Who are we?

Foster Care Group Wales are an Independent Fostering Agency based in South Wales since 2000. We focus our work on providing outstanding care to children and high quality support to all our foster carers.

We pride ourselves on being an agency who work in partnership with our foster carers, our growth as an agency has mainly been due to word of mouth referrals from our existing foster carers who appreciate the high levels of support offered to them.

The choice of becoming a foster carer can be one of the most difficult, yet rewarding decisions you can ever make. Foster Care Group Wales is here to support you through every stage of this life-changing journey.

Who are we?

Foster Care Group Wales (FCGW) are an Independent Fostering Agency based in South Wales. We have been supporting foster families and young people within the area for over 2 decades and are committed to offering high levels of support to our foster parents to enable them to offer quality, nurturing homes to the children and young people they care for.

We are currently placed on Tier 1 of the All Wales Foster Framework 2021- Lot 2. We maintain a positive excellent working relationship with Local Authorities across the South Wales region; covering areas from Newport and Cardiff, to NPT and Swansea. FCGW’s designated Placements Officer works closely with Local Authorities to identify suitable appropriate placement matches with all our Foster Parents.

Who are we?

Foster Care Group Wales have over two decades of experience of providing foster care to the children and young people of South Wales.

With over 4870 children living with foster families in Wales (*statswales, March 2019) and a nationwide shortage of foster parents, it is vital that we are able to offer comprehensive information, support and guidance to anyone interested in becoming a foster parent.

In 2020, at least 12,000 children in the UK (more than half of all children who are looked after), were separated from their siblings. Foster Care Group Wales believe that the sibling relationship is important and for children who have experienced so much loss, the ability to sustain their lifelong bonds with siblings can provide essential support. We are already successfully supporting many foster families to keep siblings together but there is a shortage of families able to do this, meaning that more children are being separated every week. We are keen to hear from anyone who feels they may have the space, skills and motivation to offer a sibling group a home.

Children who need foster care come from a wide range of backgrounds and their circumstances can differ dramatically. There is currently a high demand in our area (South East Wales) for foster parents who are able to care for children in emergency situations. We provide additional support, guidance and training to enable foster families to respond to these emergency crises with warmth, nurturing and understanding. While some of these may be temporary arrangements, there is also a need for families who can offer more long term or permanent homes to children who are not able to return to their families.

With an average of around 35 foster families, we are classed as a small agency and this enables us to offer personal, individualised care and support to each family we work with. Each family has an allocated Supervising Social Worker with a wealth of experience in fostering and childcare, and we offer fortnightly visits as standard, with regular calls, texts and emails in between. These are increased as needed and can be customised to suit the specific needs of each individual family. ‘Supervisions’ or support visits will change and develop over time, as foster parents gain experience, build relationships with their social worker, and as the needs of the children they care for evolve. As a small agency, we are able to maintain good communication with all of our families and our foster parents will get to know all members of staff, rather than just their allocated social worker. We find that being able to reach a familiar and friendly voice at the end of the phone at all times really helps our foster parents to feel supported and valued.

Our primary goal is to provide nurturing homes to children and young people, where they are accepted and supported to thrive and become the very best people they can be. One of the keys to achieving this is knowing the skills, strengths and personalities of our foster families so that we can ensure that we match them with the children and young people who they can best support. Developing the individual skills and resilience of each foster parent is imperative to this success and we offer a comprehensive, personalised training programme to ensure that this can be achieved. Each foster parent has an Individual Development Plan which looks at a wide range of learning areas and sets personalised goals, including a variety of ways these can be achieved.

Why choose us?

We recruit, assess and train to an exceptional level and offer generous rates of allowances and expenses. Alongside our high level of support and supervision , we understand that foster parents need to have support not just in office hours, therefore provide a 24 hour, 7 days a week support service. We offer a training programme tailored to our carers experience and skills. Newly approved foster parents are provided with an induction programme introducing them to the agency and their role. All our foster parents are allocated a qualified and experienced social worker who provides advice, support and supervision.

What type of placements do we offer?

A wide variety of children and young people are placed with our foster parents from Local Authorities across South Wales. This includes children of all ages and from a range of diverse backgrounds. We offer placements to children from birth until young people are ready to move on to independence. We also offer specialist parent and child assessment placements where appropriate. Go to our ‘types of placement’ page see the full range of placements we offer.

What are the requirements to be a foster parent?

You can be considered to become a foster parent for FCGW as long as you are over 21 and have a spare bedroom, regardless of your marital status, gender or sexuality. Look at our ‘Who can Foster?’page to learn more.

Do you think that you have the ability and desire to be a foster parent and can use your skills and experience in a demanding role or do you have a friend or family member who has thought about fostering and discussed this with you? If so, please call us for an informal chat and further information without any obligation. We are here to answer any queries you may have regarding fostering, however big or small.

Would you like to make a difference to children and young people by providing a home in their local community? If so, we would love to hear from you!! Call today on 02920 689849 or request a call back.