Every 15 minutes in the UK, a child enters the care system. But that probably doesn’t surprise you. We imagine you’ve seen, in close proximity, the struggle that many children and young people face in the UK today.
You’ll know that there are many children who are not safe in their families and who are in desperate need of a nurturing home that can offer the consistency and care that they have been lacking.
Affinity Fostering cares for children across Essex, Kent, London and Lincolnshire and we are lucky enough to count several current and former police officers amongst our foster carer population. We are now looking for more people like them to care for vulnerable children and young people.
“There are many reasons why police officers want to foster,” says Andy Robins, Director of Affinity Fostering. “As ex-police myself, having served in inner London, I can really see the power fostering has to break cycles of neglect or abuse and even reduce the burden on the justice system. Fostering enables you to make a large difference to a small number of children at a time, as opposed to, in my experience, a small difference to one child through one job or case in the police. You may well be thinking about some examples of children you have dealt with, where you’ve gone home at night thinking “what if” you had the opportunity to influence that young person to a greater and more consistent extent, what a positive impact that you could have on their lives.”
There are aspects of policing and the skills you have developed in the role serving the community, that could make a massive difference to a young person who needs a positive role model in their life. Fostering offers a response to many of the foundational motivations of policing but has other advantages also.
Fostering offers the opportunity to make a real difference from your own home.
Fostering provides an allowance of at least £409 per child per week, tax-free. Generally, you can have up to 3 fostered young people in your household, dependent on your individual circumstances.
Foster carers are part of a supportive, diverse community.
Affinity offers foster carers a high level of professional support and advice, with a small team who you will know by name.
Foster carers have access to a range of services such as counselling, financial advice and training to help you succeed.
Many of the skills and attributes we see in serving police officers, we also look for in our foster carers:
A desire to serve and protect the vulnerable
A motivation to make a difference to the local community
The ability to keep a calm head
Listening skills
A curiosity to know and understand others
The ability to work with a range of professionals
The ability to keep regular and accurate records
Integrity
Resilience
A good sense of humour!
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So, if you think you’ve got what it takes to serve in a whole new way, please do contact us and we’ll send you some more information about fostering.
You can contact us at www.affinityfostering.com, email us at info@affinityfostering.com or call Floria on 01245 237 158. Please do let us know that you’ve come to us through Blue Light Leavers.
Whilst we look after children and foster carers in Essex, London, Kent and Lincolnshire, if you live in other areas in the UK it might be that we can suggest alternative providers for you so do get in touch by emailing floria.theocharis@affinityfostering.com
When you become an Affinity Foster Carer, you will benefit from all the support you need to make your fostering journey a success. We know that confident, skilled, well-supported foster carers make for settled, happier children. Whilst the most important support will be from your Supervising Social Worker, there is a wealth of other support available to you from therapeutic support and fostering mentors to a summer payment for every child in the household and an annual conference with first class training, dinner and an overnight stay.
At Affinity, we pride ourselves on the support we offer our foster carers and work really hard to build on the fantastic service we offer. We seek feedback from our foster carers and our children, and these views shape our service.