Transfer to Us

Looking to transfer from your current agency or local authority?

If you’re thinking about transferring to Little Acorns, get in touch and we’ll arrange to visit you at home to have a chat about what’s involved. We’ll work with you, your existing agency and the local authority to make sure everyone understands what will happen and that any children or young people placed with you are fully supported too.

Remember that foster carers can only be approved by one fostering agency at any one time.

The process is slightly different depending on whether you have a child or young person placed with you when you decide to transfer.

What if I don’t have a child placed with me?

If you don’t have a child or young person placed with you when you decide to transfer, you’ll need to:

  • Give 28 days’ notice in writing to your existing fostering agency, local authority or trust
  • Apply to foster with us
  • After we’ve been to visit you and you’ve made the decision to transfer, we’ll ask your existing fostering agency for a reference. When we’ve received this, you’ll be able to begin the transferring process.

You’ll be allocated a social worker and they’ll support you through your assessment.

We’ll need to see your portfolio of evidence so we can assess your skills, knowledge and experience and present your application to our panel for approval.

What if I do have a child or young person placed with me?

The needs of any looked after child or young person are really important to us. That’s why we’ll work closely with you and them to make sure any potential disruption is kept to a minimum.

If you want to transfer to us, you’ll need to tell your existing agency as soon as possible. After you’ve done this, they’ll arrange a meeting to discuss the transfer and we’ll be at the meeting with you.

In rare cases, it may not be possible for the child or young person placed with you to move across with you. The local authority will make this decision but this will be based on safeguarding the child:

  • If the local authority decides the child can move with you then the process for approval will go ahead as mentioned above
  • If the local authority decides the child cannot move with you then arrangements for their move to another carer will be made alongside the process for approval mentioned above