What is it like fostering for an Outstanding agency?
Lucy Stevens - 13th December 2023
“Eastern Fostering Services are a first-class organisation!” Foster Carer, Essex. Our recent Ofsted inspection recognised the outstanding work we do with our children and young people and the exceptional support we offer our foster carers. The report itself states, “This agency provides outstanding care and support to children and foster carers. Children thrive because of the care provided by their foster carers and the wider network of support from the agency. Foster carers feel emotionally held and valued by the team of professionals around them. This enables them to provide the stability, nurture and understanding that children need to flourish.” What does this mean to me as a foster carer? All our foster carers receive the following benefits when they
More Info
Foster carers needed in Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire
Lucy Stevens - 30th December 2022
Local children need local foster carers In the UK, there are now more children than ever in need of foster carers. Children in Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire are no exception. Our children need local foster carers who can keep them in education, in local communities and near to the people who are important to them. Which children need foster carers? There are children in every age group who are in need of a nurturing foster carer. From young sibling groups, teenagers, mother and babies, children with additional needs and unaccompanied children. The list goes on. By far the most typical children are sibling groups and young people between the ages of 10 to 16. What does it take to foster?
Tags: Cambridgeshire, Essex, Essex fostering, foster care, foster carer, fostering, fostering agency, fostering allowance, Fostering Cambridgeshire, fostering Essex, fostering in Essex, fostering in Suffolk, fostering money, fostering qualifications, fostering service, fostering Suffolk, local fostering, mother and baby fostering, Suffolk, Suffolk fostering
More Info
Local children need local Foster Carers
Lucy Stevens - 27th December 2022
Fostering shortfall According to the Fostering Network, children in the East of England need approximately 700 additional foster carers. Moreover these children are paying a hefty price for the shortfall. The importance of being local Many children in foster care have a powerful need to be near the familiar. Often, school or friendship groups might be the only positive thing in their lives. Therefore, when children are taken away from both family and friends or school they are devastated. "We believe that children in foster care deserve a sensitive matching with carers," says Eleanor Newman of Eastern Fostering Services. "However, we are finding it increasingly hard to match children because of a lack of carers. This means we are unable
Tags: Cambridgeshire, do foster carers get paid?, Essex, foster carers, Fostering Cambridgeshire, fostering Essex, fostering locally, fostering qualifications, fostering Suffolk, local fostering, Peterborough, Southend, Suffolk
More Info
Fostering unaccompanied young people – Ahmed’s story
Veronica Jones - 18th November 2022
The film that Eastern Fostering Services are featuring this week "Fostering unaccompanied young people" was aired on Look East earlier this year. It tells the story of a young man who was just 14 when he arrived in the UK and was moved to one of our foster carers. We asked our carer to tell us what it was like to foster him and how he is doing today. https://youtu.be/2vVEKaGj7To It was quite late in the evening when our foster son arrived on our doorstep. He was our first foster child and I remember feeling apprehensive. My two young children were in bed, settled. Tomorrow they would wake to a family of 5. It was a night of great unknowns.
More Info
Children in the UK urgently need foster carers.
Lucy Stevens - 10th July 2022
The other day, a foster carer said to me, “If people knew how dire the situation is for children in foster care, they would be shocked and would feel moved to do something.” At Eastern Fostering Services we absolutely agree with this statement. Each week, we receive hundreds of requests for children who require foster carers. Each week, many of these children are turned away because we don’t have enough carers for the sheer volume and needs of the children and young people. This basic truth echoes across the whole of the UK, leading to thousands of young people in improperly matched fostering arrangements or unsuitable accommodation. The children of the UK urgently need more foster carers. What sort of
More Info
What Does It Mean To Be A Foster Parent?
Lucy Stevens - 3rd March 2022
Foster parenting in the UK can often seem like a complex and difficult thing to get your head around. From whether you can even foster in the first place (hint: check our FAQs and you might be surprised) to what it actually means emotionally to be a foster parent. To foster a child or children is a wonderful thing; not only are you providing love, care and support but you're giving young people the chance to have a stable and enriched upbringing, something they may have been lacking previously. So what are the main responsibilities when it comes to fostering a child? What does it mean to be a foster parent? There are challenges with looking after and raising any
Tags: applying to be a foster carer, becoming a foster carer, Cambridgeshire, Eastern Fostering Services, foster care, fostering, Fostering Cambridgeshire, fostering Essex, fostering Suffolk, Suffolk
More Info
Why aren’t more people fostering?
Lucy Stevens - 29th November 2021
This week two carers from Eastern Fostering Services spoke to ITV News* about fostering. They were asked why more people aren’t putting themselves forward for the role. In truth, fostering presents a bit of a challenge. It is a vocation that must be thought about, understood, and prepared for. It is not a decision that you want people to rush into. Fostering is hard work and requires resilience and commitment. Conversely, there is a significant shortage of foster carers in the UK and an increasing number of children entering foster care, so we need to recruit more carers quickly. One of the biggest stumbling blocks in the recruitment of foster carers is misinformation. Many people don’t fully understand how the
More Info
I hope so much one day to see my family again
Lucy Stevens - 28th September 2021
It’s been a while since I have written about our Afghan foster son who came to live with us when he was 14. I remember at the time, writing about the hunted look he wore when he first stepped foot over our threshold five years ago. He was young, he was scared, he had seen too much. He possessed not a word of English and simply the clothes he stood up in. If ever there was a fish out of water, he was it. He lived with us for three years. We cared for him as he processed the trauma he had lived. Not just the cruel, arduous journey he had undertaken but the life that had preceded it. As
More Info
Fostering in the wake of Covid. What’s changed?
Lucy Stevens - 17th August 2021
On the surface, life in the fostering sector has continued throughout the pandemic. Children have continued to come into care, foster carers have been approved (albeit in smaller numbers), carers and children have coped with the strain of lockdowns and the social isolation Covid has brought. There have been many challenges for all of those who work in the foster care sector and of course for the children growing up in it. Lurking in the background throughout all those challenges has been one dreaded question: What is going to happen when we open up again? Many of us suspected that as professionals once again began seeing children in schools or during home visits or medical appointments, we would inevitably see
More Info
How do I transfer foster agencies?
Lucy Stevens - 6th July 2021
I am already a foster carer but am not happy with my fostering provider Making the decision to transfer foster agencies is not easy and you will have many questions. Foster carers need a lot of support from their fostering provider in order to confidently and successfully carry out the enormous task we ask of them. As a fostering agency, we do not pursue existing foster carers, however we are sometimes approached by carers who are looking to transfer foster agencies. By far the most common reason people tell us they want to transfer foster agencies is that they do not feel well supported by their current provider. In these circumstances, we feel it is really important that foster carers
Tags: change, changing foster care agencies, fostering, transfer, transfer between fostering services, transfer foster agencies, transfer foster care agencies
More Info