Fostering
The council provides a fostering agency that
seeks and approves families to foster children. Children need
foster care for lots of different reasons. For example, their
parents may be ill, in prison, or having relationship problems.
Some children will have been neglected or abused.
Three out of four fostered children return to
live with their own families, so they need a secure family
environment while we work with their parents to ensure that they
can return home safely. Some children will need to be adopted or
found a permanent family as they are unable to return home. Foster
carers help these children to understand adoption and what it means
for them.
Our foster carers receive competitive fees and
excellent support and training opportunities.
Who can become a foster carer?
Whatever your age, ethnicity or personal circumstances,
fostering could be for you. It doesn't matter if you are a home
owner, tenant, or on housing benefit, as long as you can
demonstrate that you can provide stability and safety to a child,
then we will consider your application.
We are looking for carers who can provide a child with a loving
and stable environment for them to grow and develop. You will need
to help them feel comfortable in your home and their
surroundings.
It's important to remember that we are not simply looking for
people who have had straightforward lives. We will consider your
family history sympathetically. We want to know how you have dealt
with difficult experiences and what you have learned. Having
survived and learned from difficulties or losses is likely to be
helpful in fostering children and helping those who have had their
own problems.
If you are interested in becoming a foster carer you will need
to meet with a social worker many times to talk about yourself,
your family and your experiences of looking after children. Some
people find the idea of this daunting, but our social workers are
highly experienced and will do everything they can to help you feel
reassured during this process. You will also need to have police
and medical checks and will need to ask employers, friends and
families to give references.
It usually takes between four to six months to
become an approved foster carer. You can look at the
types
of foster care available here and see the process on
how
to become a foster carer here.
Find out more
about fostering for Tower Hamlets here.
Tower Hamlets consistently receives excellent
results in our inspections by Ofsted for our fostering service. You
can read our latest report
here.
How to contact us
You can contact our recruitment and assessment
team by phone or email anytime. A duty social worker is available
between 9am - 5pm or you can leave a message outside these
hours.
Recruitment and Assessment Team
Mulberry Place
5 Clove Crescent
London
E14 2BG
Tel: 0800 279 9850
Email: fostering@towerhamlets.gov.uk