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HiGuidelines suggest 2 years younger than your youngest. I would try to stick to this.Having just Moved on a LO 1 year younger than my daughter, the behaviours both good and bad did get mixed up!!Most LA are approving for 0-18 just to cover all. with suggestions for your age range.regardsKiddiwinkles

Hi Sunflower,My youngest as is 7 and bds are teens and I look after 2 littlies 0-3 years. I have tried having children nearer to my childrens ages but it didn't work very well. I feel it works best to have 3 - 4 years between your youngest and your fosterlings, but that is just what I have found to work the best. My son loves us to have toddlers rather than babies, as he enjoys to sit and play with them, although i do agree with the benefits of the child having time at school. The main down sides to having school aged children with a young family of your own is that contacts with birth family will be after school, with all the upset that can come with that going on in the evening which can be stressful for your children. Also sws, guardians etc. will visit after school as they will need to see the child/ren at home, which means your children will be asked to leave the room during the visit, tea time will be distupted etc. With babies contacts are usually during school hours (unless with older siblings) visits from sws etc are also usually day time too, so distruption to the routines of your children will be limited to holiday times, but you will have sleepless nights, possible medical problems to deal with etc. Also older children often have less contact than babies so both have pros and cons. Little concideration is given to the needs of YOUR children with fostering so it is important that you thrash out the pros and cons of which age group fits best for you, which your assessing sw should help you with, although it is flexible and isn't set in stone. Each year you will go to panel and can change your approval age at this time. The only other thing I would like to say is that maybe you should start with one placement, then up it to two after a year if you feel it is right to do this rather than start with two placements. Fostering is nothing like I thought it would be and did take a while to adjust to, although having adopted you will have a better idea of parenting children who haven't always had the best start in life, than those who only have birth children who then foster. (like i did when I started)Good luck with everything, it is a wonderful 'job' which we love doing. All the best with the application, bm.

Hi,Thanks for your replies.We decided to stick with Fostering just babies to start with and attend our local FC support group (to hear more of what's like to foster older children). When our children are a bit older, we will reconsider moving our age range.Thank you!!!S

Good idea sunflower. My children are 7 and 10, they were 5 and 8 when we started. I find that having younger children impacts on them less. My youngest regresses a little and competes more for attention when I have a fc with me, but I'm used to this as he competes with his older sister anyway. We said as ours got older we'd consider older children, but I love having little ones, they are such fun, and you see the changes in them quickly. Good luck with it all.

Oh, and re getting a bit of space etc. Many 2 year olds qualify for the NEG nursery provision (free 15 hours at nursery). Don't forget that even if they don't qualify for free nursery you can choose for them to attend nursery if this fits in with your routine better and would be good for them (don't expect funding if it's your choice to send them tho!).