Organisations that can help
Organisations that support foster carers
Fostering Network
Fostering Network is a charity that brings together members and stakeholders to share knowledge and good practice which empowers foster carers and influences developments in foster care across all four nations of the UK.
Its work ensures that the voices and views of children and young people are heard and respected throughout the care system.
Fostering Network supports its members and others who are involved in fostering with a range of services that help children and young people in foster care achieve their potential. As part of this the orgasnisation offers and delivers a comprehensive range of learning and development resources providing both face to face training and web-based and hard copy publications.
In partnership with pfeg and sponsored by The Share Foundation, Fostering Network produced a financial capability supplement to the January 2010 edition of its Foster Care magazine, which you can download below. This aimed to raise awareness of the importance of financial capability amongst foster carers and those working with them and suggest ways in which they could help the children and young people in their care learn about money.
Whilst the primary audience for the supplement was foster carers themselves it is hoped that local authorities will find it helpful in providing ideas for newsletters and other communications.
Action for Children: Children in Care
Action for Children runs services right across the UK specifically devoted to helping vulnerable children to overcome the disadvantages of not living with their birth parents.
Action for Children is a registered adoption agency and also provides fostering schemes. Our intensive fostering services act as an alternative to custodial sentences for young people, challenging their behaviour and often enabling them ultimately to return to their birth families. We also run a growing number of small residential units for children and young people, as well as several residential schools, which are able to provide a good education and social support for children with special educational needs.
Fostering in the UK
Fostering in the UK provides comprehensive information on the fostering of children and foster care. The aim of their website is to provide anyone in the UK thinking about applying to become a foster carer with a lot of useful information on foster care that can help them in reaching any decision. It provides information about the fostering process, allowances and procedures. It also lists sources of help and advice.
British Association for Adoption & Fostering
In 2010 BAAF will be celebrating 30 years of supporting, advising and campaigning for better outcomes for children in care. BAAF works with everyone involved with adoption and fostering across the UK. It has regional and country offices in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, providing services to meet the needs of some of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people. BAAF provides advice services, training and consultancy.
Organisations for children and young people in care
The Who Cares? Trust
The Who Cares? Trust is a voice and a champion for children and young people in the UK living in care. The Who Cares? Trust was set up as a charity in 1992 to improve the everyday lives and future life chances of children in care aiming to counter the problems of under-achievement, instability and poverty.
The charity grew out of the magazine Who Cares? (started in 1985) which is still published (see below). As well as helping thousands of children in care directly through publications and projects, they also help bring about change by guiding and influencing those responsible for children in care.
The Who Cares? Trust gives young people in care a voice through their involvement in magazines and publications, and by helping them relay their concerns and views to decision-makers in local and central government.
The Who Cares? Trust publishes two magazines for children in care – Who Cares? and Who Cares? Junior. Between them the magazines reach more than 30,000 young people in care.
‘We treat our readers first and foremost as young people, with many of the same problems, passions, issues and questions as any young person. But we also know that living in care brings its own challenges and complexities, so our magazines acknowledge that with a balance of care-related content and material that’s relevant to all young people. A sign of our success is the enthusiasm of our readers for engaging with the magazines – every day we receive emails responding to content in the magazines, ideas for future articles, poems and letters for our agony aunt.
The magazines inform, support and entertain young people, while helping them to feel part of an extended family of young people in care around the UK. The emphasis is on contributions from the young people themselves – providing a valuable creative outlet and a chance for youngsters to see that they’re not alone when things aren’t going so well, to feel encouraged by stories of people flourishing and being happy in care, and to be inspired by the amazing achievements against the odds of many care leavers.’
Catch22
Catch22 is a national charity that works directly with young people who find themselves in difficult situations – including those who are or have been in care. They work with their families and their communities wherever and whenever young people need them most; in schools, on the streets, in the home, at community centres, shopping centres, in police stations, and in custody.
‘Over the years, we’ve worked with tens of thousands of young people in difficult situations. They may come from tough upbringings or neighbourhoods, where poverty, crime and unemployment are common features. They may be leaving care, truenting, or have been excluded from school. Some of them have started getting into trouble with the police or may have got as far as custody.
We’ve found that most of these young people want the same things as everyone else – to find a job they enjoy, somewhere safe to live and to stand on their own two feet. But these goals can sometimes seem impossible.
For some young people, life is a series of no-win decisions and situations. One thing can lead to another until everything’s all tangled up and there seems to be no way out. We focus on five areas where our work can make a real and lasting difference in young people’s lives, for their families and for the whole community. These five areas rarely stand alone, each one can affect the other. Catch22 deals with them all.’
