Can I foster?
All applications are treated with equal fairness. What is most important is that you have a mature, responsible attitude and enough energy to look after children.
- Do I need specific qualifications?
- Are there any age limits?
- Do I need a medical check up?
- Do I have to be in a relationship or married?
- Can I foster if I have children already?
- Do I need a spare room?
- I live in a flat. Can I foster?
- Can I foster if I have only recently moved to the UK?
- I don’t drive. Can I still foster?
- Can I foster if I work full time?
- Can I foster if I smoke?
- Does it matter if I have criminal convictions?
Do I need specific qualifications?
You don't need any particular qualifications to apply for fostering. However, you will be considered according to your experience of caring for children or young people (either at home or through work), and your commitment to their welfare. We will provide you with comprehensive training and lots of regular support.
We encourage applications from people over 21 and have no upper age limit. It’s important that you have the experience and stability in your life to be able to support a child, as well as the physical health and energy to keep up with them.
We will take your age into consideration when thinking about what age group and what type of fostering you would be most suitable for. For example, it you are over 60, it is unlikely you would be approved long-term for a younger child. However, you may be able to offer a long-term foster placement to a young person, aged 14 or over, according to your individual circumstances. All approvals are assessed on an individual basis and this is only a rough guide to thinking about what may be right for you.
It’s important that you are able to cope with the physical and emotional challenges that fostering may present and as part of your assessment, you will need to undergo a medical check up. This is a legal requirement under the fostering regulations.
Many conditions, such as diabetes or asthma may not stop you from becoming a foster carer, but it’s important you’re in good health. You need to have good mental health too in order to cope with the pressures of fostering.
Do I have to be in a relationship or married?
We welcome applications from people who are single, living together, married, divorced or separated, straight or gay.
If you are single, it is important that you have other support networks of family and/or friends in place. If you have been assessed as a single carer and then enter into a serious relationship, we would need to assess your new partner too. Each foster child needs as much stability as possible in their foster placement, so it’s important to consider your own long term plans.
If you have only been in a relationship for a short period and are considering fostering as a couple, we would suggest that you are in a stable situation (e.g. living together) for at least 12 to 18 months before approaching us to foster. Fostering will have an impact on your home life, so it’s important to be settled before starting the assessment process.
Can I foster if I have children already?
Yes you can. You will need to consider the impact that fostering will have on your own children and talk to them about it. Your family placement social worker will talk to your children through the assessment process, and once you’re approved, there is also a support group just for them. We try to place children older or younger than your own by 18 months to two years. This is so your own children keep their position within the family and there is less competition.
Some of our fostering schemes require that you don’t have other children in the home (3D fostering) or that your child is over 12 years old (Focus fostering).
In most cases, if you have a child under two years old, we would suggest you approach us once they are a bit older. As a foster carer you will need to devote a lot of time and energy to your foster child and it may be a struggle meeting the needs of your own child at the same time.
Yes, we are looking to recruit people who have a permanent spare room for a foster child. If your own child is currently sharing your bedroom, you would need a bedroom for them to move into in the future as well as a spare bedroom for a foster child.
I live in a flat. Can I foster?
We would need to consider whether you have enough room in your flat for a child, and whether they have access to safe outdoor space. If you are in doubt, you will be advised during the initial visit. If you live above the third floor, there may be safety issues if fostering a young child.
Can I foster if I have only recently moved to the UK?
You need to have evidence you can live and work indefinitely in the UK, as well as having a good level of written and spoken English, so you can share information confidently in meetings and with professionals.
You’ll also need to consider the support networks that you have in place so you have people to encourage you, alongside ourselves.
I don’t drive. Can I still foster?
You may still be able to foster, although you need to think carefully about how you will manage to safely transport a child to and from school and contact visits across Salford. You will also be expected to attend training and meetings at different locations across Salford.
Can I foster if I work full time?
You will need to consider your working hours and your ability to take a child to and from school, as well as care for them yourself during school holidays. To ensure consistency of care, after school clubs or holiday play schemes are not generally considered appropriate for fostered children. We would want you or your partner to be the main carer for the child, which includes picking them up from school and looking after them in school holidays.
You will also need to be able to attend all the preparation training sessions, which are usually held one evening a week for seven weeks, as well as have the time to commit to the assessment process, which will involve regularly meeting with your family placement social worker. In both cases, if you are in a couple, you will both need to be able to commit to this.
If you or anyone in your home smokes, you can foster a child over five years old, but you will need to ensure that anyone smoking only smokes outside the house.
You won’t be able to foster a child under five years old if there are any smokers living at home. You will need to have quit smoking for at least six months to be considered a non-smoker.
If you would like to quit smoking, we can help with access to cessation services.
Does it matter if I have criminal convictions?
A criminal conviction does not automatically rule you out of fostering.
An Enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check will be carried out on both you and anyone else in the household aged 16 or over. No convictions are considered ‘spent’.
Each application will be considered individually but we will not progress your application where there are convictions for offences against children or other serious offences.
If you have any other queries, please call us on 0161 799 1268 to discuss your suitability to foster.
This page was last updated on 31 August 2011
