Homes and Horizons High Need Fostering
Do you have professional experience working with children and young people and are looking for a career change?
The specialist Homes and Horizons fostering service is a partnership between Somerset Council, care providers Homes 2 Inspire (part of the Shaw Trust) and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. Homes and Horizons provide targeted support for Looked After children and young people from Somerset.
Homes and Horizons foster carers support children and young people to recover from the trauma they have experienced in their lives by parenting them in a therapeutic way, in a nurturing family home. Our enhanced wrap-around support for children and young people and their foster carers often provides an alternative, or ‘step down’ from residential care.
Our children and young people need carers who are resilient and patient, with high levels of empathy, compassion and understanding, alongside consistent routines and boundaries. This can be a demanding role but it is full of rewards and achievements, and we will be with you every step of the way.
These children have enriched my life, and that's the biggest thing that I can say about my fostering career.
Jane, Somerset Foster Carer
Homes and Horizons carers are ‘home-based’, enabling them to be available for the children and young people they care for on a day-to-day basis. Carers also benefit from retainer payments, which means they continue to receive payments even when a child is not currently placed with them (as long as they are available to take a child), providing a secure weekly income
Our carers also receive support tailored to each child’s care plan, and extensive on-going training and development opportunities, helping them learn the skills and techniques they need to parent young people who may have experienced trauma, in a therapeutic way.
We welcome all applications, but are particularly keen to hear from anyone with experience caring for or working with children or young people in a professional capacity —whether that’s in education, social care, fostering, or any other setting. Most importantly, if you have the right skills and a caring nature, we’d love to hear from you
If you join our team we will offer you:
- A robust package of emotional and practical support, plus enhanced fees and allowances providing an income of roughly £45,000 a year including ‘home based’ retainer payments
- Enhanced support and visits from your own allocated social worker, starting fortnightly, to provide support, advice and assistance to ensure that we are with you every step of the way
- Regular placement reviews to ensure that you and the children you care for are receiving the right support at the right time
- On-going extensive specialist training, tailored to supporting you to provide therapeutic, trauma informed care
- Regular support groups alongside other carers to provide mutual peer support
- Regular group sessions led by a child phycologist, providing a space for discussion and therapeutic, professional support
- Support out of hours, and planned sleepovers/afterschool support for children with support carers
- Access to additional support for children and young people including during school holidays where needed through our therapeutic school
What we need from you:
- be able to drive and have access to a car
- be available full time to foster once approved
- be willing and available to attend all relevant meetings in relation to the child
- be committed to ongoing training and development
- demonstrate dedication, willingness and a commitment to care for children in line with the principles of therapeutic parenting
- work effectively and closely with all the important people in a young person’s life
When you become a foster carer, you don't go into this by yourself, you're part of a team.
Geoff & Emma, Somerset Foster Carers
Want to apply or just find out more?
You're not committing to anything by getting in touch, and we would love to hear from anyone interested in becoming or finding out more about Homes and Horizons foster carer.
To register your interest, you can contact our friendly Homes and Horizons team directly on 01823 214007 or email fostering@homesandhorizons.org for an initial chat.
Alternatively, you can complete the contact us form here or call 0800 587 9900 to speak to the fostering recruitment team, but please be sure to mention Homes and Horizons.
We look forward to talking to you.
