Transfer to Hillingdon Council

If you're an approved foster carer with an agency, live locally and have considered transferring to Hillingdon Council, we would love to hear from you.

Our team of foster carers do an incredible job protecting, supporting and caring for children and young people in Hillingdon. We are always looking for more people to become foster carers and make a difference to a child's life.

We work within the Fostering Network transfer of foster carers protocol to ensure there is a smooth transfer from your current agency to Hillingdon Council.

Key benefits of fostering with a council

Here's just some of the reasons to foster with Hillingdon Council.

1. Keep children local

Coming into care is very unsettling for a child. Having to move to an unfamiliar area can make this experience more challenging, as it may involve very long journeys to/from school, and may mean children are unable to continue with hobbies/clubs or see friends/family as easily.

At Hillingdon, our foster carers have local children placed with them, which generally leads to much more positive outcomes for children.

2. Local training and support

We provide support and training locally. Whereas, many agency foster carers need to travel long distances to access training.

3. Shorter gaps between placements

Councils are responsible for the care of children from newborn up to the age of 18.

At Hillingdon Council, we always try to match children with our in-house carers first. This is because we have recruited, assessed and trained our foster carers, so know how well they will be able to meet the needs of the children who need to be fostered.

Councils only look to place children with agency foster carers when there are no suitable in-house carers with space. This means that agency foster carers will often wait for a longer period of time to have children placed with them.

4. Combine working and fostering

The majority of agencies will insist that at least one adult foster carer in a household gives up work in order to foster. This is mainly because a lot of children are placed with agency foster carers at short notice. When we place children with our in-house foster carers, we often have more time to plan the placement and give more notice.

As many agency foster carers can have long gaps between children's placements, not being able to work can put a strain on their finances.

When fostering with Hillingdon Council, you can work outside of fostering (unless fostering a child aged 5 and under), as long as you can meet the full needs of the child.

5. Larger local support network

When you foster with us, you will be part of a large local network of foster carers. When you start fostering, you will be matched with a buddy (another local foster carer), as well as have access to regular support groups attended by foster carers.