Will I Need a DBS Check to be a Foster Carer?
Many occupations require a DBS Check, from teachers, to health care workers, police officers, fire service, working in care homes etc. You also need a thorough Enhanced DBS Check with Barred List carrying out before you can become a foster carer. This is because you will be caring for children and the fostering agency needs to know that you have not had any criminal records or have been placed on barred lists which indicate you should not be around children.
The organization that you are fostering from, will need to request the Enhanced DBS with Barred List for you, this isn’t something that individual people can request. It is a detailed check and may take up to four weeks for the information to come back for the check, because the check will request information from the local police and the government’s barred lists.
If you have other people living with you in the property, whether that is a partner, elderly relative, or older children over the age of eighteen years old; then any other adult who lives in the property too also requires an Enhanced DBS Check, before you can bring foster children into the home. This is to ensure that everyone is safe that the children will be living with.
At the time of writing, according to the government website, an Enhanced DBS Check, costs £40.
Will a Criminal Record from the Past Prevent Me from Being a Foster Carer?
A criminal record should not immediately disqualify you from being a foster parent. It will however depend entirely upon what the crime was, and when it was committed. Clearly, if the crime was against a child and was sexual or violent then you would be barred from fostering. But other crimes on your record if they were very minor and unrelated to children, and a long time ago may not be taken into account, when considering your ability to care for a child. You and other people living in your household, as well as other people who regularly visit your household will be checked and assessed to determine whether it is a safe household to place the child in. Some offences clear from your record after a certain period of time, depending on the severity of them, and the age you were when you committed them. It is always best to be upfront and as honest as possible in your fostering application.
What Other Things Will I Need to Do Before Fostering?
As well as you and the other people in your house over the age of eighteen years old requiring an Enhanced DBS check with barred list. You will also:
- Need a medical to ensure you are physically and mentally healthy and capable of fostering a child. Fostering as well as being enormously rewarding, can be challenging too. Also, the child needs to be placed in a stable home environment.
- You will be given training and support. You will have meetings to attend, booklets of information to read, a network, and a specified social worker who will regularly meet with you to check on how things are going.
Many foster parents see children beyond just their school years, to progress onto college courses, and into employment, and they have played such an important role in providing love, care and support to these children. Having an Enhanced DBS with barred list check, is mandatory to become a foster carer to ensure the safeguarding of vulnerable children.
