How will fostering affect my family?
When deciding to become a foster parent, it’s important to know how it will affect your family, and we understand that you want to be confident that your family are supported and cared for throughout the process.
Positive effects of fostering on your children
Your own family will play an integral part of your fostering journey and will contribute to providing a stable and caring home for a looked after child. Each foster child may bring challenges to your family dynamics. Sometimes your own children may find it difficult sharing their belongings or find it difficult when a child or young person leaves.
Fostering can also have many positive effects on your children. Children who are involved in fostering develop strong caring and empathy skills, feel as part of a team and make friends with the children that come to live with them. These are just some of the positive impacts of fostering on the foster family.
Although there are many positive effects of fostering on a family, we still offer comprehensive support, advice and therapy to ensure their experience of fostering is a happy and positive one. We also like to acknowledge and celebrate their achievements for their part in your fostering journey and include them in many organised activities and events.
As part of the application and assessment process, we’ll arrange for your supervising social worker to meet any children in your family so they can discuss their thoughts and feelings before you start fostering.
Allison's fostering story
Allison, a foster parent from FCA Northern Ireland, shares her fostering journey thus far and what it's like to foster while raising your own children.
Supporting children and young people who foster
As well as support and guidance for children and young people who foster, our extended support services provide:
- Foster parents’ children’s access to the family’s supervising social worker.
- Contact with other young people who are also part of a fostering family.
- Opportunities for birth children over the age of 18 to attend training and/or support groups.
- Paid respite to all of our foster families, to give you and your children in your care a bit of a break for agreed short periods of time.
At FCA we are focused on the needs of the children and young people we look after, so we’ve built up a strong framework of support around them. This includes foster parents and our team of social workers but can also be support staff and therapists. Beyond that however, there’s plenty more in place, and as an organisation that believes in involving people, we really do get children to share their ideas and feedback on what we’re doing – and how well.
Another way we involve children is to organise events throughout the year. Along with locally held fun days and activities, these include poetry and photography competitions that are open to all children everywhere.
How can we help?
Ready to start fostering a child or young person? Or just want a bit more information to help you decide whether fostering is for you? All you need to do is contact us.
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
By Phone
Call a member of our friendly fostering team and they'll be able to answer all your questions