Fostering and Childminding - anyone do this?

[sandieo]

Hi, I'm just starting out as a childminder - no children yet, but working on it! I'm also looking into fostering ...was wondering if anyone has any experience of doing the two together? I think its do-able.

[rosebud]

Hi

I have been a childminder for 9 years and am about to go in front of the fostering panel in 3 weeks. (fingers crossed please!) You need to check with your local authority whether they'll let you do both as some don't, my LA don't so I have applied with another nearby one and they are assessing me on my individual circumstances. So far my social worker seems happy that I can manage both, I want to foster babies and my childminding work focuses on under 5's so I don't see that it would be a problem. However I think it would be different if I had a lot of after schoolers and I don't think that would work as fostered children often have lots of emotional difficulties and need a lot of attention. Financially you would be better off just childminding as fostering doesn't pay as much and you will be responsible for buying everything for a foster child so that is definitely NOT a reason to do it.
I think that there are others on here who do both so they may come along with their experiences but you could also try doing a search as it has been discussed before. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[sandieo]

Thanks for that, it never even occurred to me that the LA wouldnt allow you to do both - though when I mentioned it to my area childminding advisor she didnt seem to think there'd be a problem. Anyway, early days.
Fingers crossed that your panel goes ok :)

[brightstar]

I did it a few years ago, fostering is very demanding. A full time job in itself. I had to take the children to school 7 miles away, drop them off to parents visits for an hour after school everyday, finding something to pass away the hour until it was time to pick them up, then parents would put the little ones into the back of my car themselves, sometimes very upset. Sometimes it would kick off big time. There are also endless visits from social workers, health visitors, court appointed parental guardians etc. Bearing in mind the types of parents some of these children have, I didn't feel it was fair to be putting minded children in these situations. It is do-able, but only if there is someone to help do all these things when you are minding. My OH works full time too, so it was too much for me. I had to make the choice and we needed the income :(

[Cammie Doodle]

We did, but it was a few years ago. Hard work, but very rewarding.