Fosterline is funded by the Department for Education in England and delivered by The Fostering Network.
Fosterline aims to support prospective foster carers in their journey to approval through providing impartial and easy to access information and referring them on to fostering services in their local communities. As well as providing independent and free support to existing foster carers to help them in their vital role in transforming children’s lives.
Fosterline Advisers will also signpost enquirers to other relevant sources of support where this is deemed appropriate, for example, specialist legal, financial or medical advice.
Fosterline Advisors will signpost enquirers to other relevant sources of support where this is deemed appropriate for the foster carer e.g. specialist legal advice, counselling, specialist benefits advice.
Fosterline is staffed by experienced fostering advisers with extensive knowledge and experience of the fostering sector. Many of our advisers have personal experience of foster care or are qualified social workers.
Fosterline provides advice and support to foster carers in confidence in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018. We do not share any personal information about the people who contact us with anyone else without express consent.
The only exception to this is where information is disclosed that would indicate a child or other person is at risk. In these circumstances the adviser will share the information with a senior manager who will make a decision about the need to disclose this information to the relevant agency in accordance with The Fostering Network’s safeguarding policy and procedure.
Fosterline maintains all records in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR. All calls are monitored for quality and training purposes and all communications are logged on our secure customer records management system.
The Fostering Network is committed to promoting equality of opportunity as an employer and as a provider of services. The Fostering Network recognises that individuals and groups can be unfairly discriminated against and acknowledges its responsibility to challenge discrimination, both direct and indirect, particularly any form of discrimination that is unlawful.
The Fostering Network seeks to operate within a framework of fairness, openness, integrity and accountability and to extend its commitment to equality of opportunity via its expectations of those who provide services for the agency.
The Fostering Network is committed to providing the best possible service to everyone who contacts us and our Fosterline Advisers work to a customer service charter which sets out the standards you can expect. We welcome your comments and suggestions on how to improve. The Fostering Network has a compliments and complaints procedure which is available on the Fosterline website and upon request.
Fosterline England has been awarded the Helplines Quality Standard Accreditation for 2022/23.