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Medway Council Fostering

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Medway Council Fostering

Welcome to Medway Council’s Fostering service; working as a team around our children and young people

Being a great foster carer is about wanting to do your best for a child/young adult in your care. Regardless of whether you're a single person, married, divorced or in a civil partnership, if you're in your own home or renting, male or female, whatever your sexual orientation, with or without your own children, what's important is that you have the desire to provide a looked after child with a sec

ure, non-judgemental, welcoming home. As well as a spare room, you need love and resourcefulness to help a child with whatever needs they may have. A positive mindset with provide a vulnerable child with the stability, nurturing, safe and secure environment the they require. If this is you, we have a welcoming and friendly team ready to help you become a professional Foster Carer; from your very first enquiry with us, through to taking on a child, then the rest of your fostering career. We have children of all ages who need a loving home, from babies to teenagers. No matter what your family type, we will match you with the right child and make sure you receive excellent training and support every step of the way. If you want a rewarding career that can positively impact a child's life, making a real difference, we want to hear from you. Please contact us for a friendly, informative chat to find out more about fostering with Medway Council:

Telephone – 01634 335726
Email – [email protected]
Website - www.medway.gov.uk/fostering

28/08/2026

Is your spare room gathering dust? Fill your home and your heart with love by becoming a foster carer.

Complete an enquiry form at https://orlo.uk/tVs8h to receive an informal call from us about fostering and its benefits, the role of a foster carer and how it could suit your lifestyle.

25/08/2026

Do you have a spare room gathering dust in your home? What if that spare room could be transformed into a child's safe space and be full of love and laughter?

As a foster carer you will:
-Provide a loving home for a child in care
-Cook nutritious meals for them and get them to school, their appointments and any clubs they may have
-Work as part of a team of professionals around the child
-Help them thrive.

It's an immensely rewarding role, and you can be a foster carer:
-If you have no parenting experience
-If you live alone
-If you don't drive (we will discuss this with you)
-If you work (we will discuss this with you)

When you make an enquiry with us via our website, we will contact you to talk to you about your lifestyle and the types of fostering we think would best suit you.

Go to https://orlo.uk/o6eBp for more information.

20/08/2026

Good luck to all receiving their results today. 🙌 🤞

We're thinking in particular today of young people in care receiving their GCSE results, whose education may have even been disrupted for reasons outside of their control. We hope you all get the results you are hoping for and remember there are always other options available to you and people to support you. We are proud of you!

19/08/2026

It's been a summer full of events! It's been great to meet many people in our community and talk to them about fostering and how fostering might fit their lifestyles. If you weren't able to come and meet us, you can find out more about fostering at https://orlo.uk/FqxD4, which is also where we add events we will be running or attending.

We're always happy to come along to faith, community and hobby groups to share information and run activities.

If you know of an upcoming event you'd like to invite us to, email [email protected].

18/08/2026

Are you already a foster carer with us? Bring the joy of fostering to a friend, family member, colleague, neighbour, or even acquaintance, and you could earn £500.

When you refer a friend to us who makes an enquiry via our website or calls us, you will receive £50, and then a further £450 down the line if your friend goes on to become a foster carer with us themselves. Speak to your supervising social worker for more information.

13/08/2026

If you are looking after a child in your family because their parents are unable to, you might be a kinship carer, and you might be entitled to financial support. Thanks to a Kinship Allowance Pilot, we can provide payments to eligible kinship carers.

Participants in the Kinship Allowance Pilot will received payments exempt from tax, not means tested, matched to the national minimum fostering rates, and can claim child benefits.

We also help kinship carers by providing guidance and a listening ear.

Find out if you are eligible to join the pilot, and to make an application, visit: https://orlo.uk/Z69x6

12/08/2026

Did you know that we have something in place called the matching process?

We want to make sure that the matches we make are successful and that you and the child in your care will be happy together for the length of time that the child will be with you. The matching process involves us looking at the background, culture, heritage and more of our foster carers and the children coming into our care. We tell you about the child we think would thrive under your care, and it's your decision if you agree and if you would like to welcome them into your heart and home.

If you're able to dedicate even some time to looking after a child in Medway, we would love to hear from you. When you give us a call, we will talk you through lifestyle and commitments and help you choose the best type of fostering for you. If you are only able to offer short term fostering, we would only contact you if we had a child in our care needing a foster carer for a short period of time. Similarly, if you are hoping to foster longer-term, we would contact you if a child would likely require a longer-term placement. These placements can even become permanent, known as permanency, or lead to adoption further down the line.

Register your interest to foster at https://orlo.uk/QAwFl for an informal call with us where we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

10/08/2026

On Saturday we were delighted to be at the Medway Culture Club Carnival at the Royal Engineers Museum with our stand to raise awareness that we are recruiting for more foster carers. We ran several activities at our stand, including a spin the wheel game with questions about fostering where children could win a sketchbook, and our usual scratch card activity which led to many beautiful scratch cards being displayed at our stand. We were very happy to be part of another vibrant Culture Club event bringing together people in Medway!

07/08/2026

Did you know there are many different types of fostering? Any time that you're able to offer is appreciated and will make a difference to a child’s life.

We'll discuss the types of fostering with you when you make your application, and help you choose which option might work best for you and your lifestyle. This might be short term of fostering or long-term fostering if you would like to foster the same child over a longer period of time, potentially with the hope of this moving into permanency or adoption.

Before we place a child with you, we talk to you about that child, their circumstances, and make sure you will be able to care for them and provide them with what they need. This is all part of something called the matching process, and we even look at heritage, culture and more when we consider possible matches. We want to make sure every match is a success for you and the child.

Find out more, and make an enquiry today, at Medway.gov.uk/Fostering.

05/08/2026

Want to foster but don't think you could fit looking after children with your commitments?

Supported homes might be the right scheme for you. Under the scheme, you'll offer a young people aged 16 to 25 a safe family environment to call home whilst developing their independent skills. They will be responsible for managing their own diary and finances.

Most young people living with a host are:

-currently being looked after by children’s services
-leaving the care system
-children or young people needing somewhere to stay during a family breakdown, whilst we work with the family.

As a supported homes host, you are not a foster carer. Instead, the young person will live in your home. This means that you can maintain full time employment as you will not have a parenting role to fulfil.

You’ll also receive £330 per week per young person, and you'll have the knowledge you're doing a good thing for a young person just starting out in their adult life.

Address

Gun Wharf, Dock Road
Chatham
ME44TR

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+441634335726

Website

https://www.medway.gov.uk/fostering

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