Recognising the Birth Children of our Foster Carers

Posted on 23rd October 2014 by Zoe

When people make the transition to become Foster Carers it doesn’t just impact on them, it impacts on the entire family including birth children. As a foster carer you are allocated a Supervising Social Worker to support you, as a looked after foster child you are allocated a Social Worker to support you too but for a birth child they can often feel invisible to social work agencies if the right support is not there for them!

Birth children play a pivotal role

At Lorimer we recognise that birth children play a pivotal role within the foster family; Our Registered Manager at Lorimer, highlights this:

“I believe that birth children play a very significant role in any fostering family. They can provide a positive role model to fostered children, and can offer an equally supportive relationship to a child placed with a family in an entirely different way to the foster parents themselves. Of course this can also put a lot of pressure on birth children at times, whether this is having to share their living space, time and attention of their parents or things like toys & games. I believe it is therefore very important that anyone thinking of becoming a foster carer discusses this openly and honestly with their own children (depending on their age and understanding of course), and that Lorimer offers support and guidance to them wherever possible.”

It is important that birth children feel their involvement and contribution to fostering does not go unnoticed and unrecognised. So this year, as part of the Fostering Network’s Sons and Daughters Recognition Campaign Lorimer have sent out little goodie parcels to each birth child, living within the foster family home. This is our way of saying a massive THANK YOU for the positive contribution they make to the life of the foster children and for everything they do to make fostering better!

Providing extra support

It does not stop there, we are also working hard behind the scenes to ensure that more support is provided to listen to their views and get them involved in decisions which may affect their lives by providing them with the right services to help them deal with the challenges they may face.

Once again THANK YOU to all the wonderful sons and daughters of our Foster Carers!