Welcoming a child into your home

Welcoming a child or young person into your home is a big life event for them, but also for everyone in your household. Making sure that everyone feels comfortable and welcome is very important as it will help a child to feel valued from the very start.

We offer emergency fostering arrangements, which is where children come to stay in short notice due to an emergency situation back home. These stays are usually short-term, meaning a weekend or one or 2 nights, but in some circumstances, they can end up staying for a while. These types of stays are usually arranged on the day or night of the child or siblings coming to stay so there is little time to prepare for their stay.

Planned fostering arrangements are usually arranged a week before the child joins the household so the child's schedule and any important information can be shared in advance with the foster carer.

How to prepare for a child or young person coming to stay

It is always helpful to get to know about the child coming to stay with you as best as you can before they arrive. This allows you to prepare their bedroom and your home for their stay. However, this is not always possible.

Aside from learning about the basics, like their background and their current situation, you might be able to find out other information which can help you to prepare. Things that might be helpful to know are foods they like, their favourite TV shows, their favourite genre of films, what interests they have and their character.

This can help you to prepare for their stay by perhaps cooking their favourite dinner on their first night with you and downloading some films to watch together if they feel comfortable sitting with you.

We like to create welcome bags for the child or young person coming to stay with our foster carers. This can include information about us and the foster carers, plus useful things like a notebook, colouring books and pens etc.

How to make them feel a part of the family

When the child arrives, they might want to just settle into their new bedroom. The foster carers will show them around the house, where the essential household items are kept, and tell them what everyone's day-to-day schedule is like, when everyone likes to eat their meals and when they will need to get up for school or college.

All our children and young people are different and some of them might feel reluctant to join in with certain activities right away. The amount of time a child or young person might take to adjust to their new surroundings is unique to the child or young person. There are many factors that play a role in this and some might take longer to feel at home with you than others and it's important for them to know that this is okay.

Health and safety advice

When you have children of different ages in and out of your house it is a requirement to have certain safety measures in your home.

This includes, but is not limited to, measures such as:

-A Fire safety plan

-Smoke alarms fitted on all floors and regularly checked

-Seatbelts must be worn in a vehicle at all times

-Toxic or hazardous substances stored away

-Baby safety locks where required

Meet The Family & All About Us

We provide documents before each placement is made. We have a 'Meet The Family' document which has lots of information about the foster carers, and photos of them and their family, pets, home - including the room for the child or young person, along with a section for the carers to say what things they like to do as a family. These are sent to the children so they can get to know what the carers and their home look like before they meet.

We also have an 'All About Us' document which we send to the foster carers to fill out once the child or young person has arrived. This has questions on it we think children and young people are curious to know, such as 'will you buy me clothes?', 'can I have sleepovers with my friends?', 'do I get pocket money?', 'my favourite TV shows', and many other questions, along with blank boxes for the carers to fill out themselves with additional information they think suitable to let the children know.