From IFA to council fostering - foster carer Nicola's story

Every child leaves like a lasting impression. Fostering has totally transformed our life. One of my proudest achievements in fostering was supporting a little boy in our care to ride a bike. We took his stabilizers off, and I just held on to him and ran alongside the bike, and realised after a few lengths that actually he seemed to be balancing. So then I just let go, and he's saying to me, you won't let go of me will you? And I was like no, no, no. And then I said to him, 'You do realise you're doing it on your own?' And he was just so proud.

We've been fostering now for nearly 11 years. We started off with an independent fostering agency an IFA. And really we were looking to do short term fostering, and so we sort of accidentally ended up with our first foster daughter, age eight, with us long term. And for all, it wasn't how we foresaw our fostering journey starting. I wouldn't change it.

When we cared for her, we actually moved in house to her local authority. Things felt more natural, less paperwork, less rigid. So we really have enjoyed being local authority foster carers, and when she moved on, we're now offering short-term fostering, and we've been caring for two little boys for over a year now.

I think keeping brothers and sisters together. They've got those shared experiences. It does come with challenges. There's the usual kind of brotherly squabbles, but it's great. We've had some lovely holidays, lovely experiences. Got great photographs and memories.

With short term fostering. I think you see the reward really quickly, and the children just grow in confidence. You're looking after them at a time of real crisis in their lives. You're bringing different children into your home, and it's doing those new activities or doing those same activities again. Having (foster) children at Christmas is just magical.

Balancing work and fostering isn't always easy. I think having a supportive employer really helps our supervising social worker's really flexible in terms of when they visit to do our supervisions. A lot of the training is online as well now.

We're also really proud to be part of the Mockingbird and that support, I think it's invaluable, especially when you're working, because our hub carer can support the days that I'm not available for school pickup, and now that's just an extension of our fostering home. 

Fostering is such a privileged position to be in your caring for other people's children, but I never feel like we're under the microscope. I feel like we're part of a care team, supporting the child, doing what's best for them. It's so rewarding.

If you're considering fostering, I would just encourage you to pick up the phone. There's so many types of fostering available, an incredible journey. And it's one that I don't think you would regret.