Fostering in the East of England
Supporting foster families across Northamptonshire, Milton Keynes and Leicestershire.
Becoming a foster parent in the East of England.
We are delighted you would like to find out more about becoming a foster parent, right here in the East of England. Our team live and work in the communities they serve, from Leicestershire to Milton Keynes.
Fostering People are rated as Outstanding by Ofsted, across all areas of our service and have been since 2013, making us one of the very best independent agencies that you can trust to provide you with the very best support around alongside our therapeutic approach.
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 East of England?
Right now, we need more foster families across the region. More than 6,800 children live in care across the region, and sadly that number keeps growing. That’s why we’re always looking for amazing people, just like you, who want to make a real difference in children’s lives.
We work closely with every Local Authority in the East of England. Because of this, our foster families stay in high demand. We carefully match each child with the foster family who can best meet their needs. As a result, foster parents rarely wait long for a placement.
As an ‘Outstanding’ agency, we give every foster parent a dedicated, experienced social worker. On top of that, you’ll join a close-knit community of foster families who support and encourage each other.
We believe relationships sit at the heart of fostering. That’s why we focus on building strong connections with our families, so you feel confident creating safe and nurturing bonds with the children in your care.
When you foster with us, we’ll give you an excellent package of support — one we keep improving every year. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved, but we never stop looking for ways to make fostering even better.
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 East of England?
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 East team
Our Service Manager, Laura Wicks, leads the team. Team Managers, Glenda, supports Laura and they’ve both worked for Fostering People for over 8 years.
Alongside them, we have a team of Senior Supervising Social Workers, Referrals Officers and Administrators, to provide truly local support to our foster families. Each social worker lives in a different part of the East region, so they know the communities they serve.
Meet the team
Laura Wicks
Service Manager
Coral Richards
Recruitment and Enquiry Officer
Kirsty Woodward
Senior Supervising Social Worker
Glenda Lewis-Gordon
Team Manager
Jenny Knighton
Referrals Officer
Sophie Butler
Referrals Officer
How our local team works
Fostering People in the East of England isn’t restricted by our 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 Eastern 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.
Enquiry
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