Let's talk about our finances.

It's National Conversation Week.

This year’s National Conversation Week is all about talking finances.  Why?

Talking about our money (or lack of it) is almost as taboo as talking about politics.  And it can be even more taboo for different groups in society.  But if you’re considering fostering, finances are an area that we will ask you to talk about.

Why is this important?

When fostering, you will be caring for children that have had huge disruption in their lives, moving from there family home often as a result of abuse or neglect and once coming into care, many children have had multiple placement moves.

At ACS we want to provide children with a stable home life for as long as they need it and finance is as important in providing stability as your ability to care.

Of course we provide our foster parents with a generous allowance to foster, to cover all your fostering expenses and enabling you to save some money for a child in your care as well as an element of reward for all your hard work.

Often people give up an element of employment in order to foster, we need to ensure that the fostering allowance will enable you to keep up to date with all your financial commitments including your bills, rent or mortgage.  We will ask to see bank statements, to ensure you pay your bills on time and ensure you are financially stable.  We don’t care how much money you have in the bank, it’s simply not true that you need to be rich to foster, but we do need to ensure you can provide a stable home to a young person and are not at risk of losing your home.

What else?

As a foster carer, you receive an allowance when you foster a child.  At times you may have breaks in placement, which can be longer if you are limited on the types of children you can care for.  As such you may have breaks when you are not receiving a fostering allowance.  We will talk to you about work you could do, to ensure your financial stability, should you have any breaks in placements.