Fostering unaccompanied asylum-seeking children
Children who arrive in the UK without their parents or carers usually go into the care of their local authority and will often live with approved foster carers when there is no suitable family member or guardian to care for them.
The requirements to foster these young people are not the usual ones. While patience, compassion, and understanding are necessary with unaccompanied children fleeing life-threatening homelands, specialist training is needed, so is an understanding of the child’s culture. Foster carers will also need to support them through the process of applying for permission to stay in the UK, help them integrate into life, or possibly to prepare for their return if it is safe to do so. Many unaccompanied children seeking asylum will also have emotional, practical, language and cultural needs that their foster carers must also consider.
In Hounslow, the largest number of unaccompanied children, come from Afghanistan and Albania, followed by Eritrea, Algeria, Iran and Iraq. Other young people have also come from India, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa, with numbers increasing fast. Hounslow is a vibrant, cultural borough and as a council, we will provide a safe refuge for vulnerable children fleeing danger in their own countries.
What support will I receive?
If you foster with Hounslow, you’ll get an allowance of up to £868.60 per fortnight? plus outstanding support and ongoing training.
Support and training doesn’t stop once your approved. All foster carers receive extensive support and training including:
- access to regular support groups
- Hounslow will also offer free specialist training for foster carers to help you prepare, as well as ongoing training opportunities including online training to help you build on your expertise
- access to Hounslow’s Emergency Duty Team, which is a 24-hour service to assist carers with emergencies that may occur
- free Fusion swim and Merlin passes for foster carers and their families
- membership of the independent charity Fostering
- Hounslow will also arrange easy access to it’s in house clinical psychologist for advice about any specialists needs for our looked after children
If you think you may have the skills, experience and willingness to look after a young person who has arrived in the UK unaccompanied, we would love to hear from you.
Call 020 8583 3426 for a friendly chat about fostering or register your interest below and one of the team will contact you.
