By Linda Hill

Foster care assessment: how the process works

If you’re interested in becoming a foster carer, you probably want to know more about the application and foster care assessment process.

You’ve come to the right place!

While we can’t speak for every private foster care agency in London, we can tell you a bit about the process we go through here at Lika.

You probably also want to know how long the foster carer assessment process takes. As a rough guide, it’s often four months from an initial conversation with our recruitment lead to completing the application form and being approved as a carer (then a foster child might be placed with you within a week, or it could take a few months – it all depends).

This article will run you through the basic stages of a foster care application and assessment process, for carers in London interested in becoming a carer with Lika Family Fostering.

GOT QUESTIONS?: If you want to know more about becoming a foster carer in London, ask our team here.

1. It all starts with your initial enquiry

The first step is getting in touch and letting us know you’re interested. During this initial conversation one of our team will ask some basic questions. It’s nothing to be worried about.

It’s simply questions like “where do you live?” which we have to ask because if you don’t live in the local authority areas of Battersea, Hackney, Barking, Dagenham, Lewisham, Redbridge, Ilford or Newham, then we can’t help you.

Here are the sorts of questions you can expect:

Where do you live?
Do you have a spare room?
Who lives in the house?
Are you working?
Do you have in your support network?
What’s your motivation to foster now?

Whom do you have in your foster care support network?

We’ll be looking for an indication of how motivated you are (have you done a lot of research already, or are you just starting to investigate the idea?) and we’ll ask you whether there’s anything you’re worried might stop you being able to become a carer (perhaps a criminal conviction). We might even ask why you’ve chosen to call Lika over other local fostering agencies.

This is also a great opportunity for you to ask us questions. We’ll answer them as best we can.

2. An initial home visit

If everything sounds positive in that initial call, we’ll arrange to come and visit you at home.

This first visit will probably take two hours. We’ll want to speak to you, your partner if you have one, and any children living in the house.

This is all about us getting to know you, you getting to know us, and assessing how everyone in the house feels about embarking on this fostering journey. Foster is about relationships, so getting to know one another and to see how we could work together is key.

From this initial visit, we’ll have a pretty good idea of whether we both want to move on to the next stage.

3. Filling in the foster carer application

If we’re all a good for fit for each other and you’re really keen, we might give you the application form to fill in so we can start the application process right away.

More likely, we’ll invite you to speak to some of our foster carers, so you can get a real understanding from them of the highs and lows of fostering. We might even invite you to come along to one of our Skills to Foster workshops for a day, so you can meet all the team and other people who are also thinking about becoming foster carers.

One of Lika’s Skills to Foster workshops in South London.

We want you to be as informed and comfortable as possible before we progress to the next stage. But, rest assured, if at any time you change your mind, it’s no problem at all – foster caring is an big commitment and it’s not for everyone. Just let us know! If the process needs to slow down, we also invite these conversations from anyone looking to foster as its not a race.

It’s worth noting that, once the application is in, the stages listed below may not come in the order shown – many of them happen at the same time.

4. References and background checks

Once the application form is in, we start the process of background checks. These will include at least:

Two personal references or four if you’re a couple
An employer reference (if you’re employed)
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. This is a criminal record check for any adults living in the applicant’s home
A London Probation Check
A local authority check (e.g., child protection and housing issues).
Reference check from the organisations you have work with where there have been any vulnerable children or adults.
Education reference from the provisions school aged birth children attend.

5. A second home visit (and a dive into your family tree)

It won’t be a surprise, but there are quite a few home visits involved in the foster care assessment process. We try to keep it to six, but it could be as many as eight. They’ll each go for a couple of hours and each one has a different theme. Your assessor is an experienced social worker who will talk through the structure and plan for the assessment. Your assessor is primarily matched to you based on their skillset and personality. You’ll get to know one another really well over the course of the assessment.

This second home visit is very likely to be about genograms – or what you might call your family tree.

This is all about understanding you; your influences, beliefs and values,; and your support network. There’s no pass or fail here, and no judgement. It’s about getting to know the complete you, so we can help you become the best foster carer you can possibly be.

Your foster care assessor will want to understand your family tree.

Other visits will be on a range of topics like how to keep records and how to manage conflicts, and we’ll talk to your birth children so they know what’s happening and we can get their impression of everything.

6. Foster carer skills training

Your training to become a foster carer will start quite soon after your application is submitted and early checks are complete.

Central to this is a four-day Skills to Foster training program. We run these several times a year at Lika’s office in Battersea. We usually run these once we have a group of five or six people who have applied.

Lika has a particular philosophy on foster care, families and relationships, so we’ll invite you to training days on these, too. Although you can read more about our systemic and therapeutic approaches here:

The Skills to Foster training days are fun, accessible, and provide an opportunity to meet like-minded people who also want to care for children. Different members of the LiKa team run these training sessions, so over the course of the program, you’ll have the chance to meet most of the core team. The sessions run from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, with LiKa providing breakfast, lunch, and refreshments to ensure you’re well looked after. Many of LiKa’s carers who met during the Skills to Foster program have become close friends.

7. Health checks

It’s a fact of life that people have health conditions and having one won’t exclude you from becoming a foster carer. However, we don’t want fostering to exacerbate any conditions you do have.

For this reason, you’ll be asked to fill out a medical form and then go for a special medical appointment, where your health will be assessed. This is a requirement for all applicant foster carers to complete in the UK. At the initial assessment visit, the question of health will be raised to discuss any potential health concerns.

8. Meeting your support network

We call this a network meeting. It’s a chance for us to meet the people in your life who will be your support network once you become a foster carer.

We get your nearest and dearest together and ask them some questions about you, your parenting style, how you are around kids, and so on. We also ask them how they’re going to support you, how available they will be to help out when you need it, and things like that.

It sounds scarier than it is. We promise.

If you have a significant ex-partner, particularly one you share children with, we may want to speak with them as well. (This is typically done in a separate meeting from the network meeting.)

We understand that relationships with ex-partners can be difficult or uncomfortable, and we take that into account when assessing their responses. However, we need to corroborate our understanding of your parenting style and how you interact with children. Your assessor will determine if any significant former partners need to be contacted, considering factors such as time, risk, and the nature of the relationship. Your assessor will not contact any former partner without your explicit consent. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to whether or how a former partner is contacted.

Support network or back up carers

As part of your assessment, we will ask you to nominate at least one person or couple who can provide you with respite or emergency support in your role as a foster carer. These individuals can be family or friends, but they should be trusted people in your life. Your assessor will meet with those you put forward to determine if they are suitable as support network members or backup carers. LiKa will also conduct criminal record checks and Local Authority checks on these individuals. All foster carers at LiKa are entitled to 14 to 21 days of respite per year. Foster carers often rely on their support network for this, where the network person can either care for the young person in their own home or stay at the foster carer’s home. Anyone acting as a support network member will receive unlimited training from LiKa and financial support when caring for a young person.

9. A few other little assessments and tasks

There are a few other little assessments that need to be completed as part of the fostering process. Some you complete; others we complete. They include:

A financial assessment which includes a credit check
A health and safety assessment on your home
At least three written assessments (these aren’t like exams, but they are a bit like homework)
A photo library of members of your family, home, and local area, to include in your assessment file.

10. Getting prepared for a placement

While there’s one big hurdle to go (the panel, see below) it’s time to start thinking about preparing your home for a foster child.

It’s time to get the room painted, get the furniture ordered, and the like.

Lika offers a £400 grant to help you get placement ready for some of the basics you might need to welcome a child, such as furniture.

Read our blog about getting placement ready.

11. Training for your biological children

Becoming a foster carer is a commitment that involves the whole family, so if you have children of your own, we provide them with training.

Training for your own children is designed to make them feel included and safe.

This training has been created to help biological children understand the fostering process and what it will mean for them as a family.

The topics it covers include:

Why children come into care
Why they may behave differently and need a different response from their parents
The kinds of changes that might happen to their family life
Ways to communicate any risks or concerns.

The language and descriptions used are tailored to the age of your children. The intention is to leave them feeling included and safe about the fostering journey ahead.

12. Matching practice

Once you’re approved to be a foster carer, you’ll experience a process called “matching”, where we find the right foster child for you and your family. You can read more about how we go about that here:

Once that process starts, things can move quite quickly, so we like to give our foster carers some practice at it. Like a rehearsal, or a dry run, if you like.

We’ll send you some referrals and ask a question like, “here’s a child; do you think they’re a good match for you?”

It helps us work out what kind of child you think you could give a home to, which ultimately helps us once the matching process starts.

We will practice sending you referrals to see what kind of foster child you’re able to give a home to.

13. The foster care assessment panel

This is it: the big day! Appearing before the foster care assessment panel is the last hurdle before you become a foster carer.

The panel comprises people from Lika, social workers, foster carers, former foster children, and other experts. They’ll have read all your assessment documentation before you walk into the room to meet them.

Certainly, appearing before a group of people and answering their questions can be a daunting thing to do. You can read more about what it’s like here:

Now the fun really begins

Once the foster panel has approved you as a carer, your fostering journey can begin. We’ll refer possible matches to you, guide you through your first placement with on-tap support, and provide lots more training to make sure you’re the best foster carer you can be.

Looking to foster in or around London?

Lika is a therapeutic fostering agency, rated Outstanding by Ofsted. Every decision we take is based on systemic family therapy principles. That means relationships, openness and honesty are at the heart of everything we do. All Lika foster carers receive extensive training in Systemic Family Therapy principles and therapeutic parenting techniques.

It’s similar to the training a newly qualified social worker receives (although not quite as technical) — so you’ll be fully prepared for your first placement and be viewed as a professional foster carer in your own right.

Being a Lika foster carer means always receiving specialised and consistent support from our expert team of professionals.

Your support will include:

1 to 4 weekly supervisions with your supervising social worker to talk through and understand the needs of your young person
24/7 out-of-hours access to one of the Lika team, so you’re never unsupported if things feel difficult
Access to Lika’s team of skilled and knowledgeable Systemic Psychotherapist Consultants and Systemic Social Work Practitioners, who are never stuck for ideas on how to support
Virtual monthly foster carers support meeting, led and chaired by experienced foster carers
Virtual fortnightly Therapeutic Family Consultations, facilitated by one of our psychotherapists and open to all our agency’s foster carers
Membership to the National Association of Therapeutic Parents and The Fostering Network
Life coaching for foster children, birth children and foster carers
Our Mentor Support Scheme, which partners new foster carers with more experienced foster carers
Free training for fostering support networks. (Your family and friends are welcome to join any of the training Lika offers.)
Access to Lika’s Support Workers, depending on the level of need for the young person
Access to Lika’s Educational Consultant, who can offer ideas and advocacy in supporting young people to achieve in education
Help from Lika’s Systemic Social Work Practitioners/Therapists, who can undertake skilled direct work without waiting lists for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
14 to 21 days of paid respite (depending on complexity) to recharge your batteries and have some space for self-care.

If you’re in London and you’re interested in becoming a foster carer, give the helpful team at Lika a call on 020 3370 0987. We’re here to answer all your questions.

We’re in the London boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Brent, Bexley, Bromley, Camden, City of London, Battersea, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing, Haringey, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Westminster, Enfield, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, Waltham Forest, Harrow, Essex