Fostering in Fife: Local charity is looking for foster carers - full training, support and payment offered

Dean & Cauvin, an Edinburgh charity, which has been helping young people in need since 1733, is looking to recruit more foster carers from across Fife, Edinburgh, West and East Lothian and Falkirk.

All you need to do is call for an informal chat with one of the friendly support workers, to find out more, and it could be the first step on the road to a life-changing experience for you and a young person.

Fostering with Dean & Cauvin Young People’s Trust

The charity currently works with eight foster families. As a smaller organisation, Dean & Cauvin prides itself on developing a close and trusted connection with the foster carers they support.

“If you have an inkling to foster, and a willingness to learn, a compassion for young people then you should pick up the phone,” said one foster carer, who recently began to look after young people offering short breaks foster care with Dean & Cauvin. He is a 65-year-old single man, but foster carers with Dean & Cauvin could be any age, everyone’s age, experiences and circumstances will be different.

The organisation is looking for more carers for short and long-term fostering placements for young people aged 11 and over, as demand here in Scotland, and across the UK, is growing. It is also looking for those who could be mum and baby foster carers to a teenager.

Training and support

After an initial chat, one of the two supervising social workers will meet you for an assessment. It’s their chance to find out more about you and your chance to ask lots of questions about the process.

Training is through a state-of-the-art programme, called Skills to Foster but there is also ongoing support – including a 24-hour on-call service. Iain (a supervising social worker) says the recently improved training makes it an ideal time to be starting on the fostering journey.

Fostering with Dean & Cauvin offers the opportunity to build up a close working relationship with support staff, but also with other foster carers, through training, meetings, family days and events – you’ll find it’s one big family.

Another carer, who has fostered for eight years – four of those through Dean & Cauvin, says this close-knit network is invaluable.

“It’s what makes it feel special,” she said. “It’s about quality over quantity and the proof is in the pudding. They have been around for hundreds of years but have chosen to remain smaller and just be really good at what they do.”

There is an in-house counsellor for any young person using a Dean & Cauvin service, and they also work with other third sector organisations to offer support. As a small charity, Dean & Cauvin can provide a high level of support to their foster families, providing more opportunity for ongoing, practical and meaningful support for families and carers. They will gather as much information as possible to ensure a good match and ensure that all of those involved in the young person’s care are prepared to meet their needs of the young person before anyone is placed with you, to make the best match possible between teenager and carer.

“We don't place any one on an emergency basis,” Iain said. “We do this at the speed the young person needs and only place when we feel we have ample information and suitable introductions have been done.”

Carers’ experiences

One carer worked for the NHS and, although he wanted children it had never happened. Now in his 60s he thought perhaps he was too old to foster but then he discovered Dean & Cauvin. Providing short breaks care means he gets to spend short periods of time with the youngsters, giving other foster carers a break and the youngsters a change of scene. Whilst the training and the experience has been intense and challenging at times, and is a very reflective process, he says the support has been amazing and he has felt a real sense of achievement.

“It’s about giving a home from home to someone, a safe place, and so far, so good for me. I’ve done some fun things in and around Edinburgh.

“This has been a really positive experience.”

A single mum of two boys, who began fostering eight years ago, knew from the age of nine that she wanted to foster. It was on a family holiday in Scotland where she met a young girl, staying on the same caravan, who was fostered and she learned what that meant to be fostered.

Having had her own family and finding herself in her fifties, single and with now grown-up boys, she decided the time was right to fulfil her ambition.

“The time has to be right for you, and your family,” she said. The fact she could still work meant she was not giving up her career, and the income she needed as a single parent.

Her first four years of fostering with a local authority left her disillusioned though. She said she felt like a number, and felt pushed to accept very young children which didn’t fit in with her home situation.

“I almost gave up,” she said. Finding out about Dean & Cauvin and its focus on providing foster care for teenagers was ideal. “They have turned it around for me. They are solution-focussed, not problem-focussed.”

One of the key differences is the closeness of the ‘family’ of foster carers and the young people. This network means being part of a big extended family, with support and other people’s experiences to lean on. As for the kids themselves, she says, it’s been a joy.

“You have to like kids!” she laughs. “But you do not necessarily have to be an experienced parent, just be non-judgemental, open-minded, you have to have an understanding that these people will come with various emotions and experiences that you need to be aware of.”

She says it’s sometimes the little things – having clean sheets on the bed, clean clothes to wear and food in the cupboard – that a young person may be experiencing for the first time.

Am I suitable to foster?

“There is not a typical person,” says Iain. You could be single, a family or a couple, you may work or be at home, be younger or retired. You don’t have to have had a family, but some tangible experience of living with, working with or caring for younger people is ideal, as is a desire to learn.

“You need patience and a good sense of humour,” says Iain. “You also need to be adaptable and to be available both emotionally and physically for the person you foster.”

From initial enquiry to fostering can take up to a year, during which time you would need some flexibility at work or home to have time to take part in the training.

Foster carers with Dean & Cauvin are paid a £474 per week fee plus a £191 allowance and extra allowances are given at Christmas, birthdays and for summer holidays, plus there are organised family days and residential stays for those being fostered.

You do need to have a suitable spare room to offer a young person their own space. Foster carers may choose to only foster a single child at a time, but if foster carers are willing and able to do so, they could foster siblings. Some foster carers may only offer short-term fostering, and for others it might be longer term, or a mixture.

Foster carers can also take a break – sometimes there are circumstances when you may need a short break, and that can be arranged and supported through Dean & Cauvin.

“Some foster carers can’t foster full time, but we have a small team of incredible short breaks carers who offer support at weekends,” Iain said.

Carolyn Thomson, part of the senior management team and a familiar face to foster carers at Dean & Cauvin, said they wanted to encourage long-term relationships with foster carers and the teenagers. Some carers form lifelong links with their foster teen and may have them in their lives in some way throughout their teens into adulthood.

To find out more visit the website here.