In most cases, you’ll need to be over the age of 21 and have a spare bedroom. Apart from that, anybody from any background, colour, creed, or sexual orientation can foster.

Fostering is unlike any other profession. It gives the foster carer the chance to enrich their life while transforming and improving a child’s life chances.

A detailed and ongoing training programme allows you to acquire new skills to apply to your role as a foster carer and provide the best possible environment for children in your care.

A generous allowance also acts as a financial incentive as either a secondary or sole income.

Once we confirm your eligibility, this usually happens during the initial home visit. We will then take you through the steps below on your journey to becoming a foster carer.

1. Initial enquiry with one of our friendly team
2. Home visit – we’ll arrange an informal home visit before advancing the application
3. Fostering assessment – completion of the fostering Form F with an allocated assessor
4. Fostering Panel – meet the panel for fostering suitability and approval
5. Your first placement!

Yes, fostering is a professional, rewarding role—and at Happy Hearts, we ensure our foster carers are financially supported. We offer generous weekly allowances, bonuses, holiday pay, and help with tax returns.

Learn more about how we reward your commitment and care.

Give us a call, once we’ve had an initial, informal chat, we will plan an initial home visit where we will come and see you in your home to discuss things in a little more detail and answer any questions you may have. We will then give you an application form which you can complete in your own time and return to us, at this point we will officially get the ball rolling

To foster you must be over the age of 21, with the legal right to work in the UK and a spare room in your home. We will never discriminate based on gender, relationship status, religion, sexuality, culture, or any other factor. It’s also worth noting that any minor run-ins with the law may not be a barrier to fostering depending on your own circumstances. We can discuss any issues you feel you may encounter. Your conversations will always be treated with the strictest confidence.

This is another popular misconception around fostering. You don’t need to be a parent to be able to foster. There are many foster carers who haven’t any birth children

Absolutely not. You can be a homeowner, be renting privately or renting with a council or housing association. You can foster as long as you have a spare room

Yes, you can. Contrary to popular misconceptions around pets and fostering, pets can really have a positive impact on children and offer them feelings of companionship and affection. Especially dogs, these are thought to be good for aiding attachment and teaching children how to form strong relationships – as well as creating strong family bonds in the home.

It is important to note if you have a dog that has been banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, you will not be able to foster a child as long as you have that dog.
Some banned dogs include Pit bull terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasileiro. These dogs can be antisocial and violent and are illegal to own in England. Similarly, dogs who are known to have a capacity for aggressiveness such as German Shepherds, Bulldogs, Dobermans and Rottweilers, are also specially assessed with regards to fostering

Our office is based in the heart of Birmingham and we work right across the West Midlands, including but not limited to Birmingham, Staffordshire, Dudley, Telford, Wrekin, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire, Worcestershire.

You can always give us call if you are unsure.

Fostering means offering a temporary home to children, where you fulfil all of the usual responsibilities of a parent with the backing of your Supervising Social Worker and the Local Authority. Although you will care for the child as though they are your own son or daughter, legal responsibility for the child remains with their Local Authority.

As a foster parent, you will need to ask permission from the Local Authority to do certain things, such as change the child’s hairstyle or take them on holiday.

As an adoptive parent, legal responsibility is transferred to you and you will be responsible for making any and all decisions about your child’s life.

Yes, foster carers receive an allowance made up of a professional and maintenance fee. Happy Hearts offers some of the very best allowances. You will also be entitled to paid annual leave, bonuses and help with any tax returns. We will discuss this with you during your initial call with us

Absolutely, it is possible to foster while working. While many people choose to foster full-time, there are plenty of foster carers who work part-time and some even work full-time.

You will be expected to attend meetings and trainings so as long as these needs can be met its perfectly possible for you to work alongside being a foster carer. We find lots of employers are quite flexible when it comes to fostering, as long as you keep them updated.

We can discuss this further with you during your initial home visit.

Yes, you can. In fact, lots of people choose to foster part-time, this is also known as Respite Care. This is when you will care for a child during for short periods of time.

This could anything from a few days a month to a few days a week. It’s up to you how much respite you offer. Be sure to ask during your initial call with us

There are a few checks which will be completed during your assessment stage. You and anyone else living in your home over the age of 18 will need to have a DBS check. You will also undergo Local Authority checks and a medical check with your own GP. There will also be a health and safety assessment of your home and your pets. We will help and guide you throughout the entire process.

Happy Hearts will meet the costs of any checks that are required, so you do not have to pay for anything.