The rewards of fostering

There’s no getting away from it, fostering is life changing for everyone involved in the process. For the child being looked after by a new family, there is the experience of nurturing and safety, learning that someone can care about you and openly make a stranger feel at home. But for the foster carer, there are also huge rewards, the sense of providing hope and opportunity where there may previously have been none, the experience of watching a child or young person get their sparkle back; the positive benefits are mind boggling. And, while we’d argue that being a foster carer is definitely a vocation, there are also financial rewards for welcoming a child into your home.

How much do you get paid to foster?

Affinity believe in providing our foster carers with a generous financial package to thank them for opening their homes to children and young people in need. Members of the Affinity family receive a typical weekly allowance of between £399 and £714 per child per week. This is because we understand that welcoming someone into your home is an amazing life change and can take up a lot of your time (as we said, we think it’s a vocation).

Foster carers are counted as self-employed, meaning that they qualify for a number of tax breaks including a tax scheme called Qualified Care Relief. This relief allows households who foster to receive at least £20,400 per calendar year before paying tax. This gives foster carers the opportunity to fully focus on the young person in their care, meaning they can give up full time work.

Affinity is a fantastic agency to begin fostering with.

There’s a reason why we have consistently been rated Outstanding by Ofsted, it’s because we care about everyone in the Affinity family. From the people who work in our offices finding the perfect placements, to the families who welcome children into their homes, to the children who have the opportunity to live in an enriching and nurturing atmosphere, everyone is important to us.

The rewards for fostering with us go far beyond the financial ones. At every opportunity we work hard to keep our carers connected, removing potential feelings of isolation with regular social worker catch-ups, a social worker at the end of the phone 24/7, quarterly support groups, 1-1 foster caring keep in touch days, and our annual 2-day conference where everyone can get together, learn and let our hair down.

Thinking about fostering?

If you’re thinking that you’d like to change careers and start fostering, we’d love to hear from you. We welcome foster carers from all walks of life and backgrounds. Get in touch, we’ll have a chat and, if we all feel that fostering is the path for you, we’ll ask you to fill in a Form F (don’t worry, you won’t be doing it alone). So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch to start your journey into fostering.