Become a fostering friendly employer

Become a fostering friendly employer

Help us build a brighter future for local children and young people and create a supportive environment for current and prospective foster carers. As a fostering friendly employer, your support could make a real difference to your community and improve support for your staff at the same time, by making some simple changes.

Nearly 40% of foster carers combine fostering with a part-time or full-time job. Read all about Combining fostering and other work.

How can you help?

Celebrate fostering!

As a business, you could support fostering by making information about how to become a foster carer available on noticeboards and internal publications. You could host information sessions for your staff about fostering and the support you offer to them or offer a space in your office for local social events or meetings.

Time off for training

Anyone interested in fostering must go through an assessment process and intensive training before they can be approved as a foster carer. Ongoing training and personal development is an expected part of being a foster carer. Employers can support staff by giving them time off to complete training as appropriate.

Flexibility

Foster carers need to be able to respond to the needs of the children in their care. Access to flexible working swapping shifts with colleagues or similar would enable foster carers to support the child and attend any regular meetings/appointments for the child.

Additional & emergency leave

As part of the matching process and settling-in period, foster carers may require additional time off. If the unexpected happens were to happen; providing foster carers with the same access to emergency leave as parents and recognising fostered children as dependents, with enable foster parents to provide a stable and secure home.

Often, we understand business demands might mean that incorporating these changes may be impossible however it is important that employers consider the needs of foster carers and do what they can to help. While the impact on your business may be small, the impact on our ability to recruit foster carers could be significant.

Join the free scheme, run by The Fostering Network, and encourage local businesses and organisations to implement a company-wide policy to get more people to think about fostering alongside their job. Commitments by employers to become a certified foster-friendly business include 5 days of additional paid leave for approved foster carers and taking part in foster care fortnight- an annual campaign to raise the profile of fostering and show how foster care transforms lives.

We are urging organisations and businesses to become fostering-friendly. Contact your local Nexus Fostering office for more information.