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Matching a Child with a family.
Matching a child to a family is a two way process. As well as the child being suitable for you, you must be suitable for the child.
We have a team of experienced social workers dedicated to making sure that every child who needs to be placed with foster carers is placed with appropriate carers. This team receives phone calls daily from social workers who need to place children with foster carers. In turn the team looks at all our available foster carers for a suitable match. They look for placements that will provide the child with a home that reflects his or her culture, religion, ethnicity and many other relevant factors. We try to look at foster carers who do not live too far away from the child's family in order that they can maintain their links with family, school, clubs, etc. At this stage we are seeking to keep any changes for the child to a minimum and find a family that will easily promote the child's identity and value his or her background.
If the team feel that you might be the most suitable carers they will telephone you and tell you as much as they can about the child. We then give you a little time to think about this and start to consider if you feel that you can provide the right care for that child. We always say "Never be reluctant to say no". We have found that it is very important for a placement to succeed for the foster carers to feel very positive about the child.
If we all agree to proceed the child's social worker will make contact and discuss with you how best to proceed with introductions and when the placement would begin.
So far we have looked at fostering in quite general terms so now why not click on the NEXT button below to look at actual examples to give you a real idea of what to expect.
