A Short Guide for New Foster Carers

Becoming a foster carer will fill you with a cocktail of emotions including excitement to anxiousness, and you’ll have so many questions circling your mind. If you’re experiencing this right now, you’re in the right place. Below, you will find a series of helpful pointers for new foster carers.

Effective Planning is Critical

Life as a foster carer will be a little hectic at times, with a full daily schedule and various meetings to attend. However, your experience as a foster carer will be largely positive, especially if you can master the art of effective planning. For example, you don’t want to run into unexpected financial trouble, which is why you’ll need to check with your foster care services to see what allowances you’re entitled to. In most cases, the allowance will be more than enough to cover the cost of living for one extra person in your household.

Every Foster Child Needs Reassurance

Moving into a new environment can be overwhelming, which is what your future foster children are grappling with on top of the impacts of trauma. With this in mind, it’s essential that you make an effort to reassure all foster children, which you can do using these strategies:

• A tour of the home. Your home is a scary new environment, which is why you should show new foster children around. During the house tour, you can have a friendly discussion about some of the rules in your home – like rooms that are off-limits.
• A visit to the shops. Even though you will have the basics, a visit to the shops lets you get more specific products that your new foster child will need.
• A look at family photo albums. Help foster children become familiar with your family by letting themtake a look at photo albums.

Creating Calm, Friendly, and Inviting Spaces

To help a foster child’s transition into your home feel smoother, you should make sure it feels friendly, calm, and inviting. To get this off to a great start, we recommend getting rid of unnecessary clutter. Once your home feels clean and concise, you can turn your attention to the bedroom. However, it can be difficult to know how to decorate it before you know anything about them. Therefore, you should use neutral colours that can be personalised afterwards with artwork, posters, and other belongings.

Keeping a Strong Support Network

Even though you’re the one providing a caring home for foster children, you’re not the only branch of the foster system tree. For example, you’ll be supported by local authority workers, foster agency employees, and a series of other professionals. Knowing who is part of your support network is essential, as there will be times when you need to ask questions.

Having nerves before welcoming your first foster child is understandable, and it simply shows how passionate you are about the role. If you take on board the information outlined above, you’re more likely to see foster children that settle into your home with a little more speed and fewer complications.