Becoming a foster carer is a job like no other.

Becoming a foster carer with Foster with CANW is truly life changing, for the foster carer and for the child or young person they look after.

Financial support

It’s important that a foster carer has enough money to look after a foster child and when you become a Foster with CANW foster carer, and based on the needs of the child, you receive a generous weekly allowance for each child, made up of three amounts of money, a weekly allowance, a professional fee and a Delegated Authority allowance. You can find out more about these on our fostering page’s FAQs https://canw.org.uk/what-we-do/fostering/become-a-foster-carer/

In addition, there are enhancements such as the payment of summer holiday monies, monies towards Christmas and additional monies to help with supporting a child’s birthday.

Not forgetting, existing CANW foster carers who refer a friend, receive a large generous bonus once they have been assessed and presented at our fostering panel.

Training for foster carers

When you embark upon a career as a foster carer, no one expects you to know everything already! There is a huge amount of training available to you, both online and face to face. Training provides you with the competence and the confidence you need to be a foster carer. We will identify specific training with CANW to assist you in expanding your skills as a foster carer. There are around 180 online courses available, on a wide range of topics, as well as the training sessions we deliver face to face throughout the year.

Support for fostering when you need it, 24/7

The Foster with CANW team provides a stable, constant presence in the lives of our foster children and their carers. Our foster families are all members of the wider Foster with CANW family and we take our caring responsibilities towards them all very seriously. We offer 24/7 support to our foster families. Outside normal office hours, our qualified supervising social workers, along with a senior manager, are on call during evenings, overnight and at weekends. So, support is always only a phone call away.

Peer support

As well as our team of qualified social workers, our foster carers also support each other. We hold a host of social activities and days out where our foster families can get together and get to know each other. We also have peer support group meetings, online, every month. The two hour long sessions are themed and our foster carers find these group discussions, where they can share experiences and learn from each other, very useful. We have also recently launched a Men Who Foster peer group, which is another excellent source of support, aimed at our male foster carers.

The wider CANW family

When our foster children need some additional support, we are fortunate to be able to call on CANW’s own dedicated Emotional Health and Wellbeing team, which specialises in providing targeted help for children and young people, specifically focused on improving their emotional health and wellbeing. We also benefit from a new therapist, who operates across our residential home and the Foster with CANW service. This is especially helpful when a young person is not able easily to access mainstream services.

Interested in becoming a foster carer with Foster with CANW? Fill in our enquiry form to find out more https://canw.org.uk/what-we-do/fostering/about-fostering/