Wiltshire Council - Specialist Fostering

To find out more about becoming a specialist foster carer, including how much you could earn, download our information brochure.

Shadow from front cover of information pack

Within Wiltshire Council’s Home Away from Home fostering scheme,
we provide specialised services which includes:

Home Away from Home
Specialist foster carers

This will include children and young people living with complex medical needs and/or disabilities and those who are likely to have experienced a high level of trauma.

Parent and Child
foster carers

Provide a home for a parent(s) and child, and either assist or complete an assessment of their parenting capacity.

Short-Term Emergency
Provision Scheme
(STEPS) foster carers

Be available to care for children and young people for at least one 14 day period each month, until a suitable short-term foster home is found for them.

There are lots of qualities that make an excellent specialist foster carer (see our
information brochure for further details), but our top three musts for becoming
one of our specialist foster carers are:

You must be over 21 and
available to be a full time
specialist foster carer.

You must have experience of
direct work with children and
young people who have
experienced trauma or live
with complex medical needs
or disabilities.

You must have at least one
spare bedroom available.

As a foster carer, you’ll also need to register as self-employed. There are generous tax allowances for foster carers,
which means you won’t have to pay much tax on these earnings.

“Fostering is a great experience because you get to make a huge impact on someone’s life and it’s also very rewarding for you as foster carer and for the children you take on board to help them become the best they can be.”

Charlie, Care experienced young person

Benefits of fostering with Wiltshire Council

Support

All our specialist foster carers are allocated a Supervising Social Worker and we provide a duty social worker every day until midnight, including weekends and Bank Holidays. There’s also a waking emergency duty service between midnight and 8.30AM.

Team Around the
Child Support (TAC)

As a specialist foster carer, you will have priority access to our placement therapists, support workers and have a higher level of support and supervision from a range of professionals working as part of the TAC.

Buddy scheme

We also operate a buddying scheme in Wiltshire, linking you with an experienced foster carer for any advice or support you might need along the way.

Not sure what’s involved in becoming a specialist foster carer? Here’s our step by step guide to the recruitment process.

Image of two teddy bears which is a link to view the full recruitment process for foster carers infographic

To find out more about becoming a specialist foster carer, including how much you could earn, download our information brochure.