Foster carers are people who have been specially chosen to care for other people’s children in their own homes. They have special training and will care for you as if you were a member of their own family. There may be other children in the foster home too.

Barking and Dagenham has two types of foster carers, called task-centred foster carers and long-term foster carers. With task-centred foster carers you can stay with them from anything from one day to six months – sometimes longer in some circumstances.

They will look after you until it is safe for you to return home, or if the courts decide that it is in your best interest to either remain in care, to live with family members or extended family (we call this Kinship Care) or the possibility of being adopted.

Living with new people can be difficult. When you move in you will have the chance to discuss things such as bedtimes, routines, watching T.V. and going out.

Before you go to your new home we will make sure your carers know the most important things about you so that they can look after you properly.

This will include details of:

• where all your family members live and how to contact them.
• whether there is anything about your health they need to know.
• whether you have a disability.
• whether there are any foods you can’t eat because of your religion or because they make you ill.
• what your religion is and how important it is to you.
• what languages you speak.
• whether you use a form of communication other than speech.
• which school you have been at.
• details of the schools you have been to in the past, any qualifications you have, or any achievements in things like, music, sport or drama.
• important documents like your birth certificate and where they are
• what are your interest and hobbies

Wherever possible, Children’s Services will try and find you somewhere to live in Barking and Dagenham however some young people may find their new home quite far away.  This is because they need specialist care or because there are not enough foster carers who live in Barking and Dagenham.