INTENSIVE fostering could provide some Islanders with a rewarding career, according to the government’s team lead for fostering, Sarah Wakeham.
Earlier this week, a new campaign to bolster the number of intensive foster carers available to support children with the highest levels of need was launched. It follows efforts to recruit additional general foster carers in response to what Education Minister Inna Gardiner last year described as a ‘crisis’ in fostering and adoption.
Ms Wakeham acknowledged the wider challenge of securing foster carers in Jersey, where the high cost of living and accommodation meant many Islanders were already juggling employment commitments to meet household expenses.
But she said that the opportunity to help children with additional needs might offer an alternative employment opportunity for some.
‘We have really brilliant successes in our general fostering service with carers that work and do fostering,’ she said. ‘It’s just that for our children with the highest-level needs, it’s much more difficult to balance that with work because of how frequently you are needed for that child.’
Now the government hopes that a salary of £56,000 could make some Islanders consider leaving their current employment to provide full-time support for those children who need it. The aim is to increase the four currently approved intensive fostering households by a further six.
‘We are looking for people who are highly skilled with children – interacting with and supporting them – people who are really accepting of them and their individual needs, and people who are dedicated and committed to supporting those children to become the best that they can be,’ Ms Wakeham said.
For intensive fostering, the six-month induction process involves being provided with all training in advance of receiving children, and subsequently working as part of a supported team with monthly supervision from a dedicated social worker and clinical psychologist.
Ms Wakeham underlined the distinction between general fostering, which can be compatible with regular working commitments, and the additional commitment required as an intensive foster carer.
‘With general fostering we are talking about children who have extra needs, of course, but they will typically go to school and take part in after-school activities. With high-level needs, children may not be going to school or perhaps struggling at school, so it might be a bit more sporadic. We need carers who are available to get that phone call from school at 10am to say that it’s not going to work today and you need to come and get them because they need support. General foster carers – who have all kinds of careers that mean they can’t just drop things – would struggle with that.
‘We hope that the £56,000 would enable just one person in the household to give up their current job to become an intensive foster carer. That’s how we envisage this working,’ Ms Wakeham said.
