Time to Care - Considering your availability to foster

More and more we find our days filled with little time remaining - from household tasks and caregiving, to work and hobbies, supporting family members and engaging with our communities. When thinking about fostering it's critical to consider the availability you have, both in terms of time and emotional or mental space, to give to a child in your care.

Children and young people involved in the care system often need more of our time to feel safe and do well - from therapeutic appointments, family visits and time to build relationships of trust, to supporting educational participation and extracurricular activities which might need a more hands on input. Children in care have all experienced some level of trauma, grief or loss, which means they might need a little more of our time, intentional caregiving, and emotional support to adjust to the environments they are in.

We've put together a resource that can help you consider how your current schedule might fit with fostering, and what changes you might need to make to be available for a child or young person. We've also included a run down on how even the busiest people can be involved in fostering through different types of care with different levels of commitment. Take a look and reach out if you have any questions.

Time to Care - Being available for children and young people