Steph's Story

Steph and her family have only been foster carers for four months, but Steph says in that time the free courses and support available from the Fostering Rotherham Team have helped them gain a “wealth of knowledge” to enable them to care for children:

“Our supervising social worker looks out for our best interests and makes sure we are receiving the support we need in order to be able to care for children. Whenever we need her, she's a call/email away.”

As a newly approved carer, Steph says that over the last four months she has been able to attend free courses to gain invaluable knowledge about fostering and has received a lot of support from the Fostering Rotherham Team. She and her family have a “great working relationship” with their supervising social worker who Steph says is “open and honest.”

Steph says that having other foster carers to talk to, as well as supervising social workers and child social workers really helps her to feel completely supported. She says that the team feels like “one big family, and there’s always someone there to help and give you advice if you need it.”

“There’s always someone there to help and give you advice if you need it.”

Although she has experienced some really tough days, “the happy days outweigh the tough times” and Steph says that she can’t put into words the feeling “incredible feeling” she gets seeing that “you’ve made a difference to a little person.”

In just a few months, Steph says that she and her family already “love fostering”, in fact her only regret is “not doing it sooner!”