Fostering support

We provide you with your own social worker, who will answer any questions you have or provide advice. Your social worker will support you through each fostering placement and will visit you regularly to offer support and advice.

Every child you foster also has their own social worker who can offer advice and support. 

We're here at 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help support and advise you, and our emergency duty team is always on hand if a difficult situation does arise. 

We also offer:

• specific identified work to support the stability of foster placements  
• support workers available for looked after children in foster placements when there are crises
• access to the services of One Point hubs

Your social worker can help you find the right support for your family.

• Is there training - Niki video transcript (PDF, 98.8kb)

Before you are approved as a carer you will complete our 'Prepare to Foster' course, to help develop your understanding of fostering and what's involved in caring for a child.

Once you begin caring for children you will be expected to attend further training to help you develop your skills. Our Foster Carer Training Programme (PDF, 2.6mb)  offers a wide selection of training which is regularly refreshed and developed to meet identified needs.

We'll help you with the Training, Support and Development Standards (TSD) portfolio for foster carers which you will need to complete within your first 12 months of fostering.

We pay our foster carers a competitive rate, made up of a fostering fee and allowances, which vary depending on your experience and the age of the children you foster. We also offer boosts at expensive times of the year such as Christmas and the school summer holidays. See Financial support for foster carers for further information.

The Full Circle is our specialist therapeutic team that provides a post-trauma service for children, young people, their families and carers. The team includes a consultant clinical psychologist as well as specialist therapeutic workers who can support you and the children you foster up to the age of 18. 

You will be able to use the services of our nurses who all have specialist knowledge of the health needs of foster children.

Our Virtual School is a service that supports looked after children as they go through education settings, helping them to attend the right school and attend regularly and to get the support they need to reach their full potential.

We offer all our foster carers the opportunity to attend activities as a whole family, including local support groups and our annual awards ceremony, where we celebrate long-service, achievements and the role foster carers' own children play in the fostering journey. 

Support for your children

We offer support for your own children if you have them. They will have access to our M8s group where they can meet other children of foster carers and have fun while sharing their experiences. M8s group sessions include things like trips to activity centres, bowling and craft sessions.

Discounts on family activities

As one of our foster carers you can get our specially selected Freedom Card. This entitles you to discounts on a range of family activities at venues including our leisure centres, Adventure Valley, the Durham Climbing Centre, Tweddle Children's Farm, Planet Leisure, the Centre for Life.