Southampton City Council is now a fostering friendly employer!

Southampton City Council is now a fostering friendly employer, as recognised by The Fostering Network. We now have a dedicated policy to support employees who are foster carers or who are interested in becoming one

Southampton City Council is now a fostering friendly employer, as recognised by The Fostering Network. We now have a dedicated policy to support employees who are foster carers or who are interested in becoming one. The policy is another step towards improving the support for our employees who foster or want to foster, enabling them to balance employment with looking after children in our care.

As a fostering friendly employer, we now offer foster carers flexible working and up to five additional days of paid time off for training, settling a new child into their home and ongoing responsibilities that come with being a foster carer.

Kevin Williams, CEO of The Fostering Network said:

“The Fostering network is delighted to recognise Southampton City Council as a Fostering Friendly employer. The council has put in place a policy to support their employees who foster, recognising the important role foster carers play for the benefit of local children.

“There are 65,000 children living in foster families on any one day in the UK and every 20 minutes another child comes into care in need of a foster family. Foster carers provide them with all the love, care and stability they need to thrive and many combine this vital role with other employment. We encourage all employers to follow Southampton City Council in supporting carers in this vital role.”

We want to the lead the way in the city and we’re calling on businesses in Southampton to join us in becoming a fostering friendly employer which will also support our vital drive to recruit more foster carers for our city’s looked after children.

If you'd like to find out more then email our fostering team.

For more information visit the Fostering Network website.