The biggest job satisfaction going
Foster carers are now looking after the vast majority of children in our care system, and there has been growing recognition of the key role that they play in these children’s lives and futures. Yet, outside of the social care world, there is still a lack of understanding about what foster care is, and what foster carers do.
Some carers provide homes for children at very short notice, and in the midst of emergencies. Carers can also offer short breaks for children and their families. And, while most children who come into care return to live with their birth families, others will need a new home. These children may go on to be adopted, but there are many children and young people who grow up with long-term or permanent foster carers.
Susie is one of these long-term foster carers. She lives in a small market town in the West Country with her partner, birth son and foster child, Stu, who is now sixteen and has just started college. She describes a deeply felt bond with Stu, and feels that she treats him no differently than her own son.
“He’s absolutely part of the family. Even if he left home we wouldn’t lose touch. We love him to pieces.”
I met Susie when working on a project that looked at the everyday lives of two foster carers and their families so as to explore their motivation to foster, what they enjoy about it, what is more difficult, and importantly, what keeps them going. The resulting words and images have been used in a BAAF publication, 'Who am I and what do I do?' – providing powerful evidence of what it means to be a foster carer, and the kind of training and support that carers really value.
This is so important because we need foster carers like Susie who are able to open up their homes and their hearts, and give more children and young people the opportunity to experience stable, loving family life.
No one would ever suggest that fostering is easy, or that anyone can become a foster carer. But as Angie, Susie’s friend and another long-term foster carer, explained: “Your life will never be the same again. Your friends may change, your lifestyle will certainly change, and you are never responsibility-free. But the rewards for me far outweigh these changes. To make a difference in someone’s life, to give someone a chance to be happy…That has surely got to be the biggest job satisfaction going.”
Andrea Warman, Fostering Development Consultant at BAAF
'Who am I and what do I do?' can be ordered from BAAF at £2.00 per copy, with discounts available for bulk orders. For more information, call Publications on 020 7421 2604.
For more information on fostering please see:
Originally published in the Be My Parent newspaper in January 2008.
This article is published with the kind permission of the people involved. You may download it for your own reference but if you wish to use it for any other purpose, please contact Be My Parent for authorisation: Be My Parent, BAAF, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Telephone: 020 7421 2666/5/4.
Last updated: 04 January 08
