Dundee Fostering and Adoption

Becoming a foster carer is a job like no other. Not only will it enrich your life, it will provide you with an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy in the lives of our most vulnerable children. By providing loving, nurturing and stable homes and relationships, foster carers have the power to transform children’s futures. People like you enable children to thrive and achieve things they never imagined possible. By choosing to foster with Dundee City Council, you are allowing a Dundee child to remain in their home city, where they belong. It truly is life-changing.

Emergency
When children need somewhere safe to stay for a few nights on an emergency basis.

Short Breaks
Short breaks carers provide support to full-time foster carers by offering weekend and holiday care. This is often essential to allow full-time carers a break and spend time with their own family. Some foster carers also provide children who live with their birth family short breaks in foster care to support the family to remain living together long-term. 

Interim (temporary) Foster Carers
Interim carers (sometimes known as temporary/short-term foster carers) look after children for a few weeks, months or occasionally longer while plans are made for the child’s long-term future. This can last up to 2 years.

Long-term Foster Carers
Long-term foster carers provide a safe and loving family home for young people who are unable to return to the care of their birth family for the foreseeable future. Long-term foster care usually lasts for longer than 2 years.

Permanent Foster Carers
Permanent foster carers look after a child, where a decision has been made that they cannot return to the care of their family, for the remainder of their childhood. Permanent foster carers commit to care for the child as part of their family at least up to the age of 18 years and often beyond. This will usually mean that the child is involved in all the normal family activities, just as their birth children would be, i.e. going on holiday with the carers, being invited to family celebrations.

It takes a special type of person to become a foster carer so it is important to assess whether you feel you have the characteristics and skillset required to be successful in the job. Some of the core traits we look for are:

• Patience - children often communicate their needs through their behaviour so having a great deal of patience is one of the most important qualities of a foster carer. We often think of our foster carers as a child’s ‘unassailable safe base’.
• Communication - the ability to communicate with a child who has experienced trauma is vital. You need to be able to listen, using your emotional intelligence to pick up on how a child feels if they cannot articulate this through their words.
• Compassion - most children who need to be looked after away from their birth family have experienced traumatic events in their lives. Having the compassion and empathy to understand these issues and how they have affected a child is integral to building a secure relationship. We provide regular support from a skilled social worker to help our foster carers also prioritise their own well-being.
• Stability - many of our children have experienced a significant amount of loss and change in their lives. Predictability it is often very important to foster children so they can anticipate what is happening now and next. We need foster carers who can provide structure, routines and boundaries that will help children establish a felt sense of safety in their lives. 

As well as these traits, you need to meet some other criteria too:

• You need to be over 21 years old to foster in Scotland. There is no upper age limit but good health and mobility is essential.
• You need to have a spare bedroom. There are guidelines about siblings sharing which we can talk you through.
• We will also talk you through the number of children you can foster as this is dependent on the child’s age and whether you have any other children living at home.
• You will need to pass our rigorous checks as part of the assessment process. An assigned social worker will guide you, every step of the way.
• We need foster carers from diverse backgrounds to provide the best possible care to vulnerable Dundee children. We don’t discriminate on any grounds.
• You don’t need to have specific qualifications to become a foster carer. We will provide you with ongoing training and a high level of support to help children thrive in your care.

• The assessment process takes up to 6 months so that we can get to know you, your family and your friends really well. This helps us to place the right child or children in your care.
• Experienced social workers will deliver a preparation group to make sure you are as knowledgeable and prepared as you can be for the role.
• Once approved, you will be allocated a named and dedicated social worker who will provide regular support, guidance and advice throughout your fostering career. Don’t worry, we won’t just throw you into the deep end and expect you to become the best foster carer in the world!
• We will provide you with start-up costs and you will be given regular training and invited along to join our support groups. We have a wonderful community of foster carers who meet regularly.
• You will become an integral part of the team around the child. This may mean supporting the child at meetings, appointments and maintaining important relationships such as those of their birth family. We call this ‘family time’ and foster carers play an important role in making this happen.
• We have a dedicated ‘Out of Hours’ system in place which means you will have round the clock support available in case of emergencies.
• We run lots of face-to-face training on a range of topics to ensure that you have the knowledge and reflective space to develop in your fostering career. We also have e-learning courses that allow you to learn in your own time and at your own pace.

As a foster carer you are classed as self-employed for tax and national insurance purposes, so you need to register with HMRC. You may also be able to claim a range of benefits. The Fostering Network has some useful guidance that we can signpost you to, to make this as straightforward as possible.

Foster carers will receive a fee for each child they have in placement: this is for the carer.

In addition to their fee, all foster carers also receive a weekly fostering allowance. This should cover food, clothes, toiletries and all other expenses incurred in looking after a fostered child. This allowance varies as it is based on the age of the child in your care.

When you are approved as a foster carer, Dundee City Council will buy you all the equipment you require when caring for a Looked After Child. We also provide 21 days paid annual leave and cover expenses such as travel. 

We will provide a comprehensive range of free training and learning opportunities to support your fostering career development. 

Fostering allowances - weekly rate (as from April 2024)

Foster carer fee (1st and second placement and retainer fee) - £271.74 weekly rate

Holiday allowance £21 per day

In addition:

• 1 week additional allowance for birthday
• 2 weeks additional allowance for summer holiday activities
• 2 weeks additional allowance for Christmas

Christmas allowance

• 24 hour support
• Comprehensive training package
• Paid membership for Fostering Network
• Named dedicated worker
• One year paid membership to Adoption UK

Thnk you could adopt a child? Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have the love, time, commitment and space for a child?
• Do you have the physical and mental energy to care for a child that has gone through a traumatic experience?
• Do you have the empathy to care for a child that may have never experienced feeling safe and loved?
• Do you have the physical health to provide a long term family for a child?

If the answer to all these questions are yes, then we want to hear from you.

About our children
When most people think about adoption then often think about young babies. But the reality is that the majority of children that need adoptive families are usually over the age of one.

We urgently need adopters for children over four years old, groups of brothers and sisters, and children/young people with additional needs.

Siblings
Families who can keep brothers and sisters together are desperately needed. For some children being with a sibling is sometimes the only constant thing they've experienced in their life. Keeping sibling groups together helps a child grow and maintain their family bond.

• Single, married or unmarried
• From any ethnic or religious background
• Heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender
• A homeowner or living in rented accommodation
• Employed or on benefits
• Those who have children or who have none
• People thinking of adopting for the second time

Who can't adopt

Age
If you are under 21, you cannot legally adopt in the UK

Location
To adopt in Scotland you must be legally resident in the UK.

Criminal Record
If you or a member of your household have a criminal conviction or caution for offences against children or for serious sexual offences you will not be able to adopt. Other criminal offices will not automatically exclude you but will be taken into consideration during the assessment process, so please be open with your adoption agency from the start.

Important Information
If you have been undergoing tests, or treatment, for infertility then we ask that you have taken these as far as you want to and have had a period of 6 months between the conclusion of fertility treatment and registering an interest in adoption. This is because experience has shown that it is hard for people to think through the issues involved in adoption, if they are still involved directory in the process of dealing with tests and treatment for fertility. Likewise, we would not take anyone through the assessment process if they are pregnant or have suffered a recent loss or bereavement. Also we ask that you wait for a period of time following a significant event, e.g. marriage, civil partnership before considering adoption.

Start-up Costs
Dundee City Council pays a £500 start up grant for each child placed with prospective adoptive parents. This is to assist with the initial expenditure of various items such as the purchase of bedroom furniture. We will also pay for all reasonable travel and accommodation costs incurred during the co-ordination process, which is when a child gradually moves to live permanently with their prospective adopters.

Adoption Allowance
Adoption Allowance is a means tested benefit, which some children attract. Each child is assessed individually at the time they are approved for adoption, to see if they meet the criteria to attract an allowance. For example, they may be eligible for an allowance if a child has a disability or additional needs requiring additional expenditure, or where groups of brothers and sisters are placed together. However, an allowance is only paid if the adopter(s) also meet the means tested criteria.

Any agreed adoption allowance is reviewed each year.

Adopters can claim child benefit for any child placed with them and adoption allowances are awarded less child benefit.

There is an adoption support worker that can be contacted after the adoption is granted that can be contacted for support and guidance on the adoption duty line number.