Could you foster? Ollie and Katie’s story
Today marks the start of Foster Care Fortnight, a national campaign aimed to raise the profile of fostering and show how foster care can transform lives.
Fostering is providing a safe and secure home for vulnerable babies, children and young people who are unable to be at home with their own families. Sometimes this is for a few nights and sometimes for a few years.
Local couple Katie, 33, and Ollie, 31, have been fostering with Camden Council for the last three years, although they had been thinking seriously about it since 2019.
We decided to foster before trying for biological children - often people do it later in life. When we bought our home, we found somewhere with a spare room to foster. It was something we wanted to do so we made decisions that would make it possible.
We mainly foster teenagers. We initially said we would like to take young people aged 14 plus, although we have now had placements as young as 11. We said this because we are both working full-time and aren’t really able to do the school run, but we can manage late nights! We have worked with teenagers before through a church youth group and love that age group. Teenagers are fun and make you laugh, even with the inevitable frustrations.
The number one thing you need to do as a foster carer is to provide a safe place for the child or young person. We want these young people to gain the ability to be able to trust adults and that’s something that lasts, not only with us, but into the future with other people they will hopefully also be able to trust. One of the Camden social workers told us that you are tipping love into a big bucket, and you just need to keep doing that. Our supervising social worker is fantastic. The biggest thing he’s done is to encourage us.
I don’t think anyone who gets to the end of their life would say I wish I hadn’t fostered so many children. It’s probably the most rewarding thing, even though it can be hard too. The measure of our society is how we treat the most vulnerable. You could be what a child right now is hoping for.
Foster Care Fortnight gives us an opportunity to shine a light on our amazing current foster families and hopefully encourage more local people to embark on a journey which could transform so many children and young people’s lives.
We need caring people to offer a secure and loving home to Camden children who really need this stability and support.
The benefits of fostering with Camden include:
- No council tax bill for Camden residents and up to 66% of council tax paid if you live outside of the borough of Camden
- Generous fees and allowances throughout the year – these were increased last month in line with The Fostering Network’s recommended rates
- Free borough-wide parking in pay and display and residents’ bays
- An allocated social worker who will visit and call regularly to support you as a foster carer
- 24-hour access to emergency support through the duty team.
Find out more:
- Website: camden.gov.uk/fostering
- Email: fostering@camden.gov.uk
- Telephone: 020 7974 6783 or 0800 028 1436 (freephone).