Other Opportunities to work with Children with Disabilities

Did you know that Fostering Together not only recruits fostering families?

We also look for friendly, personable and professional Support Workers to support families by spending time with the children during the day-time.

Support Workers make up a key part of successful fostering environments for children with intense needs or for families who have children from before their time as foster carers. Their role is to aid with any parts of the child's care and daily routines, as well as to support their foster family in enabling them to experience all that life has to offer!

The supported child is also able to widen their horizons and may have opportunities to access provisions in their local communities to participate in new activities, such as music & dance clubs, cooking classes, sensory experiences and outdoor adventures with a new friendly face who they can trust.

With a diverse group of children cared for by Fostering Together families, Support Workers gain training and guidance to support children with divergent range of disabilities and care needs, such as personal care, alternative feeding (such as nasogastric tubes or PEG tubes), complex medications, Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) for non-verbal children, mobility support for children who use wheelchairs, mobility aids or have physiotherapy needs and community support and supervision for those who have autism and/or learning disabilities.

Support Workers may also support children to access essential contact with their mums and dads, where they can provide objectivity and independence.

A person in the role is treated as a professional, their reports and write-ups of their sessions being used to demonstrate the progress the child is making or by the Social Worker for the child to demonstrate a care plan that is the best interest for the child.

So who makes a good support worker?

Someone with a strong desire to learn and get to know a child and their personality, interests, wishes and goals for their future.
Someone with good communication skills; both to be able to receive and respond on each child's own level, and to be able to advocate for them in your reporting.
Someone with empathy, care, passion and a real drive for enabling all children to flourish.
Someone with flexible availability, mostly outside of school hours (e.g. evenings and weekends), to arrange sessions with families.
Someone with a keen desire to learn, enjoys training opportunities, and a can-do attitude!