Fostering is powerful and transformational. It ensures that children in need of care and protection find it within a family setting. Children are placed in care for various reasons including neglect and abuse. Depending on their situation, they may need anything from short-term care (emergency, short break etc.) to long-term.

In the UK, foster placements account for almost three quarters of all children in care. Today there are over 100,000 children in foster care with 6,500 new foster carers urgently needed.

To register your interest in fostering with Cornerstone today, click here to fill out our dedicated enquiry form.

Please note, due to the location of our offices and Social Workers, at present we are only able to accept enquiries for Fostering or Adoption from families who live in the North East or East Midlands. We hope and pray to expand our region in the future, so if you live outside of this area we would still love to hear from you! But we may not be able to work with you immediately.

The process.

There is a statutory process which every prospective foster carer must go through in order to become an approved foster carer with an independent fostering agency. The main steps are as follows:

1. First contact. Get in touch with our friendly team and have a chat! We'll find out more about you, assess your initial suitability, and talk you through some mimumum requirements. We'll do our best to demystify the process and allay any fears you may have.
2. Initial visit. A member of our social work team will visit you at your home to introduce themselves and our agency, discuss more details, and get a better understanding of who you are.
3. Introductory training. We normally invite you to join the nationally-recognised 'Skills to Foster' introductory training course across two days. This will give you a better understanding of the fostering tasks, and some tools which will equip you for the journey forward.
4. Application. If the initial visit and initial training course have gone well and you would like to proceed, this is the point at which you can complete our application form and formally apply.
5. Assessment. One of our qualified assessors will complete a nationally-recognised assessment form ('known as a 'Form F') together with you in a number of sessions over the course of 4-6 months. At the same time, our team will begin to carry out a number of 'safer recruitment' checks including DBS and references.
6. Approval Panel. Once all the hard work is completed, you will meet an independent panel who, based on your assessor's Form F, will ask you some questions for clarity and then make a recommendation to Cornerstone.
   
7. Agency Decision. Our independent Agency Decision Maker (ADM) will receive your file and the Panel's recommendation, and make the final decision on your application, which will be communicated to you afterwards.
   
8. Matching. Our Family Finding Co-Ordinator will work hard to match you, your family and your home with a child or children that have been referred to us by a local authority.

Support.

We pride ourselves on offering the very best support to our carers. See the below infographic detailing the comprehensive package we offer.

---

We offer all our carers Foster Talk membership. This provides for 24-hour legal advice, 24-hour counselling support, 24-hour medical/first aid helpline, financial advice, legal expenses insurance, access to online learning support, online carer forums, a quarterly FosterTalk magazine and access to over 4500 fantastic discounts and offers on lifestyle products and services. To find out more, click here.

---

​To read our fostering Statement of Purpose, tap or click on the icon here.

Fostering SOP 25
File Size:	265 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---