Welcome to the Gateshead Foster Carers Handbook

We hope that you find being a foster carer fulfilling and rewarding, knowing you are making such a positive difference to a child's life. We look forward to working in partnership with you in support of those children and young people in Gateshead who deserve the best care.

By working together, we will be able to keep children and young people safe, provide them with a warm and caring home and improve their life chances for a brighter future. Your supervising social worker will be available for help advice and support and will see you personally to undertake supervision visits.

Foster carers play an important role in the lives of cared for children and their families so it is important that you have the necessary tools to support you with this task. The handbook is one of these tools alongside the many professionals you will work with including your Supervising Social Worker and other foster carers.

The handbook reflects policies, procedure and guidance for the fostering service which cover many common situations faced by foster carers on a day to day basis. It has been written in an accessible way to help you understand the sort of things that your fostering service requires of you. It has been designed for new and existing foster carers and deals with the day to day practicalities you may face.

It has links to the Minimum Standards for Fostering Services and references to the relevant Training, Support and Development Standards.

The content is accessible via the subsection links or to view the full contents list, please click here.

Click here for how to view on your mobile.

The handbook can never be all encompassing but having had feedback and having consulted with foster carers, it is hoped that any important issues have been covered. Any information not in this handbook can be sought from the fostering team.

To access the full version of fostering service's policies, procedure and guidance, click here.

Gateshead Fostering Team wish you an enjoyable and rewarding experience in fostering and remember, if in doubt, pick up the telephone or send us an email, we are here to support you.

 

Andrea Houlahan
Deputy Strategic Director
Children's Social Care and Early Help