Fostering and working at Leeds City Council

In Leeds, we need new foster carers now more than ever.

We currently have over 1,500 children in care in the city. Where possible, we look to place them with a foster family from our own service, Foster4Leeds. However, with the numbers of foster carers dropping every year, this is not always possible. This usually leaves us with two choices:

We place the child in residential care - which can mean children are placed outside of Leeds and do not have the loving home environment so important for their younger years.
We place the child with an external foster carer from an independent fostering agency (IFA) - whilst this provides the home environment, it comes at a significant cost to us.

Neither of these options are ideal for the child or us, which is why we're calling on more colleagues to sign up to become foster carers with Foster4Leeds. By signing up, not only will you be making a potential life-altering change to the life of a young person from Leeds, but you'll also be supporting the council in its financial challenge. One foster carer signed up to Foster4Leeds can save the council up to £24,000 a month by avoiding the need for an external placement.

How foster carers are supported at Leeds City Council

As a Foster Friendly Employer, we know that foster carers who work and foster need flexibility in their working arrangements in order to meet the needs of their fostered children.

We are committed to support any staff member who is a foster carer or an approved kinship carer or may be interesting in becoming one. We do this through:

Paid time off to support your fostering journey

If you are a foster carer or an approved kinship carer, you will be able to take paid time off in any 12-month period for the following:

Up to 3 days paid leave for your fostering assessment and initial training prior to approval
One day paid leave for attendance at fostering panel for approval
Up to 5 days paid leave for child review meetings, annual foster carer review meetings, and training

Paid time off to deal with any illness or sickness of your foster child

Up to 5 days paid leave to look after your foster child if they have an illness (in line with the council’s wider guidance for caring for dependents).

Flexible working

Being a foster carer does not mean you need to stop working. If you want to foster and work, there is the potential option for you to change your working hours via a flexible working request. This could change your start and finish times, or place of work, to suit your needs

We're proud to have some incredibly colleagues that foster as well work at Leeds City Council. Hear their fostering stories by watching the videos below.