Around 40% of foster parents in the UK choose to work alongside fostering. Many of our foster parents across the West Midlands foster while working, receiving a generous fostering allowance from us as thanks for their incredible work in helping to transform children’s lives for the better. Discover our top tips for managing your work and home-life balance as a foster parent.
How to manage at work while fostering
- Lean on your support network.
As a foster parent who also works a traditional job, your community will be a vital source of support in helping you to balance your working life with your responsibilities as a foster parent. If you’re fostering with a partner, they will be your core pillar of support. Many couples choose for one partner to stay at home while fostering, which can help to lighten the load. Sitting down and delegating responsibilities between yourselves, such as who will get the children to school and who will make sure dinner is on the table, is essential, particularly in fostering household where both foster parents choose to continue working while fostering.
Working while fostering as a single person is also achievable, though working and fostering tends to be more of a challenge when you are the only adult in the home. To successfully foster as a working single parent, we encourage you to nominate a trusted family member or friend who can help you with childcare responsibilities, such as picking your foster child up from school or driving them to appointments. This trusted person will go through an approval process with our team.
All foster parents, whether single or in a relationship, receive a huge range of support from our team here at Clifford House. As a small and local team, you’ll get to know each one of our staff members on a personal level, including your own dedicated Supervising Social Worker. We’ll take the time to learn your family’s individual needs and tailor our support to you. We’ll also pair you up with an experienced foster parent through our Buddy Scheme, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to make friends among your local fostering community with our regular support groups and free fun family events.
- Speak with your employer.
In order to work while fostering, you’ll need the support and understanding of a flexible employer. Flexibility will allow you to ensure that all of your foster children’s needs are taken care of and that you’re able to attend all important appointments, including meetings with social workers and visits to see the children’s family.
Speak with your employer about accessing flexi-time, or the potential of working from home. You should also ask your employer if they’re part of the Fostering Friendly scheme, and if not, propose the scheme to HR. The scheme is optional for UK businesses to join, and permits a range of benefits for foster parents including 5 days of paid leave per year to support you in your fostering journey. Having a supportive employer will make all the difference if you want to foster while working.
Choosing self-employment or freelancing is also a fantastic option for those who have the means and are considering fostering while working, as this allows you full flexibility over your working day.
- Make time for yourself.
If you’re a foster parent, then you’re undoubtedly the sort of person who puts others needs above their own; an admirable quality, but it can also be so easy for people with such a generous mind-set to put their own needs on the backburner.
It’s so important to take the time to care for your own needs, and to put time and energy into your mental health. Though we can’t always hit the spa or take a long holiday in the sun to relax and recuperate, there are little things we can do each day to ensure we can still feel our best while balancing work and fostering. These include caring for our most immediate needs, like eating healthy meals, getting some exercise and going to bed at a sensible time. It can also include spending time with loved ones, getting out and enjoying nature, indulging in our hobbies and practicing mindfulness.
We don’t have to strive for perfection; four days at the gym per week and an all-organic diet is impractical for most people, especially when you’re busy with working and raising children. However, making time to fit in these healthy habits where possible will make the world of difference to how you feel, and how you perform both at work and as a foster parent.
- Consider different styles of foster care.
One of the best things you can do to help balance fostering with your work life is to find the types of fostering which best suit you. There are many different types of fostering to suit all different needs, including long-term fostering, where a child stays with you until they reach young adulthood, emergency fostering, where you care for a young person for a couple of days or weeks, and parent and child fostering, where you welcome both a child and one or both of their parents into your home to help the parent to learn key childcare skills.
Another key consideration when fostering while working is taking a careful approach during the matching process. Though it can be tempting to say yes when a referral comes your way, carefully consider if you can meet all of the needs of the child alongside your current work commitments. For example, a working foster parent would have to carefully consider if they could fulfil all of the needs of a foster child who has complex needs, or if it would be within your capabilities to accept a referral for multiple children, such as a sibling group.
Ready to learn more?
Download our guide to fostering for beginners, or learn more about the benefits of fostering while working.
Become a foster parent in the West Midlands today!
Interested in fostering in Birmingham, Worcester or the surrounding area? Enquire with us today to learn more about fostering with Clifford House, or check out our collection of stories from our foster parents to learn what makes Clifford House so special.