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 and see the process on how to become a foster carer.

Find out more about fostering for Tower Hamlets.

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 to 5pm or you can leave a message outside these hours.