Fostering in the North West
Supporting foster families across Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire, Cheshire and the Wirral.
Becoming a foster parent in the North West
We are delighted you would like to find out more about becoming a foster parent, right here in the North West. Our team live and work in the communities they serve, from the Pennines to the North West coast including Liverpool, the Wirral, Greater Manchester, Blackpool, Lancashire and Cheshire.
We are incredibly proud that we have been rated as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted across all areas of our service since 2013, making us one of the very best independent agencies you can trust to provide you with the very best support around.
We hope you find all the information you need to get a real flavour for our local team and what we can offer you. But we are here to help, if you'd like to ask us any questions, just give us a call.
Why foster with Fostering People in the North West?
There is currently a shortage of foster families across the region, to meet the needs of the 15,160 children currently in care in the North West. That number is unfortunately growing each year, so we are continuously recruiting amazing people, just like you, who want to make a real difference to children's lives.
We work with and have established relations with all the North West Local Authorities, so our foster families are in constant demand, and this makes it possible for expert matching to take place each and every time to ensure children are placed with the very best foster family to meet their individual needs. Our foster parents don't wait long to have children placed with them!
As you'd expect from an Outstanding agency, your dedicated team of experienced supervising social workers, provides a very high level of support to all our foster parents, and our team of foster families are also a close-knit, supportive team who look after one another too.
We believe that relationships are at the heart of a safe and nurturing home and we work hard to build relationships with our families so they can feel confident building relationships with the children in their care.
When you foster with us, you're guaranteed an excellent package of support, one which is consistently improving. We don't rest on our achievements, we know there is always room to make things even better, so that's what we constantly strive to achieve.
Benefits of fostering with Fostering People
We offer one of the best fostering allowances.
Alongside our Outstanding support, we offer one of the highest fostering allowances available. Our allowances range from £454 - £860.88. Our standard rate for a child over the age of 5 years is over £501 per week, per child (£2,177 per month). Additionally, foster parents pay no tax on their fostering allowance.
On-going Training
You don't need to be experienced to foster with us, we offer training right from the start and throughout your assessment and beyond.
Outstanding Support
We have been rated as Outstanding by Ofsted since 2013 across all areas of our organisation. You can be confident that you'll be given excellent support any time of the day or night.
A Friendly Welcome
You'll be a member of a friendly local team, where everyone knows each other and meets up regularly for support and fun activities alongside other great perks.
Could you foster in the North West?
We welcome applications from anyone interested in fostering regardless of your sexuality or gender, whether you’re single, married or living with a partner, as long as you have been living together for a year or more. All that we ask is that you:
- Are over 21 years old
- Have the legal right to live and work in the UK
- Have a spare bedroom that's always available to a child
- Can offer a stable, loving home to a child
Call us on 0800 077 8159
Meet our foster care North West team
Our team is headed up by Service Manager, Lynne Maddocks. She has worked in fostering for over 30 years and been part of the Fostering People team for over 15 years.
Our Team Manager, Jakki has worked with Fostering People for over a decade. They are supported by a team of 4 Senior Supervising Social Workers, who live in different areas of the North West, to provide truly local support to our foster families.
Lynne Maddocks
Service Manager
Julie Sispera
Senior Supervising Social Worker
Ebony Gardner
Senior Supervising Social Worker
Julie Preston
Senior Supervising Social Worker
Lynn Meakin
Referrals Officer
Lydia Kerr
Senior Supervising Social Worker
Jakki Webb
Team Manager
Bernadette Dunn
Referrals Officer
How our local team works
Fostering People in the North West isn't restricted by an office base. Our social workers live and work in the same communities as our fostering families. Having a social worker close at hand means our foster families have easy access to local support, where we are always by your side when needed, and where our social workers have an excellent working knowledge of the area and know where to find additional resources locally to help you support a child in your care if they need it.
We use local community venues for support groups and face-to-face training, and the venues are chosen in consultation with our foster parents to ensure they are easily accessible, which gives us much greater flexibility than having to use an office base.
We have had a home-based model at Fostering People for years, long before the pandemic and we know that it works really well for our foster parents and staff teams too. Our Ofsted Outstanding record since 2013 is a testament to our approach. Our North West region is a really close-knit community, the way we work encourages friendships between our foster parents which provides additional help, support and guidance, especially for new foster families who are always warmly welcomed into our North West fostering family.
Download our free Finance Guide
We offer one of the very best fostering allowances available alongside other great perks.
Our finance guide is designed to provide you with all the information you need to understand what impact fostering will have on your household income.
Take your first step to becoming a foster parent today
If you’re interested in becoming a foster parent and would like to learn more, then we’d love to hear from you.
Simply fill in the form below and one of our friendly team will be in touch.
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