Simply Fostering

Fostering in Hertfordshire

DO YOU LIVE in Hertfordshire?

Interested in foster caring?

We provide comprehensive information about foster care and help you to reduce the risk of choosing the wrong fostering agency.

Fostering provides vulnerable children who cannot live with their own families a temporary, alternative home. The children and young people who need care in Hertfordshire come from diverse cultural backgrounds. Each individual case is unique with emergency and long-term placements required for children of all ages. However, they all have one thing in common. They all need a nurturing, family-based, safe environment in their time of need.

The demand for new foster carers continues to incrementally increase year after year. At Simply Fostering we are dedicated to using our SEO recruitment tools to engage new foster carers in Hertfordshire to help alleviate the pressures on the local councils.
Factors to consider before deciding to foster.

Many people have misconceptions about what it is to be a foster carer. Being responsible for a vulnerable child can be a great, time-consuming challenge. It is vital that prior to making an application you subjectively assess your own suitability to be taking on such a formative role in a child’s life. Each child comes from a unique situation, each with its own difficulties. They may have been neglected or abused, either physically or emotionally. Many will not understand why they are in their present circumstance. Every child will demand your patience, sympathy, and support. Therefore, it is vitally important that you examine your expectations before beginning on this journey.

As well as your own individual suitability you will also have to assess your personal circumstances at the time of application. For example, the needs of a child vary wildly depending upon their age. Would you be more suited to an infant or potentially an older child in full-time education? Perhaps you already have children of your own, in which case it is important to consider how this may affect them and what sacrifices you are willing to make. You will also have to have the flexibility and communication skills to work in partnership with your local social workers to implement a structured plan for each child.

Finally, it is important to remember that foster care is not a permanent arrangement. You must be prepared to say goodbye to a child to whom you have become a surrogate family. The potential emotional impact this can have on you is not negligible. Of course, your local foster agency will be able to provide you with support and training but it is also important to have a strong personal support network around you of friends and/or family.

Becoming a foster carer is a selfless act. Potentially you can have such a positive and enriching experience on somebody else’s life and they in turn will surprise and delight you in ways you cannot yet imagine.

Simply Fostering Application Service.

Our aim is to encourage people to consider fostering and to streamline the process of application. Once you have completed our contact form one of our social work experts will match you and your situation with the most suitable fostering agencies in Hertfordshire, from our UK Agency Database.

It is important to remember that, just like the children in need of care, each foster agency is unique. Each has their own levels of support, both in terms of allowances and in access to respite care and support groups. Not all agencies offer the fostering of infants, many are dedicated to a particular age group. Some agencies may demand that foster care becomes your full-time occupation whereas others are more flexible and understand that you may need to supplement their allowance with other employment.

Want to foster? Let’s get together.

If you have read through this and decided that fostering is right for you and that you are right for fostering, then congratulations, Simply Fostering would like to hear from you! We welcome applications from all cultures, sexual orientations, and age groups. In deciding to foster a child you will be joining an exulted community of people who provide loving and nurturing environments to children in desperate need. Thank you!

During their most recent assessment, Ofsted rates Hertfordshire County Council’s Children Services as ‘Good’ raising them to be amongst the top 25% in the country. Hertfordshire County Council was recently granted £4.86 million by the Department for Education’s Innovation Programme and have been offering allowances of up to £199 per week for prospective foster carers of children under 4 and up to £381 for older children. It is important to note that allowances may vary depending on your personal circumstances.

To find out more and to take the next step towards a career as a foster carer, use our no obligation, free agency matching service by completing our online fostering quiz, and get fostering right the first time!

Hertfordshire population and demography.
Hertfordshire is a popular area to live, due to its relative proximity to London. Subsequently, Hertfordshire is a rapidly growing area. According to Hertfordshire County Council between the 2011 National Census and 2016, the population rose by approximately 60,700, or 5.4%.

The current population is estimated to be at 1,176,700 with approximately 576,600 males and 600,100 females. The most recent projection from Hertfordshire County Council indicates that Hertfordshire’s population could increase by a further 276,400, or 23.93%, by 2039.

Much of the county is given over to agriculture, however, the majority of the population is dispersed between Hertfordshire’s main urban hubs of Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead, and Watford.

With Hertfordshire being the county directly north of London many of its residents are regular City of London commuters. Hertfordshire has a population density of 716 people per square kilometre, making it the 12th most densely populated county in England. The dominant ethnicity of Hertfordshire is White British, making up to 80.8% of the population.

Fostering Statistics: South East

Total Children in Care, SE 2020
Foster Care Placements, SE 2020

The following statistics are from the total number of children in care in the South West and not exclusively those in Foster Care.

Children with disability : 420
4%
Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers : 1040
10%

No Data Found

No Data Found

Popular Placement Types: Vary in this area.

Related Areas

This related area section is currently being reviewed by our team.

What Could You Earn?

Being a foster carer is not only an ethical career, it's also financially rewarding. Our calculators estimate what you could be earning.

Free Matching Service?

If you meet the UK criteria to foster. we will match you with a local Fostering Agency and ask them to call you.
Quiz

UK Wide Fostering Network

Try these: South WestDevonExeter

If you live in the UK… We’ve got you covered.
We cover the length and breadth of the UK with our unique Agency Network. Finding an Agency near you and supporting your move into foster caring.

 

Did you Know - Hertfordshire?

Leavesden in Hertfordshire is home to the UK’s Warner Bros. Studios where most of the Harry Potter film series was shot. Following the success of the films Warner Bros. opened the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter in Leavesden, which now receives over 6,000 visitors a day.

Hertfordshire also has a rich historical heritage. Hertfordshire is derived from Anglo-Saxon, its original name heort ford means deer crossing. The first record of the name Hertfordshire being used is in 1011 from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The county has many historical landmarks, spanning the centuries. Following their conquest in AD 43 the Roman Empire extensively developed the Hertfordshire area. Their legacy is perhaps best preserved in the city of St Albans, which the Romans knew as Verulamium. Remains of the ancient Roman city are still visible today but much of it has yet to be excavated.

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