Shayma* has been in foster care since her 16th birthday, after her mother experienced a breakdown two years ago. She’s separated from her six siblings, and has been living in a residential care home for teens in east London, after an initial placement with a foster family didn’t work out.
Between focusing on college, and taking care of her own chores to prepare for independent living, there’s little room for relaxation or luxuries in Shayma’s life. But once a month, she makes a trip to the other side of London for an experience she describes as “like a vacation” that she counts down the days to.
Shayma is a “Weekender” – a child in care who’s been matched to a vetted family from outside of the care system, who hosts them for a weekend a month, acting in the role of extended family where there may be none.
“It’s a chance for me to get away from everything. We do random stuff that I couldn’t possibly just do spur of the moment, like go and see films or go to museums. I had my first-ever pedicure,” Shayma tells The i Paper.
Shayma’s hosts are Charlotte Cool and her husband Aron, who signed up in 2023 to the Weekender programme created by fostering organisation Now Foster. It’s a busy family – Charlotte works in a senior corporate affairs role and has three teenage children – but it was time in between jobs that made her reflect on what spare capacity she may have for volunteering.
Charlotte Cool and her husband Aron signed up to the Weekender programme three years ago“I’ve always had an interest in children and young people. When I was in my twenties, I joined a charity where I was paired with a teenage boy, and I would take him out at the weekend. He lived with his mother, but she wanted some extra adult input in his life,” recalls Charlotte, 53.
“So I was thinking about volunteering in general, what I might do, and what particular skills I could bring, when I heard about the Now Foster Weekender scheme. I thought that as I’ve had a lot of family structure and support in my life, I could offer that.
“The thing that appealed to me about Weekend-ing is, I wouldn’t have the capacity to full-time foster even if I wanted to. This is something manageable that spoke to me.”
Launched last year, the Weekender fostering programme is still in pilot phase and currently available across Greater London, Durham and North Somerset, through local authority partnerships to match children in care with mainstream families.
The aim, according to Now Foster partnerships lead Katie Waldegrave, is to have 50 families and children matched by summer 2026, and to have 250 pairs of children and families in the programme within the next two years.
That’s in line with an independent social care review from 2022, which recommended that children in care should leave the system with at least two loving relationships, to set them up for future stability and success. It also gives foster carers themselves a much-needed break. Wider Government reforms have also been promised to remove the barriers to fostering and to provide more support for carers.
Weekend fosterers may also host two siblings, allowing them precious time together.
“Sibling reunification is something we want to achieve, wherever possible,” says Katie. “Because most siblings come into care separately, but there could at least be one weekend per month where they can come back together.”
More systematically, bringing new families and means of support into the care system can help repair what seems to be so badly broken.
There’s been a 10 per cent decrease in the number of fostering households across the UK over the past four years, according to the latest Government figures. That’s fewer families to accommodate the 56,400 children currently in foster care.
The Fostering Network says the three main reasons are inadequate financial remuneration, lack of support, and a lack of respect for the role. According to Foster Care Associates, foster parents on average receive £26,674 per year for each child in their care, which is typically tax-free.
For Now Foster CEO Sara Fernandez, the Weekender programme also has the potential to ease new foster carers into the system. It allows them to gradually learn how it works and how they can best support children, rather than being thrown into the deep end and collapsing under the pressure.
“Now Foster has really tried to answer the question, ‘How do we make fostering more mainstream?’ At the moment, very few people foster, and we are asking them to take such a big step in terms of going from nothing, to fostering full time,” says Sara.
“It’s a bit like doing ‘Couch to 5k’, then getting the bug and building up to doing a marathon.”
The Weekender programme was inspired by Sara’s own experience of looking after a child on a part-time basis when she was 26.
She was looking for a volunteering opportunity, and connected with a social worker who suggested she take one of the foster children she was working with, Chanice, under her wing for visits and sleepovers.
“I taught Chanice how to swim, ride a bike, knit and crochet,” says Oxfordshire-based Sara. “I think for a lot of us growing up, we had an experience of having a special uncle or auntie, or godparents or grandparents, who would spoil you. It’s nice for foster kids to have that too.”
Chanice, who was then six and is now 18, is taking a gap year to work and save money. She plans to attend drama school next year, with a love for the theatre also instilled by her time spent with Sara. The pair remain close, with Chanice often staying the night with Sara as her house is close to where she works.
For Now Foster CEO Sara Fernandez looked after Chanice on a part-time basis when she was 26, teaching her how to swim, ride a bike, knit and crochetWhile the Weekender programme aims to give that “cool auntie” relationship to foster children, Sara and Now Foster have built in a thorough vetting, assessment and training process.
This involves an introductory chat, an initial home visit, a full day of training, then a four-month assessment process, which involves around six visits from a social worker. Then there is a final approval panel.
For Charlotte and her family, this culminated in an 80-page report determining their suitability as Weekenders, which also included character references from friends and family.
Realistically, a weekend fostering programme isn’t going to fix the country’s whole care system, but the principles behind it are backed by impact reports done by other programmes.
The Fostering Network’s Mockingbird programme, for example, partners foster carers with a “hub home carer” – an experienced foster carer who provides support and guidance, as well as co-ordinates social events for the children. By giving foster carers someone trusted to turn to, the aim is to keep more of them in the system.
And it’s working. Of the 269 Mockingbird foster family clusters across the country, those in the programme are less likely to consider resigning than those not in the programme, and were also more likely to recommend fostering to others.
“We know the stability of a placement leads to a reduction in trauma for young people. We also have a lot of feedback from young people about the value of having a network of friends that are also looked after,” says Freya Burley, head of the Mockingbird programme.
“If young people have multiple families invested in them, they can choose to maintain those relationships when they move out of care.”
That’s certainly Charlotte’s goal for her relationship with Shayma. Together, they’ve been discussing Shayma’s future career prospects, as she’s expressed an interest in real estate and psychology.
Your next read
square LIFESTYLE The Expat FilesWe moved to the Philippines – we have a cook and a pool but miss English nature
square MONEYI dreamt of retiring to Portugal. Now I’ve moved in my 30s – bills are half as much
square PENSIONS AND RETIREMENTI spent £25,000 of my pension on three acres of woodland. It’s nearly doubled in value
square TASTE TESTI tried 14 supermarket Greek yogurts – the winner was £2.30 a tub
“Kids need adults in their life to be slightly holding them to account. Last time, we were looking up apprenticeships and talking about what Shayma might like,” says Charlotte.
“She has a lot of skills and qualities that will set her up really well for work. She’s got a lot of resilience. She’s a great communicator. She’s ambitious for her own life.”
*Last name has been withheld
Hence then, the article about i couldn t take on a child full time so i m a weekend foster carer was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( I couldn’t take on a child full time – so I’m a weekend foster carer )
Also on site :