Fostering in Falkirk: Local charity provides all you need to become a foster carer – and change a life!

Edinburgh charity Dean & Cauvin has been helping young people in need since 1733 and now needs more foster carers from across Falkirk, Fife, Edinburgh, West and East Lothian.

With their help you can transform a young person's life and make huge difference in how they progress and achieve as they grow up.

To take the first step, all you need to do it call for an informal chat with someone in their friendly fostering team and find out more. It could be a life-changing experience for you and a young person.

Guide to becoming a foster carer

As a smaller organisation, Dean & Cauvin currently works with eight foster carers. So they pride themselves on developing close and trusted connections with the foster carers they support.

“If you have an inkling to foster, a willingness to learn and compassion for young people then you should pick up the phone,” said one foster carer, a 65-year-old single man, who recently began to look after young people offering short breaks foster care with Dean & Cauvin.

Carers for short and long-term fostering placements are needed, for young people aged 11-years-old and over. The demand for foster carers in Scotland and across the UK is growing and the organisation is also looking for those who could become mum-and-baby foster carers to teenagers.

What you need to know

Start with an initial chat, then a supervising social worker will meet with you. It’s your chance to ask lots of questions, as they also find out more about you.

A state-of-the-art training programme called Skills to Foster provides the help that you need. Then ongoing support is provided with a 24-hour on-call service. Supervising social worker Iain says that the state-of-the-art training makes it the ideal time to start your fostering journey.

Fostering with Dean & Cauvin offers the opportunity to build up a close working relationship with support staff, as well as other foster carers. Training, meetings, family days and events show that you’ll be joining one big fostering community family.

Support is provided with an in-house counsellor for any young person using the Dean & Cauvin service, as well as working with other third sector organisations.

As a small charity, Dean & Cauvin can provide a high level of support to foster families, providing more opportunities for ongoing, practical and meaningful support to carers. They will also spend time ensuring you’re a good match with the young person you care for.

Supervising social worker Iain added: “We don't place anyone on an emergency basis. We do this at the speed the young person needs and only place them once we feel we have ample information and suitable introductions have been done.”

What to expect

One carer in his 60s, who had worked for the NHS and never had children, thought he may be too old to foster but then discovered Dean & Cauvin. Providing short breaks care means that he can give other foster carers a break.

A single mum of two boys, who began fostering eight years ago, knew from childhood that she wanted to foster. On a family holiday to Scotland she met a young girl, staying on the same caravan park, who was being fostered and learned about what that meant.

When she reached her fifties, after having had her own family, she decided the time was right to fulfil her ambition.

She said: “The time has to be right for you, and your family.”

She was able to foster while continuing to work, so had no need to give up her career but had the added income to help being a single parent.

While she felt disillusioned after fostering with a local authority, feeling she was pushed to accept very young children which didn’t fit her home situation, she explained: “Dean & Cauvin turned that around and their focus on providing foster care for teenagers was ideal. They are solution-focussed, not problem-focussed.”

She says it’s sometimes the little things – having clean sheets on the bed, clean clothes to wear and food in the cupboard – that a young person may be experiencing for the first time and added: “We laugh a lot. It takes some time and respect but 99% of the people I have met have been just brilliant. You learn something with every young person that comes through your door.”

Can I foster?

You can be single, a family or couple, either work or be at home, and be a young person or retired. There is no typical foster carer, though some tangible experience of living with, working with or caring for younger people is ideal, along with a desire to learn.

Iain said: “You need to be adaptable and available, both emotionally and physically, for the person you foster.”

You are not rushed through the process, as it can take up to a year from your initial enquiry to fostering. Some flexibility at work or home may be needed while you take part in the training.

Foster carers with Dean & Cauvin are paid a £474 per week fee plus a £191 allowance and extra allowances are given at Christmas, birthdays and for summer holidays, plus there are organised family days and residential stays for those being fostered.

You do need to have a suitable spare room to offer a young person their own space, and if you have more than one, then it allows the opportunity for siblings to be placed together. Some foster carers may only offer short-term fostering, and for others it might be longer term, or a mixture.

Foster carers can also take a break – sometimes there are circumstances when you may need a short break, and that can be arranged and supported through Dean & Cauvin.

Some carers form lifelong links with their foster teen and may have them in their lives in some way throughout their teens into adulthood.

Find out more

Start your fostering journey and find out more on the website.