The Fostering Network Step up Step Down - Family Focused Fostering in Partnership With

The Fostering Network Step up Step Down - Family Focused Fostering in Partnership With

Family Support Foster Carers, Step Up Step Down

Are you interested in becoming involved in a new Family Focused Fostering Scheme?

The Fostering Network, in partnership with The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, is currently seeking to recruit for and record interest in their newest Big Lottery funded project – ‘Step Up, Step Down’.

The five year ‘Step Up, Step Down’ project aims to prevent children, who are on the periphery of the care system, from being taken into care and instead support them to stay within their own homes. The project will operate in partnership with the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust area and is aimed at families with children aged 8-12 years old who are at risk of going into care.

The project has been designed to reduce the number of children in Northern Ireland who do not live with their birth families, by embedding childcare knowledge within families at risk of their child / children going into the care system. This innovative approach will enable the support foster carer involved with the family to “step up” at times of crisis and “step down “ when families are better able to cope.

This is a pilot project that could dramatically change the approach to caring for children who are at risk, including reducing the number of children who are taken into care. We hope to see vulnerable families build their capacity, confidence, skills and knowledge to parent their children safely and within their communities.

Family Support Foster Carers will work intensively with families to help build their skills, knowledge and capacity. If the family experiences an emergency situation, the child will be able to stay with the family support foster carer for a short period of respite.

Activities with the family may include:

  • Home based activities focused on key family times e.g. getting to school, healthy meals, budgeting and establishing routines
  • Programme of activities focused on play activities, learning and achieving as a family
  • Intensive support at times of family crisis; Short breaks from caring at times of crisis
  • Sign-posting and support to access additional services, e.g. addictions, benefits and training
  • Regular programme of home visits to plan and review support
  • Peer support activities for foster carers delivering the service

We are looking for specialist Foster Carers who meet the following criteria:

Essential:

  • Personal / professional experience of supporting families and children aged 8+ years
  • A spare room that can be offered to a child in times of need
  • Flexible and available to the families you work with, including evenings and weekends
  • Willing to attend necessary training and identify own training needs
  • An ability to work with empathy, patience and understanding with children and their birth families, without prejudice or judgement
  • Good communication skills and an ability to record work undertaken
  • Able to deal with stressful situations and support problem solving
  • Have access to a car with business insurance in order to undertake the mentoring role and attend meetings
  • Current Foster Carers need to be without a current placement

Desirable:

  • Experience of fostering
  • Effective literacy and ICT skills
  • Training courses undertaken in parenting support or similar
  • Experience planning and implementing positive activities for children or young people

Useful Information:

  • Foster Carers will be paid a salaried fee to cover the costs and demands of working on Step Up, Step Down and will be supported by a Social Worker from the Trust and a Project Worker from The Fostering Network
  • Advice and information relating to fees and how this affects your taxes, benefits etc is available from a dedicated person within The Fostering Network.
  • All new Family Support Foster Carers will be able to sign up for membership of The Fostering Network, offering a range of membership benefits including advice and support; connections to the wider fostering community; discounts on various activities, training and events; and expert legal advice in the event of an allegation.