Fostering Pay Medway Kent

Many of our children have come from backgrounds of poverty, where money has been sparse and things that most of us take for granted, like a fridge well stocked with food, or shoes that fit, aren’t things that they are used to or expect. We want our foster children to know that they are valued and deserving of nice things and we want to ensure that our foster families can afford to provide them.

Foster children need foster parents who are really there for them, not just physically present but emotionally present too. While most children who have enjoyed a safe, stable and nurturing childhood adjust well to going to breakfast, after school or holiday clubs, our children, particularly in the first few months of being with you, will need the stability of knowing they can enjoy their new safe space called home and deserve your full commitment to building a relationship with them so that they can begin to develop their trust in you. Get all of the boring jobs; washing, cleaning and shopping done in the daytime while they are at school or nursery so that you have the time to build a blanket fort with them when they get home, or help them with their reading or jump on the Xbox and play a game of Fortnite.

We need at least one foster parent to be available to the child/ren at all times. Most of our children will have had a disrupted education and, coupled with being exposed to trauma, this often means that they struggle in school, either with their emotions or their behaviour. Even the most understanding of employers may become frustrated when you are called out of the office to pick a child up from school for the 10th time that month or if you are late for the third time that week as you have spent the last hour coaxing a child out of the door and into school! The subsequent stress of feeling guilty and torn between placating your boss but also being there for your struggling foster child can really take a toll. By earning a good wage from fostering, this stress is relieved and you can focus on helping foster children to thrive.

Fostering means caring for other people’s children, children who may not respond in ways that you would expect and who will need a patient and creative approach.

Each of our children deserves to be encouraged to reach their full potential and this takes great skill and dedication.

When fostering, there are daily reports to write and lots of meetings to attend; with schools, with local authorities and with health professionals. You will be the main cog in the fostering wheel and your foster children need you to be confident in speaking up and advocating for them in professional meetings. We need people with a unique set of skills and we need to pay them well, or they will potentially be lost to other professions.

Others working in vocational professions such as nurses, carers, social workers, teachers and nursery workers are never accused of doing their jobs for the money and the majority of the public think they deserve to be paid far more – and, unlike foster parents, they get to go home and switch off after a hard shift.