Fostering in Wolverhampton

Fostering Wolverhampton

As a locally based agency we have good connections and relationships with our neighbouring Local Authority Wolverhampton Council. With that in mind if you are in the Wolverhampton area, a really big benefit for you as an F5 Foster Carer is being so close to our headquarters in Birmingham – Our office has an open door policy so you are free to pop in whenever you like for a chat or to ask any questions, its also where we hold the majority of our training and support group meetings.

We are happy to share that we are an approved Foster Carer provider for Wolverhampton Council (as well as for all local surrounding Local Authorities) which means that when children and young people from the Wolverhampton area in need of Foster homes, Wolverhampton Childrens Services will forward us a referral to see what suitable homes we have for that child. As such we work with them closely to ensure we recruit and train the most suitable and well matched Foster Carers possible.

To give you an idea of the scope of fostering, specific to Wolverhampton, please see below localised information that you may find helpful.

How many children are in care in Wolverhampton

In March 21, Wolverhampton Council Children Services took a snap shot of the statistics relating to how many children and young people from within the city were in care. This number was 541. This number does of course change on a daily basis as new children are being admitted into care and others are leaving care either following successful reunification with their birth family, have been placed with an adoptive family or have turned 18. The full number of children that had been in care that year was 684.

Wolverhampton Childrens Services will always try to keep Wolverhampton Children within Wolverhampton (when it is safe an appropriate to do so), as this helps the child to continue with important aspects such as attending school and supervised family time etc, so when we are looking at matching children to potential foster homes, our Wolverhampton based Carers will always be a first point of call. Additionally, other neighbouring local authorities such as Stafford or Walsall for example, will sometimes reach out to Wolverhampton based foster carers if they have been unable to find a suitably matched Foster Carer within their own Local Authority.

Why are the children coming into care?

Sadly, the national statistics from 2021 tell that the overwhelming reason that children and young people are coming into care is due to abuse and neglect, however other reasons include (but are not limited to), family dysfunction or families in acute stress, Absent parenting, child or parent illness/disability.

About the children that come into care

Children come into care every day of all ages, however we do find that there are certain age groups that have higher numbers, for example, we can see that in Wolverhampton, children and young people aged 10-15 years old account for almost half of the children in care. This is due to an increase in the number of children in this age group needing to be looked after and a reduction in other age

When you hear us talking about matching, one of the areas that we will always try to match where possible is the ethnic profile of children and their Foster Carers. To give you an idea how this is reflected in Solihull please see the below information as reported by Childrens Services. This is important information to know as in order to be able to match effectively, there needs to be a foster carer base that reflects the demographics of the city’s children and young people.

What Foster Carers are needed in Wolverhampton?

There is a real need at the moment to increase the number of foster homes across Wolverhampton. We need to recruit committed carers across the board for children of all ages, however, there is a clear and evidenced need to recruit additional Carers that are able to offer homes to children aged 10-15 as almost half of all children in care in Wolverhampton fall into this age group.
We are dedicated to keeping siblings together, where appropriate, and as such are in need of homes that are able to consider fostering more than one child.
There is also an increasing demand for mother and baby placements and children with complex medical needs and/or life limiting conditions.
Full Training and support is provided to our Carers to ensure that they are able to offer the types of placements they would like and are considered suitable for. Click here to find out more about what different types of foster care placements you could offer to children from in and around Wolverhampton. Alternatively fill in the enquiry form to contact a member of our team or to request a copy of our fostering brochure.