There are lots of different resources about fostering, which can help you understand what fostering is and what foster carers do. Here’s a list of some informative websites and books that can help you learn more about whether fostering is right for you and your family.
Learn more about fostering online
Fostering Bradford’s website: www.fosteringbradford.com
Our website is a great place to start - the Fostering Bradford website is filled with blogs, fostering stories and more information about life as a foster carer in the Bradford district.
You can also receive free impartial advice from Fosterline (www.fosterline.info).
Government information about fostering in the UK: www.gov.uk/foster-carers
If you’re not sure whether to adopt or foster, the Regional Adoption Agency, One Adoption West Yorkshire, will be happy to talk to you about all things adoption : www.oneadoption.co.uk
Information about fostering for your local community in Yorkshire https://foster4yourcouncil.org/
Books suitable for those thinking about fostering
Thinking about fostering? The definitive guide to fostering in the UK, by Henrietta Bond
This is an essential read for anyone considering becoming a foster carer. This book tells you all you need to know about fostering and what it involves, how to get started, and what to expect.
Attachment, trauma and resilience: Therapeutic caring for children, by Katie and Brian Cairns
Kate Cairns is a social worker by profession who has also, over a 25-year period and along with her husband and birth children, fostered 12 other children who remain part of their family group.
In her book, she draws on the wealth of her personal and professional experience to offer a glimpse into family life with children who have experienced attachment difficulties, loss, abuse and trauma, and shows in a range of everyday situations how the family responded to the powerful feelings and difficult behaviours the children displayed.
Cairns also includes suggestions for carers and professionals on what may be observed in children with unmet attachment needs and post-traumatic stress disorders, and what can be done to promote recovery and develop resilience.
Welcome to Fostering: A Guide to Becoming and Being a Foster Carer, edited by Andy Elvin and Martin Barrow
What should you expect when you're expecting to foster? This book is a guide to taking the first critical steps of your fostering journey, explaining what fostering is, how to become a foster carer and what it takes to thrive.
Combining invaluable advice from veteran foster carers, the expertise of the professionals who support them, and experiences of foster children themselves, this book explains the fostering process step by step.
It tackles all the questions that you've ever asked yourself about fostering: What is fostering really like? What are the challenges? What kind of difference could I make?
Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison (2004)
This is the first-person story of a woman who has been a foster parent for more than a decade.
Kathy has fostered over 150 children, and was previously named Massachusetts Foster Parents of the Year with her husband. In 2002, the couple received the prestigious Goldie Foster Award.
Would you like to learn more?
Foster carers change lives. If you'd like to learn more about fostering in Bradford, download an information pack today and see how you can make a difference.
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