. Everyone has a unique insight garnered from their own fostering experiences. This makes the Support Group a hotbed of support, advice and validation whilst offering fresh, helpful perspective. This can have a transformative effect on Foster Carers and the children they look after. It can promote stable, long-lasting and positive fostering relationships and placements.
Mixing it up
“it’s not all just sitting around chatting and consuming vast amounts of cake…”
Sometimes Foster Carers just need a safe space to voice their worries or seek reassurance on their approaches to fostering. Foster Carer Support Group offers this safe space. As one carer recently said, “I enjoy and appreciate Support group as the company and discussion is always constructive. We are pleased to be a part of Eastern Fostering Services and benefit from the breadth and depth of support.”
But it’s not all just sitting around chatting and consuming vast amounts of cake; there is so much more to it. It’s an opportunity to grow and learn. To vent and to share frustrations. To seek and to find. To make decisions and to defer. The big moments, positive or negative, are brought into the light, celebrated, discussed, sometimes analysed but always shared. It makes for a lighter load.
At Eastern Fostering Services, we try and use the Support Group space to offer something a bit different to carers too. We regularly offer talks and training on a range of topics from menopause to men in foster care. From current challenges with children and young people such as online safety, self-harm or exploitation to practical help for Foster Carers such as managing the finances or understanding EHCPs.
“The big moments, positive or negative, are brought into the light, celebrated, discussed, sometimes analysed but always shared. It makes for a lighter load.”
Shaping our service
At Eastern Fostering Services, we know that our Foster Carers are our lifeblood. We want to provide a service that meets their needs as fully as possible. We have regular Foster Carer Consultations during which we seek carers’ views on a range of key issues such as terminology, health and safety, training, policy, working with Local Authorities and service provision. But we also take any feedback from Carer Support Group back to the management team to ensure we are offering the right level of support to carers and to highlight any areas we need to be developing. It is in keeping our children and Foster Carers central to every gathering, every conversation, every moment that allows us to secure the very best future moments for our children and young people.
If you would like to know more about the support we offer our Foster Carers you can do so here. To find out more about fostering just drop us an email or call us on 01206 299775. We’d love to speak to you.
Eastern Fostering Services - The small agency with a strong family feel
