If you feel like you have the capabilities to do foster parenting and looking for somewhere to start working as a foster carer, local authorities are not really the only options you have. Independent fostering agencies (IFAs in short form) also fulfill an important role in fostering children. Actually, independent fostering agencies often even work together with local authorities.

Before starting your journey as a foster parent, you might want to learn more about the differences between a local authority and a fostering agency London.

• Older Children: Local authorities give more priority to giving shelter and care to as many children as possible for them, hence ending up taking in a lot of younger children as they are easier to place. Foster agencies on the other hand place children who are usually a little bit older.
• Training and support: This is a field where fostering agencies differ from local authorities quite significantly because fostering agencies focus on the best potential foster carers. Fostering agencies can offer you 24/7 support and advice for your journey. IFAs can also put you through a thorough training programme or seminar, allowing potential foster carers to be acknowledged with mandatory skills for effective fostering.
• Special Needs: Keeping children with special needs under care is a specialty of foster agencies as their training process is usually more specific. Meanwhile, local authorities do not invest time to find foster carers with specific skills for taking care of children with special needs.
• Payment: Fees provided by independent fostering agencies are generally higher than the amount local authorities give. There is no fixed figure for this however and the allowance or payment can vary noticeably depending on the age of the children and their needs (for example taking care of children with special needs offer higher payment).

Regardless of the differences, there are ways both are similar or even the same. For example, a NHS health check might be necessary to go through before being hired for both cases.