Telford Fostering

Fostering a child with Telford & Wrekin Council

There are many emotional, social and economic benefits to becoming a foster carer.   There are many reasons why people prefer to foster for Telford & Wrekin Council.   Fostering makes a positive impact on children and young people's lives. Even if you only have a child for a short period.  You have the ability to nurture the child. To teach lifelong lessons and set positive examples for their future. 

All children whose families cannot care for them at home for a period come into the care of their local authority.  Only Telford & Wrekin Council have the responsibility for local children who need a foster home. Foster for your council

We always search for a home with our own foster carers first. Our foster carers are more likely to have a foster child or children living with them.

With careful matching, we only look elsewhere when we have explored every possible solution to meet a child’s need from our own team first.

The many benefits of becoming a foster carer include:

• Making a difference to a child's life.
• Experiencing a sense of achievement from helping others.
• Enjoying having children in your life.
• Gaining satisfaction from helping a child learn and develop.
• Having an opportunity to use your parenting or life skills.
• Helping your own family learn to share and care for others.
• Taking on a fresh challenge, whatever your age.

Telford & Wrekin have a dedicated team to support you from enquiry through to becoming an approved foster carer and beyond.

We make the transition into fostering with Telford & Wrekin as smooth as possible.  We are passionate about placing children from our region in Telford and Wrekin homes.

Some of the many benefits of fostering for Telford & Wrekin include:

• Access to local training.  Our excellent induction programme gives you a great foundation from which to develop as a foster carer.
• Ongoing and regular learning and development opportunities.
• Specialist training in a family based therapeutic model of parenting.
• A personal and individualised development plan available for all foster carers.

We know all the children that we place with foster carers.  We have close links with and access to the children's social work teams.

We respect the views of our children. They get a choice of placement, as far as possible. We share foster carer profiles with them when matching.

The children you care for are local. Waiting times for matching and between placements will be less than with an independent agency.

Transferring from another agency is easier than you might think. We make transferring simple.

We will ensure that as Telford & Wrekin foster carers, you feel valued and heard.

In addition, we offer the following benefits

• Competitive fees and allowances, with annual reviews.
• Consultation with foster carers to inform service development and improvements.
• Regular foster carer forums.
• Annual foster carer conference.
• Mentoring and peer support.
• Social groups
• We do not make a profit from fostering; our priority is to keep children safe.
• We offer a generous 'refer a friend' scheme.
• Dedicated training facilitator.
• Bespoke training to meet the needs of children and young people in Telford and Wrekin.
• Membership of the Fostering Network.
• Membership of the Telford Foster Care Association.
• Telford Loyalty Card (TLC)
• Access to a therapist specialising in behaviour and communication.
• Access to a counselling service.
• Fostering family support workers.
• Direct access to children and adolescent mental health professionals for children in care.
• An out of hour’s advice line.

Qualified, dedicated and experienced, we also don't think you'll find a friendlier team with which to work.