Foster Care For Young People In The Uk

Foster care for young people in the UK

by

Joeboydavid

Aged between 10 and 18 years, these young people are unable to live with their own families for many different reasons, including parental mental ill-health, drug and alcohol abuse, imprisonment, domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse or inability to provide consistent parenting. As a result, the young people may have difficulty in forming positive relationships, leading to low self-esteem.

This is often reflected in their behaviour through lack of concentration, poor self control, inability to make safe choices, depression, anxiety, problems at school or low level offending.

Teenage mothers

Parent and Child Foster care placements offer a home to a baby or young child together with its parent. This is usually for a period for between 12-24 weeks.

It may be that a parent has not had a positive family life and positive input from a foster carer can provide the help a young parent needs with reassurance, guidance and support during a period of considerable changes.

As a foster carer, you would be helping them to develop their own parenting skills whilst ensuring the child was in a safe, secure and nurturing environment.

There are foster carers who have developed skills in this area of work. They take part in assessments and encourage young mothers without taking over their parental responsibilities. There is a growing need for more foster carers in the UK who are interested in looking after young, most often teenage mothers and their babies.

Cindy

Cindy left school at 15. After a several periods in children homes she was back living with her mother but they continually argued. There was a lot of alcohol being drunk in the family which hardly helped and Cindy soon became pregnant.

I planned it, I wanted to have my own baby but when you re young, you don t realise what you re getting yourself into like the responsibility, and it is a big responsibility. You just think about having this nice baby and showing it off.

Cindy was not coping and it was decided that she and her unborn baby were at risk so her local social services agreed it was best to place Cindy in a foster home. With no qualifications and an unstable home-life, Julie would have faced an uphill battle trying to provide a secure and loving home for her baby. The statistics show that babies born to teenage mothers often end up in care.

At first they wanted to put me into a hotel-place, the local mother and baby hostel. I went there and it was really rough. I hated the look of it but I had been in a foster home before and I quite liked it, so when they asked me if I would like to be placed with a family I said yes.

Cindy was five months pregnant when she moved to foster care. She had her baby son, stayed for six months then moved into her own flat and with help, started a hairdresser course at her local college. With the help of a foster carer, mum and baby were given the best start possible.

Person s Ages of Rights and Responsibilities

Aged ten years a child can be convicted of a criminal offence if they know they were doing wrong.

Aged twelve years buy an animal as a pet.

Aged thirteen years open a bank account.

Aged fourteen years a person is fully responsible for any crime they commit and the police can take fingerprints, work part-time with the teenager’s school’s consent, go into a pub with an adult (but the teenager can’t drink alcohol), be convicted of a crime, be convicted of rape (if a boy) and illegal sex with a girl under sixteen.

Aged sixteen years a teenager can claim social security benefits in their own right , drink some alcohol with a meal in a pub (but not at the bar), get married (with parents’ permission), join a trade union, leave home to live independently (Scottish law allows young people to leave home legally at sixteen years of age. In England and Wales sixteen year olds can leave home only with parental consent.), leave school , take a driving test (if disabled), the age of consent for legal sex (including homosexual consent in England, Scotland and Wales; age of consent for homosexual sex in Northern Ireland is 17.), work full-time.

Aged seventeen years a person can drive a car and pilot an aeroplane, go into a betting shop (but not bet), be tried before an adult court and sent to prison or fined up to 2,000.

Aged eighteen years leave home or marry without parental consent, vote, drink alcohol in a pub, own a house or land, sign contracts, apply for loans and credit cards, make a will, do jury service, donate blood or organs.

Aged twenty one years, a person can adopt or foster a child, stand for election for parliament or local government.

It is of paramount importance to choose the right fostering agency, there are over seven hundred in the UK. Simply Fostering, the UK national foster carer recruitment website provides help by answering questions and identifying the most suitable local fostering agencies with vacancies.

Simply Fostering help people interested in becoming foster carers to act on the Government’s advice to ‘contact more than one Fostering Agency if you are interested in a fostering career’.

For comprehensive and easy to understand information, help and advice, contact For comprehensive and easy to understand information, help and advice, contact Annette or Joe at http://www.SimplyFostering.co.uk

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Foster care for young people in the UK