Nervous Bear

Fostering is the heartwarming journey of opening your home and heart to a child in need, providing them with the stability and care they deserve.

It’s about creating a nurturing environment where children can heal, grow, and thrive when they can’t be with their birth families.

 In the United Kingdom, nearly 70,000 children find love, support and a sense of belonging with over 53,000 foster family's.

We need more people like them to be there for our children in need. We need people from all backgrounds, with all sorts of life experiences and skills to support looked after children.

Being a foster carer isn’t just about offering a place to stay; it’s about offering hope, compassion, and a sense of belonging. It’s the chance to make a profound difference in a child’s life, guiding them through difficult periods, and to celebrate their successes. Every moment spent fostering is a step towards building a brighter future for a child, filled with endless possibilities and
unconditional love.

Foster care gives children the chance to lead safe and more fulfilling lives when that possibility is no longer feasible for them at their birth home. Whilst some children may be able to return to their birth family after a while, for others, fostering is more of a long-term solution. In some cases, you may even find yourself at short notice supporting a child for just a couple of hours. Everyone's journey through fostering is different and people can choose to specialise in different ways as they progress. However, you will always act as a vital part of a professional team providing a loving family environment for children.

Enhanced Emotional Support: Fostering South West works with families who foster children, many of whom have experienced trauma or emotional distress. Mood Bears can provide these children with a non-verbal way to express their feelings, helping them communicate their emotions more effectively and receive the support they need.

Educational Tool: The bears serve as a teaching aid, helping foster children and their caregivers learn about different emotions, feelings, and moods. This educational aspect can be incredibly beneficial in creating an environment where children feel understood and supported.

Inclusive Communication: Not every child has the language skills to articulate their feelings, especially those who have faced challenging circumstances. The recognisable colors and symbols of the Mood Bears make emotional expression accessible to all children, regardless of their verbal abilities.

Strengthening Foster Family Bonds: The use of Mood Bears can help foster families bond with the children in their care. By using the bears as a medium for communication, foster parents can better understand the emotional needs of the children, fostering stronger, more empathetic relationships.

Mental Health Awareness: This partnership also raises awareness about the importance of mental health and emotional wellbeing in foster care. It highlights the need for tools and resources that support the mental health of both children and adults in these environments.

Practical Support: Mood Bears provide a tangible, practical tool that foster families can use daily. They are more than just toys; they are instruments of support that can make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of foster children and their families.

By integrating Mood Bears into their services, Fostering South West can enhance the emotional and educational support they offer, ultimately contributing to the overall wellbeing of the children and families they serve.

In the South West, like most other areas, the number of children entering the care system is rising whilst at the same time, fewer people are making the decision to make foster care a part of their lives.

Fostering South West aims to grow the number of fostering families across the region, working with your local authority to enable you to care for children in your local communities who need it most.

Fostering South West is a partnership of 15 local councils from across the region with a shared goal - recruit and support more foster carers to provide safe, loving and local homes for children in our communities.

Our partnership ensures prospective local council foster carers across the south west have access to a centralised platform for support and enquiries, making it a better time than ever to consider fostering for your local council.

We asked foster carers already fostering for their local councils why prospective foster carers should choose to foster for their local council and this is what they told us;

Keep children local – Allowing them to continue to live in the community they know and where they feel safe, with as little change as possible. Leading to more positive outcomes for children.

Community Focus – Fostering with your local council allows you to support children within your own community. This can help maintain the child’s connections with their local area, schools, friends and family.

Support and Resources – Local councils typically provide robust support networks, including access to social workers, training programmes, and local resources. This can be particularly beneficial for new foster carers.

Training and Development – Local councils often offer comprehensive training programs tailored to the needs of their foster carers, ensuring you are well-prepared and supported in your role.

Work with a not-for-profit – As local councils, we are proud to operate as not-for-profit entities. Acting with the best interests and needs of the children we care for and our foster carers at the heart of everything we do.

Increased speed of matching - Local councils often prioritise finding children homes with their own foster carers first. This means there is often little time your home would have an empty bed.  

Fees and allowances - These are paid by your local council and designed to support foster carers best care for children. All foster carers receive a weekly allowance covering the costs of caring for a foster child, and on top of this receive fee payments recognising their work. This will vary based on the number of children in their care, age and need.

Whether you are ready to start your fostering journey or just have some more questions, please visit our website and get in touch with a member of our team today!