Support and training

"I have been a foster carer for over a year now and find it the most rewarding job I have ever done. Children deserve someone to love and appreciate them. I have felt very honoured to be that person to a few young people already."

Alex, Foster Carer

To help you feel confident about your ability to provide the best care to Southwark children, we offer the following support:

• an excellent training programme to increase your skills to undertake the fostering role, including a four-day ‘skills to foster’ course 
• your own dedicated Supervising Social Worker, who will visit you regularly to provide practical and emotional support; we offer round-the-clock support
• access to specialist health, educational and therapeutic support for the child(ren) you foster 
• regular newsletters
• membership of Fostering Network for additional advice, information and support 
• a ticket to the annual foster carers’ award ceremony, dinner and dance
• you can also join one of the foster care support groups once you become a foster carer

Financial support

We provide a competitive allowance and a generous ‘setting up’ grant to help prepare the foster child’s bedroom.

Our allowance is linked to training and experience, therefore the more training you do to increase your skills and ability to care for the different needs of children, the higher the allowance you will receive.

You get an allowance for each child that you care for.

These fee elements will increase the more training you do and the more experience you gain. If you're transferring from another agency and have done your TSDS, you will start as a LEVEL 2 Carer.

We also offer setting up costs, birthday, holiday, and festivities payments plus contributions to school uniforms and have a technology/equipment allowance.

Page last updated: 27 September 2023