Article: Care Plus scheme Article Body If you are experienced in caring for teenagers or children with more complex difficulties and you want a career in child care, caring for children in your own home, Care Plus could be for you. Care Plus is a fee paid scheme, which is designed to enable carers to leave employment and work from home. The current weekly fee for one child in placement is £324.32 and for two children a fee of £486.49 is paid. This is in addition to the allowance for the child, which for a young person aged 11 to 15 years is £177.38 and for over 16s £215.74 Some Care Plus carers provide emergency placements, some short term placements and many are for long term placements. Most placements are for teenagers and generally they are aged over 10 years. The work is undoubtedly challenging and you will need acceptance, tolerance, a sense of humour and lots of stamina! Most of all you will need to enjoy young people and understand their needs. It is very rewarding work and a chance to make a big difference in a young person's life at a critical time. You may be able to help a young person work things out with their family and return home successfully, or you may care long term and give a young person the secure base they need to prepare them for moving on to independence. This is how some of our foster carers for teenagers talk about their work: "Fostering young people and teenagers can never be described as boring! It has its fair share of ups and downs, dramas and laughs that would put any television soap to shame. All the young people and teenagers we have had the pleasure of caring for, even though some may have only stayed a few days, have learnt us something. I particularly never cease to be amazed by their views and opinions and enjoy having positive exchanges of views via debates and discussions. Living with your own teenager is not for the faint hearted so caring for a teenager who is not your child can be a challenge. But for us being there with them through a difficult period of their life, helping them accept rules and boundaries and progress through the transition from childhood to adulthood gives us a great sense of accomplishment. I do not like the selective hearing, the deafness I fear they suffer from when they play music in their room, the moodiness, and aversion to bath water or the door slamming. The teenagers who run away cause me worry until their safe return and the extreme untidiness of their room, which I am assured is all healthy, drive me at times to distraction. However, we continue to work with this group of unique people because when I see them show positive developments no matter how small or show signs they are settled and dare I even say it -happy, it gives us a great sense of achievement." Debra and Mick have been fostering for over 10 years. They enjoy long term fostering and currently have one young person in placement, aged 16 years, and one vacancy. "We have been fostering for Barnsley for over a year. I finished my full time job to become a full time foster carer. This was quite scary to do but the best decision I have ever made. The child/young person always knows that you are there for them after school and during if needed, or if they want to talk to you. We became involved in fostering through a family member who was a foster carer; we helped out by offering some respite and here we are today. We love to enjoy life, be happy and have loads of fun and we thought why not share what we have with a child/young person. Each child/young person is unique and individual with their own emotions and difficulties. Sometimes these can be challenging so it's not always easy but with all our love, care, big ears and a large box of tissues we get through each hurdle one day at a time. Teenagers especially, want you to think that they will not accept any rules and boundaries you set but reality is that most of them do! This makes them feel safe, secure and loved, knowing that someone does care about them. We love to do real kid stuff at our house, like cutting out and sticking things in scrap books, playing board games or on the computer things that get us all together. We also go on days out and do activities as a family - our teenager says she's not bothered about going but is always the first in the car! One of the best things about fostering is when someone else tells you what a great job you're doing and that you are making a difference to the child/young person's life and future. It's a real challenge fostering but knowing that you are helping the child/young person with their needs and towards their future is total job satisfaction." Caroline and Mickey have been fostering for just over a year. They currently care for a 16 year old young person and an eight year old child. For more information on Care Plus - see our Fostering Information Pack and phone us on 01226 757875. Key documents Statement of Purpose Key links Meet our foster carers Meet the children