My husband and I had been providing support to my parents who were already carers with the company. During this time we had been invited to the training sessions to improve our skills, a few of which are mandatory. After a few months, we found that we were becoming involved with cared for children quite regularly. We enjoyed our time with them so much that we decided to take the assessment to become carers ourselves.

We started the assessment and had a weekly meeting at our home with a social worker to complete the stages. It began in the February and we were successful at the July panel. By August we had our first placement and since then we have been involved with 22 children and young people in 2 – 3 years on a short term & respite basis. We chose Foster Cares Ltd as it is a smaller family company meaning that all of the staff are known to us by name and the support provided is regular and thorough. Communication between the company and the carers is excellent including a yearly training schedule, regular supervision, e-social daily log books, annual reviews, email, texts and phone calls. If our social worker is unavailable whoever is on duty will provide support until they are.

Furthermore, Foster Cares Ltd annually subscribe carers to an external agency called Foster Talk. They provided phone support for services such as counselling, legal assistance and help to complete your tax return. Foster Cares Ltd also have a 24 hour on-call member of staff to provide support during any incidents. This helps us feel reassured and safer in any decisions which need to be made. To form links with other carers, there are annual events such as a Christmas Lunch and a day in the summer for all of the kids to meet with organised activities. My husband and I know that we made the right choice working with Fosters Carers Ltd and our friends and family agree.