We are a not for profit organisation
Offering foster care, respite care and escort services for children and young people in care
Anchor aims to provide the highest standard of foster and respite care for children. We specialise in working with difficult to place children and young people who may have suffered different forms of abuse. We also provide care for unaccompanied minors and children with emotional and attachment difficulties.
Anchor provides foster care for children age 0 - 18 years of age and welcomes applications from different ethnicities, nationalities and abilities.
Anchor seeks to offer these, often troubled young people family experiences with carers who are patient, understanding, kind and willing to work in partnership with other professionals and families of the children. They will be supported by a team of experienced, sensitive, caring professionals. Some of whom have been foster carers and have first hand experience of the fostering task.
Anchor Foster Care Services is a not for profit limited company. Our core purpose is to ensure that a wide range of family placements are available and to sustain these placements for looked after children and young people, supporting them through the transition to adulthood. Anchor provides single and sibling group placements for children and young people . Through these placements Anchor aims to provide distressed and damaged children with positive, safe and nurturing experiences of substitute family life.
The agency seeks to make meaningful partnerships with Local Authorities and Education Authorities to enable us to meet the needs and best interests of all children and young people.
Carers provide the bedrock of Anchor's services. The agency recruits people who have the potential to develop fostering knowledge and skills to the highest standards. Anchor in return provide support and training necessary for continuing professional development, fostering allowance, 24 hour telephone support and specialised support and training where required.
Why do children need care?
Children come into care for various resons which include, neglect, abuse, divorce, bereavement and war.
What type of children are you likely to get?
They are children who will have experienced difficulties in their lives and need a nurturing family who are prepared to work with them. They could be children with physical disabilities, emotional and attachment difficulties, or other special needs, requiring special care, attention and understanding.
What type of carers are we looking for?
We are looking for potential carers who have:
• A genuine desire to work with children of all ages
• Patience and flexible outlook
• A spare bedroom
• Good health
• One main carer at home
• Prepared to attend training for professional development
• Willing to develop insight into why children in care behave the way they do
• A good sense of humor with an ability to laugh at oneself.
Anchor will provide
• Core training called Skills to Foster
• 24 hour telephone support
• Supervision and support by experienced qualified and understanding social workers
• A generous fostering allowance
• 30 days paid holiday/respite a year
There will always be someone on the end of the phone to answer any query or just listen to whatever you have to say!
Our Carers
Anchor seeks to recruit and retain carers who are highly committed to providing a secure, warm and caring environment for children they look after. Anchor is committed to support & develop carers who are professional, sensitive and ambitious for the children they look after, by believing in them. Applications from single parent families are also welcome.
Placements
Anchor offers a range of placements including short term, bridging, respite, assessment, emergency and parent and child placements. Anchor specialise in planned long term and permanent placements for children and young people to support them and to enable them to achieve the most successful outcomes.
What Happens Next?
Once we have received and discussed your application, a member of staff will visit you in your home to carry out a home study. If you wish to go ahead we invite you to come on our Skills to Foster course, followed by an assessment of the family. The whole process should be completed within six months - sometimes less. Carers are then invited to the Anchor Panel for approval.
Equal opportunities
Anchor will recruit carers and members of staff without preference to ethnic origin, colour, sexuality, disabilities, language or cultural background. We anticipate being able to offer placements to children from a wide diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Usually children will be placed with carers of the same ethnic origin, but we feel we should not, on that account alone, deprive a child of the experience of family life. Our criteria will always be "what is in the best interest of the individual child".
What type of children does Anchor work with?
They are children who have experienced difficulties in their lives and need foster families who are prepared to work with them. They could be children with disabilities, emotional and behavioural difficulties, needing special care and attention.
What type of carers do we work with?
We work with carers who have:
• A genuine desire to work with children of all ages
• Patience and flexible outlook
• A spare bedroom (a foster child requiries their own room)
• Good health
• Ideally one main carer at home
Anchor will provide the carers with
• Basic training
• Ongoing training
• 24 hour telephone support
• Support visits
• A generous fostering allowance for the carers
For further information contact
Anchor Foster Care Services
1a Beresford Road
Gillingham
KENT ME7 4ES
Tel: 08000 287588
Fax: 01634 301557
Email: anchorenquiries@btconnect.com
Find us: Click here for map
PROVIDING SAFETY, STABILITY AND HOPE