At Caring Hearts Fostering we want carers who are:
- Emotionally literate and intelligent
- Resilient, will keep going with placements, emotional strength, and endurance
- Educated, be able to understand concepts and theories and be able to apply them
- Have a good sense of humour
- Empathy, be able to understand children from their point of view and understand behaviour
A good foster carer is someone who will be effective in their role and are able to provide robust, safe, and settled placements for children and young people and can help them make good progress across a range of developmental measures, especially emotional and behavioural.
A carer who can provide warmth, empathy, and encouragement
Looking to see if the carer loves children, would they be able to listen and encourage the children placed in their care as well as be able to actively manage difficult and rejecting behaviour.
A good trait to have been being able to promote positive parenting and can work with the ABC of parenting setting the right tone and rewards and consequences.
As a foster carer, it is good if the carer can provide durability, resilience, And Commitment. “Resilience is a collection of characteristics and strategies to help a child cope with the effects of rejection, trauma, abuse and other diverse circumstances “(Resilience Theory, Gilligan -2009).
To do this, it is good if our carers have emotional strength and endurance as this will allow them to continue to foster a child for as long as he or she needs it. Being able to provide a placement for a length of time and avoid moves carers who will “stick” with children.
The Secure Base Model
At Caring Hearts Fostering we have a secure base model at heart of our recruitment, assessment, approval, and support of all carers.
During our initial visit stage, it is important that prospective carers understand the expectations of fostering in term of this model.
Dimensions of the secure base model include:
- Availability- Helping the child to trust- Carers need to understand fully the depth of responsibilities and tasks such as meetings contact therapy, education etc. they need to be at home at key times and be available for emergencies such as the child being sick or excluded from school.
- Sensitivity- Helping the child to manage feelings- Prospective carers need to be aware that children present with different behaviours, like anger, sadness, aggression, or absconding, whilst others may be quiet or withdrawn.
- Acceptance- Building the child’s self-esteem- Children must be accepted for who they are regardless of religion, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, and gender. Carers must be flexible, non-judgemental, and non-discriminatory. These areas are worth exploring at the beginning of the assessment.
- Co-operation- Helping the child to feel effective- Carers need to work with and cooperate with birth families and others they may not agree with and work towards a goal professionally. Work as part of a “team around the child” and report through logs reliable and consistently.
- Family Membership- Helping the child to belong- promoting a comfortable sense of membership of both the foster family and the birth family.