Support available
Support for foster carers
Monday to Friday
8.45am to 5pm the locality duty teams can be contacted on the following numbers:
- Burnley and Pendle 01282 478 418
- Hyndburn, Rossendale and Ribble Valley 01254 220 759
- Lancaster, Wyre and North Fylde 01524 585 939
- Chorley and West Lancashire 01772 530 919
- Central Lancashire 01772 535066
Evenings, weekends and bank holidays
Monday to Friday 6pm to 11pm, weekends and bank holidays 8am to 11pm:
- Fostering Advice Line 0300 123 6724
You can ring the advice line to discuss any concerns you have and a Fostering team worker will suggest appropriate actions. The social worker will not visit but may advise you to contact the Emergency Duty Team if the matter is sufficiently serious and further action is necessary outside normal office hours.
Please note: The advice line does not replace the Emergency Duty Team who provide a service to cover all the periods when the office is closed, rather it is complementary to it.
Emergency Duty Team
You should contact the Emergency Duty Team when you have any concerns or emergencies relating to a child in your care, or if a child is missing.
The service is available outside of normal office hours.
- Emergency Duty Team 0300 123 6722
Support groups
We also run local support groups for foster carers on a regular basis. These include newly approved carer support groups and specialist groups for different fostering provisions that are provided, for example parent and child provisions. We recognise the importance of these support groups for foster carers and we therefore request that you attend a minimum of six support groups per year.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
SCAYT+ is part of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and provides a service promoting positive mental health and emotional well-being for children and young-people who are looked after and adopted.
Schools
Schools are asked to give all children from care priority access to schools, which means that a child matched with you should be able to attend whichever school you think best meets their needs. You can find out more about how to apply for a school place in the schools section.
Schools can claim extra funding for previously looked after children called pupil premium. Find out more in the previously looked after children section.
Free early education for two year olds
If a child placed with you is two years old you can take up the offer of a funded early education place. You will need to be referred by a professional like a Children and Family Wellbeing Service (previously children's centres) worker.
30 hours funded childcare for 3 and 4 years
From September 2018, some children in foster care will be entitled to 30 hours funded childcare if the foster family meet the eligibility criteria. To find out more read our guidance for foster carers.
Education
You can get education support for your foster child from the Virtual School for Children Looked After. (see three minute briefing on Virtual School)
Young people
The youth zone has information for young people about being in care like LINX, Lancashire's children in care council. In October 2018 we added the new care leavers' local offer which includes all the support that we have in Lancashire for care leavers.
Youth zone also has more general information on issues like jobs, further education, training, health and relationships.