There are many reasons that people decide to foster, and these range from wanting to help out a child in need to wanting to take on a challenging, but rewarding role for the betterment of society. With that said, many people are keen to find out if there is a financial allowance for carrying out such work to help children in care.
Indeed, in many countries there is a fostering allowance, which can vary according to nations and according to the region in that country too. With that said, many can be concerned that financial incentive is a prime motivator for fostering, and that this is not a good thing as the interests of the child are not kept at heart.
This is true in some sense, and not in others. Firstly, there is no denying that the fostering allowance is a major incentive for some. This, however, is not necessarily the reason for wanting to foster a child, but rather a major encouragement for them to do so. This is because fostering a child can be costly as well as very emotionally taxing and time consuming.
Although foster care is not necessarily a full time job, for many it will demand a great deal of time, especially with very young children who are not in full time education. For this reason, a financial supplement can be extremely beneficial and simply allow the carer to carry out their role as best they can.
Paying for the child can also be very costly when he or she needs new clothes or textbooks for school, and the fostering allowance exists in order to help the foster parent recoup these expenses. It is for this major reason that many people are concerned about the amount of the foster care allowance in their country, rather than being concerned with profiting from the system.
However, it is arguable that there are those who are tempted by the larger figures that some local authorities, governments or agencies offer to their staff in the way of an allowance. Although rare, this could potentially be a problem and therefore plenty of processes and regulations lie in the way of people being able to take advantage of the system in this way.
Firstly, all carers will need to be extensively trained and assessed before they can take on the role of looking after a vulnerable child. This period of time will depend on the particular local authority or national laws in place, but can generally last around six months.
In this case, it is very easy for the authorities or agencies training the individual to determine if they are genuinely suited to the role and if their intentions are genuine when they sign up to be a foster carer. They are rigorously assessed at every step of the way, and only if they pass this six month period are they allowed to qualify as a carer and receive a placement.
Furthermore, carers are constantly supported through out their role with a child in the home, and a low quality of care will often result in the role being withdrawn and therefore any fostering allowance being discontinued. For this reason and the ones listed above, this allowance can be attractive, but mostly so for those who want to foster a child but cannot fund it themselves.
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