Re-write Normal
Change a Life like Leigh’s
Re-write Normal
We believe every young person has the right to a bright future - could you change a life like Leigh’s and re-write normal - a normal consisting of patience, understanding, love and kindness?
Fostering with a small charity offers great rewards:
You’re helping to better the life chances of children and young people
Personal growth through challenge and reflection
Seeing a child develop their potential through the support of all involved with CFC is extremely rewarding
Working within a professional environment with specialist, ongoing training and access to skilled therapists
CFC offers c.£450 per child placed, which is tax free*. These fees can increase for other types of fostering
A named Supervising Social Worker working with you
Supervising Social Worker’s available to support 24/7
Excellent support from family Support Workers, including practical help
High level of support for single Foster Carers plus regular peer support online and in person
Group activities for children and adults including an annual residential trip for children & young people
Fostering Network membership
Perkbox membership
14 days a year planned breaks
You will be part of a community with a family feel and Foster Carer Representatives supporting you to share your voice
At CFC we believe in a Therapeutic Parenting approach and this means we are committed to providing high quality preparation, training and support to assist you in the role.
What are we looking for from you?
An alignment with our values
Evidence of mentally resilient and reflective characteristics
Working arrangements – as a Foster Carer, you must be able to provide 24/7 care and prioritise the needs of any child living with you
Experience of working with or caring for children, young people or adults – you don’t have to be a parent but will have cared for children or young people through family contact, volunteering or employment
In practical reach of a Community Foster Care office
Appropriate home, with suitable environment
Evidence of coping well in shared living environments
Able to use Information Technology or commitment to learn
Commitment to ongoing development and growth
Fostering is a challenging role, you must have resilience and be able to hold space for the possible behaviours traumatised children can come with. But you will never be alone in your fostering journey, we will be with you every step of the way and cultivating communities amongst other foster carers is core to our values.
Our Fostering Information Pack is a good place to start if you have questions and check out our values to see if we would be a good match for one another. Then, if you’re ready, we’d love to have a chat on the phone - simply fill out the form below and we will be in touch!
Leigh’s Story
Unfortunately Leigh’s story is not unique. There are still thousands of children and young people coming into foster care every year in the UK, many of whom have experienced neglect and abuse.
The trauma they have gone through is ‘normal’ in their world, so we’re asking you - could you re-write normal?
Who are we?
Community Foster Care is an independent fostering agency but unlike many fostering agencies, we are a registered charity and work as a not-for-profit. We provide foster families for children and young people whose local authority have not been able to find a suitable family for them. Typically, we are looking for foster families who can take on older children and teenagers, sibling groups and parent and child placements.
We started life as a social enterprise in the late nineties. Our founders recognised that there was a need for foster families in areas with higher levels of socio-economic deprivation. By providing training and fees to foster parents, we were able to provide working opportunities whilst also keeping children in care local to their own communities.
From the very beginning we have sought to do things differently and challenge the status quo. We never profit from placing children in foster families - any surplus we make goes straight back into supporting children and our communities caring for them.
“It was normal to cry every single day, it was normal to scream and shout at each other, it was normal to punch each other in the face, d’you know what I mean?
There’s things that - now I’m like ‘That’s not normal, that’s not okay’ but if I’d been through that throughout my life, I wouldn’t have known no different.”
— Leigh*
*For anonymity, we have changed the name of our storyteller
“Growing up was very difficult for me. I had some very difficult trauma, difficult life experiences… it was normal for my mum’s partner to just walk in the house, start crashing things, start smashing things, getting really abusive towards my mum - that was normal.”
— Leigh
Contact us.
If you believe you have the patience, understanding and resilience needed to foster, submit your details and we will get in touch for a 1-2-1 call to chat it through.