About Us

For us one of the most rewarding experiences in addition to the progress our valued foster carers make alongside the children and young people, who share their home, is supporting their own learning and development.  It is always a pleasure to see the confidence, knowledge and skills of our foster carers grow alongside the compassion, understanding and sensitivity that underpin the relationships they build.

For over 25 years here at Clifford House Fostering, we have been providing training rooted in our direct experience of helping children and young people begin to make sense of difficult past histories, cope with separation from their birth families and find a sense of security and normality.  Right from the start we want to be with you every step of the way and offer our valued foster carers both initial and ongoing training.

Your initial foster care training occurs at the beginning of your fostering journey with our Prepare to Foster course. This programme offers an opportunity to explore the actuality of fostering and equips you with the skills to confidently support your first child.

Once approved, we offer a wide range of topics, workshops and development opportunities in developing your skills, knowledge and professional role. We believe any learning opportunity should be inspiring, informing and up to date with current best foster care practice. Our approach to learning together is to be engaging, welcoming, and interactive and to make it fun and enjoyable.

Often it is the children and young people who live within our carers that can provide a unique insight into their own experiences.  In addition, our experienced foster carers have so much to contribute through their fostering journey. This is exactly why they are both at the centre of the development and delivery of our training.

Our dedicated training team are passionate about the provision of high quality training, innovative approaches to making it accessible to all members of the fostering family (including birth children) and keeping up to date with the latest research and developments.

The experience and often continued anxiety of children and young people in having moved and facing the uncertainty of this occurring again is unbearable. What we have learned from children and young people is the importance of the continuity, sense of belonging and stability a foster home provides.  In not being able to live within your birth family can create feelings of loss, anger and sadness in addition to confusion of loyalties.  Foster carers are often working sensitively alongside the child in resolving what can be significant barriers to forming and trusting new connections.

We recognise this can be a challenging and complex process for all those involved and identify the availability of wrap around support to the child and the fostering family is of central importance.  At Clifford House Fostering we have thought carefully about and developed the support we want our valued foster carers to be able to access at every step.

Organisational leadership with in-depth skills, knowledge and proven record of achieving outstanding outcomes in the fostering sector. Highly competent and skilled team of Supervising Social Workers with extensive experience in the fields of fostering, safeguarding, child protection and direct work with children.  Specialised support staff in education, health and emotional and behavioural difficulties.

By directly supporting, assisting and guiding our foster carers in offering children and young people a consistent, stable and happy place to live. In achieving a sense of belonging and the opportunity to experience positive parental role models.  The foster carers and supporting team at Clifford House Fostering have earned an exceptional reputation with many placing Local Authorities for minimising placement instability

From the moment a child is placed, our carers have 24 hour a day access to a senior member of our foster team. You’ll also receive regular visits and calls from support workers and social workers, as well as supervision visits to ensure that everything is running smoothly and to help you to iron out any problems.

In addition to this, we also hold regular Carer Forums, where people can meet other foster carers, share experiences and swap advice. What’s more, we also pay for one carer per family to have access to the Foster Talk, which offers a host of information and advice.

Taking a holistic view of the needs of children and young people in foster care involves promoting choice and supporting access, inclusion and positive outcomes across the universal services that shape their lives.  Our exceptional foster carers are at the forefront of these areas and do some outstanding work alongside health and educational professionals.

Our dedicated support services can help to understand the significance of a child’s education and the positive impact a stable and supportive educational environment can have on a child’s overall happiness, development and well-being.  We support our foster carers with:-

• Research into appropriate school placements and assistance in securing a place sensitive and responsive to the needs of the child.
• Accessing additional in class support.
• Support within the home in partnership with the carer/s and child in relation to educational issues.
• The promotion of effective communication between school and placement in evaluating progress.
• Supporting Personal Education Plans.
• Supporting children and carers in relation to educational exclusions.
• Monitoring educational outcomes and targets.

Supporting young people in educational transition (school to further education and employment).

Healthy development and well-being are a child’s resource for living, enjoying, learning and succeeding.  Often children and young people have had limited access to health promotion, services and necessary treatment.  Again our dedicated support services are on hand to:-

• Identify health advice and guidance
• Improve access to services
• Support health plans
• Signpost to specialist provision and expertise
• Support foster carers in health promotion within the home

Discuss strategies for assisting children with their health

We have excellent relationships with the local authorities we work with because of the high standards we achieve with our children. This means we’ll always offer you placements that match your skills, knowledge and experience, as and when you want them.

Our dedicated team, expertly match young people with the family who will best meet their needs, resulting in a much higher incidence of successful placements and happy families.