Have you seen our Foster Carer Job Description!

Affinity Fostering is an Ofsted Rated Outstanding, family-owned Fostering Agency. We like to call our team the Affinity Family because the family feel resonates throughout our entire agency, from our Directors all the way to the children and young people we look after. We do all we can to support our foster carers to do what they love and are passionate about – enhancing and empowering young lives.

The good news is that we are actively recruiting foster carers from all walks of life.

You don't need to own your home, be in a relationship or have your own children to be able to foster. All you need is plenty of patience, love, understanding, and resilience and to be prepared for some potentially challenging behaviour.

- Is your dining table the place where games are played, chats are had, and the best dinners are eaten?

- Can you keep calm and resilient when young people shout and try to push you away?

- Do you know and can recite the names of your children’s (or the children around your life) favourite toys?

- Can you sit and listen to problems, give sage advice, and wipe away tears?

- Can you persevere whilst a young person slowly opens up to you, making all the hard work and patience needed to get to that point feel incredibly rewarding?

- Do you have an excellent sense of humour (we should all be nodding at that question)?

- Are you aware that TikTok isn’t just something that clocks do?

- Do you have a spare room that’s sitting empty and needs a little life in it?

- Could you be prepared to feel loved, special, and important to many children and young people?

- Can you survive a teenage first love drama that can rival Romeo and Juliet?

If this sounds like it could be you, we’d love to hear from you.

Why chose Affinity Fostering for your Fostering Journey?

Affinity is recognised as providing outstanding support to our foster carers, and could be to you too as your agency. As a foster carer with Affinity, you will always have a friendly person

to talk to. We believe that we’re all in it together, and provide consistent and available support 24/7, training, support groups, therapy sessions if needed, and lots of other benefits.

Benefits include (but aren’t limited to)-

• A dedicated Supervising Social Worker who will be your support and guide through your fostering career.
• Round the clock support and advice from our on-call service, constantly manned by trained social workers
• Support groups with other foster carers
• Bespoke training specifically for you
• Membership of FosterTalk who provide a range of additional resources
• A weekly allowance for fostering which is between £399 to £714 per placement mostly tax-free and dependent upon the type of fostering you provide (more on our website here under “Types of Fostering”)
• Annual (Covid allowing!) foster carer conferences at Christmas time which provide a great sharing arena, learning environment and festivities.
• Specific Support Workers who are employed to support Affinity’s Foster Carers and their young people
• Matching is paramount – the right child for your family
• Dedicated staff from the family owners and through the agency who love their jobs, go out of their way to support you, and who have a good sense of humour.

Please find below some of the initial criteria in order to apply as a foster carer with Affinity:

Essential:

• Be over the age of 21
• Have a spare bedroom within your home

If you have the space within your home and your heart to care for a child or young person, please send us an email and we’ll contact you for a chat.