Overview of FOCUS Fostering
Lincolnshire County Council, like all other Local Authorities, is facing increased demand for foster homes for children in care, with the numbers of children entering care rising year on year. In recent years, more children aged between 12 and 15 years have been entering residential care.
This is due to many factors, but includes foster home availability, which means that some children face having to move away from the area they call home, their school, friends and support network.
In response to this, Lincolnshire County Council has launched a 2 year pilot, which has a specific focus on recruiting foster carers who specialise in caring for 12–15-year-olds who are ‘at risk’ of entering residential care.
Our aim is ensuring that Lincolnshire children remain close and connected to their community, network, places and people that are important to them, and can be supported within a family environment rather than a residential setting.
Types of fostering
There are 3 types of FOCUS care arrangements, and we are looking for new carers from all backgrounds and experience levels, for each type of care:
- Full-time FOCUS carers are the primary caregivers and main foster carer for children who are assessed as being more likely to live in residential care.
- Emergency carers are there to enhance the offer of support to both our existing foster carers and eligible teenagers for a period of up to 4 weeks. This will enable us to work closely with the children’s teams and the child’s family network to explore whether the child can return home, to family, or needs to be supported into a longer-term fostering arrangement. Emergency carers play a vital role in supporting teenagers and helping assess their ongoing needs, and can be either full-time or part-time.
- Support FOCUS carers will provide regular short stays to children in FOCUS fostering homes. They will play a vital part in building and strengthening the support networks of both the children and FOCUS foster carers and will provide children with consistent short stay opportunities. Support FOCUS carers can be full-time or part-time to work around your commitments.
You can do a combination of FOCUS care within the scheme, and this can be explored within your initial home visit.
To find out more about what becoming a FOCUS foster carer might look like for you and your family, join us at one of our free online FOCUS fostering information events.