Fostering
Join us in the best career in the world, helping to improve young lives.
Join us in the best career in the world, helping to improve young lives.
At Time Out Fostering we aspire to give children a stable and loving home. We aim to provide them with safe, quality care that encourages children to reach their full potential. We invite you to help us achieve this.
You won’t need endless amounts of qualifications but will need a spare room, patience, understanding and a good sense of humour. Fostering will provide you with a variety of rewarding work, with children at the heart of everything we strive to achieve. With our support you too can be part of this incredible life-changing experience.
What is foster care?
Foster care is a temporary living arrangement for children who cannot remain with their birth families, due to a variety reasons listed below. It provides a safe and nurturing environment where children are cared for by licensed foster parents. Foster care aims to support the child’s well-being while predominantly working toward reunification with their family and in rarer cases adoption, or another long-term care solution.
Why foster with Time Out?
Rewarding and flexible working from home
Fostering can make a real difference to a child or young person. You can be employed, self-employed or unemployed and still foster. Our supportive approach makes the work easier and flexible.
24/7 support from people you know
We offer outstanding support to our carers. Everyone in the team really knows our families and can offer support and advice. Additionally each family has a dedicated supervising social worker and family support worker.
Generous financial package
You will receive a generous allowance, part of which is to cover the cost of having a young person in place. The amount you receive depends on the type of placement you have and your training and experience.
We seek feedback and listen to it
As a smaller agency we respond quickly and individually to requests and feedback from carers, young people, local authorities, social workers and Ofsted. We act on feedback as quickly as possible.
Preferred provider
The quality of the care we provide means we are a preferred provider for Sussex and Brighton Local Authorities. We see more referrals for children than many agencies. This gives a better chance to get the right child for your family.
Ongoing training and development
We provide interesting and informative training. Online courses cover much of necessary training for foster care and is accessible 24/7. Face-to- face training is provided by professionals our carers like. Training is free and lunch is provided.
Career development
We want to provide carers opportunities for self-development. Carers can work for us in training, mentoring and providing family support alongside fostering. This is optional but many carers value and enjoy their real connection to our agency.
Quality and diversity
We welcome everyone. We wish to extend the diversity of our carers to ensure that we can provide as many placement to as many children as possible. We value and respect difference in our Time Out family.
"I love being a foster carer. It’s rewarding on so many levels and each day brings a new challenge. It feels good to give something back and just try to make a difference."
Caroline - foster carer
Why do children end up in foster care?
Children enter foster care for several reasons, often involving challenges within their home environment. These include:
- Abuse or neglect: Cases where children face physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or are neglected by their caregivers, necessitating removal to ensure their safety.
- Seeking asylum: A child has arrived in the UK without a parent or guardian
- Parental illness or death: If parents become seriously ill, incapacitated, or pass away, and no immediate relatives can care for the child, foster care may be required.
- Substance abuse: Parents struggling with addiction may be unable to provide a stable and safe home environment, leading to intervention by child welfare services.
- Domestic violence: Exposure to domestic violence can create an unsafe living situation for children, prompting the need for temporary care.
- Abandonment: If a parent leaves a child without adequate care or support, the child may enter foster care.
- Imprisonment of parents: Should their birth parents be jailed and no alternative caregiver is available, the child may be placed in foster care.
- Severe behavioural issues: In some cases, children may enter foster care if their families are unable to manage their behaviour or meet their special needs, meaning they require a more structured environment.
What it's like to be a foster carer
Find out what it's like to be a foster carer, as we interview some
of the many brilliant foster carers we work with here at Time Out Fostering.
What it’s like to be a foster carer: Kathy’s Story
Find out what it’s like to be a foster carer, as we interview Kathy, one of the many brilliant foster carers we work with here at Time Out Fostering. Get an idea of the type of challenges and moments of…
What it’s like to be a foster carer: Dawn’s Story
Find out what it’s like to be a foster carer, as we interview Dawn, one of the many brilliant foster carers we work with here at Time Out Fostering. Get an idea of the type of challenges and moments of…
What it’s like to be a foster carer: Ant & Kaz’s Story
Find out what it’s like to be a foster carer, as we interview Ant and Kaz, two of the many brilliant foster carers we work with here at Time Out Fostering. Get an idea of the type of challenges and…
Fostering Asylum Seekers – A Foster Carer’s insight
Gunter, a former Time Out Fostering carer, tells his story of looking after an unaccompanied 16 year old asylum seeker from Afghanistan.
What it’s like to be a foster carer: Colin & Clare’s story
Find out what it’s like to be a foster carer, as we interview Colin and Claire. Gain an insight into the type of challenges and moments of great satisfaction associated with fostering
Types of fostering
Find out what it's like to be a foster carer, as we interview some
of the many brilliant foster carers we work with here at Time Out Fostering.
