Who can foster

The assessment and training process to becoming a foster carer is designed to help inform and confirm whether foster caring is right for you and your family. The process looks at both your practical capacity to meet children's needs and your personal strengths and qualities to determine how you will relate to children and young people, specifically children and young people from a trauma background.

Some of the key characteristics and qualities held by successful foster carers are outlined below.

Flexibility

Successful foster carers have time availability to offer children and young people, and flexible expectations of themselves, children and young people, and the future. There are often unknown variables throughout the caring journey and carers may need to adapt their homes and lives to meet the child's growing and changing needs. Successful foster carers are flexible enough to simultaneously be okay with what's unknown and strive for success in helping children and young people take small steps toward meeting goals in all their life domains.

Teamwork

Foster carers are never alone in their caring role for children and young people. As a foster carer, you are a key member of the 'Care Team' that is working together to meet the best interests of the child. The Care Team includes foster carers, your LCC support worker, the child's DCP social worker and other professionals in the child's life e.g school teachers, physiologists, medical professionals, therapists or counsellors. Every LCC foster family is allocated an LCC support worker who journeys alongside you to support your family, help you navigate the child protection system and where required, advocate for you and the children and young people in your care. All members of the Care Team have an essential role to play and the voice of foster carers at the table is integral in meeting the best interests of the child.

Communication

As briefly explored above, foster carers regularly communicate with a wide range of people and professionals in the Care Team to assist with the care of a child or young person. If the child or young person is able to verbalize, it is vitally important that the Care Team hear and give weight to their voice in their decision making. In providing for and meeting children's day to day physical, emotional, physiological, educational and cultural needs, foster carers are well positioned to identify, communicate and advocate for the child's needs, wishes and for what's ultimately in their best interest.

Lifelong Learning

The mandatory training required as part of your application to foster is just the beginning! We acknowledge in caring for children and young people, it's vitally important that we are always learning, equipping ourselves and refining our skills. Lutheran Community Care's foster carers are supported to maintain a current Personal Learning & Development Plan. The learning reflections and goals outlined in your personalized plan will help your support worker guide you in seeking relevant and meaningful training and learning opportunities in the areas that will be most helpful and practical for you in your caring role, and those in which you'd like to grow.

Acceptance

Children in care have journeyed through adverse childhood experiences causing them harm. They have often learned to survive in their environments rather than knowing and feeling safe to explore, play, learn, grow and thrive. The weight of their experiences is often a very heavy load for them to carry. Children and young people in care need foster carers who are full of unconditional acceptance so that they can experience and feel a vital sense of safety and belonging. Our trauma-informed approach to caring for children and young people in care helps us understand that a child's behaviour is not their identity and that their behaviour is communication. It's our role as positive and supportive adults to take the time necessary to listen to them and hear what they are saying so that we (the Care Team) can best help and support them to grow, learn and thrive.

Playfulness

A sense of humour is an asset in the caring role - it can help diffuse a situation or break tension, but it's also a practical tool in bonding with children and young people. Playfulness in the context of foster care is about creating a light atmosphere of intrigue and fun to connect with children and young people on an emotional level. Playfulness can encompass our tone of voice when storytelling, shared experiences of having fun, expressing joy or promoting curiosity. In moments of playfulness adults and children can build a connection from a place of safety and relaxation. Playfulness adds elements of fun and enjoyment in day-to-day life and can help keep everything in perspective.