Information, understanding & support
From your first questions to welcoming a child and finding ongoing support. Explore fostering with Caritas Care, wherever you are in your journey.
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Search all the guidance, questions and experiences in this hub.
A place for your questions, with information to help you take your next step.
Fostering gives children a caring home when they cannot live with their birth family. Their stay may be brief or last through much of childhood. Explore the role and talk with us about what you could offer.
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Most children needing foster care are of school age. Their backgrounds and circumstances vary, including family illness, breakdown or concerns about safety. Our fostering service introduces the children’s needs and the care you could provide.
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You can contact our team to explore fostering in Lancashire and the North West. Read about the service, request information through our fostering page, or check our event listings for an opportunity to find out more.
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Caritas Care is a charity. Our fostering service combines preparation, a dedicated supervising social worker and ongoing support. Explore our approach as you consider which agency feels right for your family.
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We welcome people from varied backgrounds, including single people and LGBTQ+ couples. Your ability to offer a child stability and care matters. Explore our inclusive approach and discuss your circumstances.
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Our FAQs explain that you need a spare room to foster. Talk with us about your home and how it could provide a child with their own space.
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Renting does not rule out fostering. Our FAQs explain that you need to check your tenancy terms and speak with your landlord.
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You may bring useful experience from work, volunteering or caring for children you know. Our FAQs suggest ways to build childcare experience before applying.
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Health and past convictions are considered individually. Our FAQs also cover mental health and smoking or vaping. Talk openly with our team about how the guidance applies to you.
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Emergency care meets an urgent need for somewhere safe to stay, often for a few days or nights. Discuss the readiness this role requires.
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Short-term care may last weeks or months while decisions are made about a child’s future. The length of a placement can be uncertain.
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When adoption is not the plan, long-term fostering can provide a home through childhood towards adulthood or independence.
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Respite can involve overnight stays or regular weekends. Talk with us about the arrangements and the child’s needs.
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This role involves supporting a parent to build their own parenting skills and understanding, so they can care for their child safely.
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Approved Early Permanence adopters may care for a child as foster carers while the court decides the child’s future. Adoption is not guaranteed: the child may return to birth or extended family.
Our dedicated guidance explains the uncertainty, preparation and support involved.
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Our finance page explains that foster carers receive an allowance when a child is in their care. It describes support for the child’s needs and a reward element for the carer. Speak with us about current arrangements.
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Some carers have another job. You need to put the child’s needs first and allow time for meetings, appointments and training, including during the working day. Discuss how fostering could fit with your work.
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Our finance page is a starting point for considering fostering and your budget. Ask about your circumstances, including retirement or benefits, and the current financial arrangements before deciding what is manageable for you.
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Following an initial discussion, we may arrange a visit. We then consider inviting you to apply and can help with the form.
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Checks include criminal-record information, references and a medical report. The process page explains other enquiries and why early, open discussion is important.
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Regular meetings with your social worker explore your life, current circumstances and expectations of becoming a fostering household.
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Preparation groups offer opportunities to learn alongside prospective and approved carers. Our fostering support page also describes training as your experience develops.
After your report is agreed, panel considers it and meets you before making a recommendation about your suitability. Your social worker supports you.
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Once approved, you can discuss children’s profiles with our team as we work together to identify a suitable placement.
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Our team offers guidance as you start fostering, including practical support to help you build confidence in your new role.
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Short-term care can involve uncertain timescales and little notice. Other children need a lasting home. Our Time to Foster page helps you consider these commitments.
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Fostering affects the people around you as well as the child you welcome. Our family page shares carers’ experiences and a young person’s perspective on growing up with foster siblings.
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In their story, Sobia and Akmal reflect on fostering siblings alongside their own children. They describe shared interests, respecting space and the support that helped their family.
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We offer guidance around birth family contact and relationships. Talk with your supervising social worker about support for the child in your care.
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Our Statement of Purpose includes safeguarding, safer care and recording within foster-carer training. Your social worker can help you understand the guidance and responsibilities relevant to your household.
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Your supervising social worker offers regular guidance. Our service also provides out-of-hours support; ask your team how to access it when you need it.
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Training continues after approval. Our FAQs describe learning opportunities and tailored support from the Therapeutic Intervention Service. Ask our team about current provision.
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Our team can support your work with schools and education settings around the needs of children in your care.
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We help carers understand the impact of early experiences and respond to individual children’s needs. Specialist services may be involved where additional support is needed.
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Our support includes listening, practical guidance and opportunities to connect with other foster carers. You can share experiences and ask for help as challenges arise.
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Our Statement of Purpose describes annual reviews of foster carers and their households. Reviews consider areas including care, training, work with other agencies and changing circumstances. Discuss the process with your supervising social worker.
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If you are considering a move to another fostering agency, we are happy to talk with you and support you through the process. Our transferring agencies page also links to transfer guidance from The Fostering Network.
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Our first consideration is keeping the placement secure. The agencies involved discuss how a transfer can proceed with as little disruption as possible for the child.
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At Caritas Care, support for transferring carers includes:
Talk with our team about your circumstances and the support your family needs.
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Sue and Carolyn describe how regular sleepovers and connections between their households grew into a wider sense of family. Read their personal account of belonging and support.
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Gaynor and Stuart reflect on choosing an agency, adapting to children’s needs and the impact on their own family. Their account includes long-term care for sisters.
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Sobia and Akmal share why they chose a charity, how their family built relationships and the importance of support. Their story offers one family’s perspective on the challenges and rewards.
On the Caritas Care website
Our FAQs give a usual timescale of six to eight months after we receive a completed application. It can be quicker for experienced or existing foster carers. This is a guide, not a guaranteed approval date; talk with us about your circumstances.
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Yes. We welcome single foster carers. Our FAQs describe successful placements where children have benefited from individual attention. Contact our team to explore fostering as a single person.
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Yes. Our focus is finding loving, stable families for children. Caritas Care’s FAQs welcome LGBTQ+ foster carers and describe membership of New Family Social and Proud2beParents.
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There is no single ideal foster carer. Our FAQs highlight empathy, patience, adaptability and perseverance, alongside the diversity of our carers’ backgrounds and family circumstances.
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Yes, some carers also have other jobs. You need flexibility to prioritise a child’s needs and attend appointments, meetings, training and support groups, including during the day. Discuss how your work could fit around fostering.
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All applicants have a medical assessment. Our agency medical adviser considers your health, its impact and your ability to meet a child’s needs. Speak with the team about your circumstances rather than ruling yourself out.
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Our FAQs state that if anyone in your household smokes, you cannot foster a child under five. You can still attend information events. Ask our team for the full smoking and vaping policy and available assistance.
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Your supervising social worker provides regular support in person and by phone. Our small, family-focused team welcomes you to reach out for advice, encouragement or someone to listen.
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Yes, we welcome enquiries from people with visible and non-visible disabilities. As part of the fostering process, you will need to have a medical assessment. We’ll talk you through the process and discuss your individual circumstances with you to help us understand whether fostering could be right for you.
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