Start a forever family
Becoming a forever family is a life-changing journey – not just for our babies and children but for our parents too.
Giving a home to a little one who needs love and care is an opportunity to change someone’s destiny and be part of something greater than yourself.
There are three main types of care for you to consider:
Safety care
This is the first step for a baby in crisis. It is needed at short notice and is temporary – anything from one night to six months. During this time, the social worker gives monthly updates at court while the child’s options are being investigated. If at all possible, the child is reunited with their biological family. The child is a ward of the state and the safety parent the guardian. Our families can have up to three safety placements but, as a rule, we don’t encourage more than one safety placement per family, as their care is intense and we need to give these tiny beings as much as possible of ourselves in the early weeks.
Foster Care
If a child cannot be reunited with their family or adopted, their options are to be placed in an orphanage or foster care. A foster order is normally issued for two years at a time. These placements turn out to be long-term or permanent in most cases and sometimes end in adoption. While in foster care, the child remains a ward of the state and the foster parent the guardian.
Adoption
We believe that babies should experience minimal placements and be with their forever families as soon as possible. If we cannot commit to them forever, we try and find a family that can as soon as it becomes clear that that is where we are headed. When a child is adopted, court proceedings end and the child is no longer a ward of the state. The parents become the legal parents of the child as if he or she were born to them and a new birth certificate is issued.
Screening for safety and foster parents is done entirely by a social worker affiliated to a child protection organisation.
When you are ready, take these first steps towards joining our network:
- Visit one of our homes for a comprehensive information session. We will then refer you to the relevant child protection agency.
- Contact the agency and request to be screened. This will entail comprehensive documentation, including:
- Police clearance certificates
- Being checked against the sexual offenders registry
- Character references
- Personal details e.g. ID documents, proof of address, marriage certificates etc.
Once all the paperwork is done, a home visit will follow.
- If all the above is in order, you will be added to our database and then wait for the call. Your social worker may contact you directly or we might be contacted by a social worker and will refer them to you. The placement process is handled by the social worker.
We look forward to welcoming you into our greater family! We are here and ready to chat when you are.