Foster Carer for Adolescent Care
Ever considered Foster Caring?
Cumbria County Council's Adolescent Care Team are looking for compassionate, caring and dedicated people to join us as Foster Carers, looking after a child/children aged 10-18 years on a permanent basis.
This is a fantastic opportunity for those looking to make a direct and positive impact on the lives of young adults. You'll have flexibility, independence and will be supported every step of the way.
Why Adolescent Care?
Talk to any of our Foster Carers and they'll tell you just how rewarding fostering is, and helping to make even a small difference to a young person's life is hugely satisfying.Teenage fostering is a unique opportunity where carers provide long-term, family-based placements to young people aged 10 to 18 years who are moving out of residential care or from a foster care placement outside of the county. Many of these young people will have encountered abuse of some kind or neglect and may already have experienced a breakdown in a previous foster care relationship.
We already support over 200 foster families, but with a large number of teenagers needing foster families we are always looking for more people to join in. As part of the scheme, we are also looking for foster carers for older children who are asylum seekers.
Becoming a Foster Carer.
Foster Caring is varied, rewarding and challenging, where every single day is different and you have the chance to make a huge difference to the emotional and physical wellbeing of a young person.
This could mean improving a child's attendance at school, or supporting them to step down from residential care back into a fostering 'home' environment. This really is an opportunity to help young people like no other, and as a part of this, you will work with a dedicated team of professionals who will support you through the training, assessment and approval stages, continuing even once you are approved.
Who are we looking for:
Foster Carers come from all walks of life, just like the children who need to be looked after.
We are looking for people with experience in dealing with teenagers with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and this could include residential care workers, former police officers or people who work in similar professions, as well as existing, experienced foster carers.
Fostering does not necessarily require people to be at home full-time, as different children will have different needs; the important thing is that you can arrange things to meet those needs. The fostering payments we provide may give you the flexibility to look at how you manage your working hours.
You must have a spare room to foster as part of our Adolescent Care Team scheme. All fostered children must have their own room.
As a foster carer with Cumbria County Council, you will benefit from:
Support and regular contact from a dedicated social worker
Advanced specialist training
Peer support scheme
Links with virtual school
Access to respite
Dedicated EHWB (emotional health and wellbeing) worker
We believe that all children and young people have the right to be healthy, happy and safe; to be loved, valued and respected; and to have high hopes for their future - If you share this passion, then please get in touch today!
How to register your interest or find out more.
Find out more about fostering or make an enquiry by going to www.cumbria.gov.uk/fostering or by calling 0303 333 1216.
On Facebook message us now, search @cumbriafosteringandadoption.
Salary information.
Our fostering payments are a combination of:
A maintenance allowance for the child
A fee paid to the carer
The allowance covers the costs of everything that you need to care for a child such as food, clothing, transport, personal items and household expenses. The foster carers' fee recognises the amount of time they dedicate to fostering, as well as their skills and experience.
The fee for an ACT foster carer is 406 per week, per child, plus a regular weekly maintenance allowance for each child you foster.
Current Regular Weekly Allowance (RWA) rates:
151.20 per child for age 10 years
173.11 per child for age 11-15 years
210.49 per child for age 16+
So for example an ACT carer looking after one child aged 16, could expect a payment of 616.49 per week.
NB. Foster carers are classed as being self-employed and there's a fixed tax exemption of up to 10,000 per year (less if for a shorter period) which is shared equally among any foster carers in the same household. This means you do not have to pay tax on the first 10,000 income you make from fostering.