Can we choose to foster a child we know? (UK law only)?

[sunnyannie]

My daughter is 12, and has been best friends with a girl since they were both 3, even though we moved away four years ago. We have just heard that the girl's mother has died and her father is in prison long-term, and she is now in foster care. She has emailed my daughter to say that she hates it there. We really want her to come and live with us.

We have looked into fostering before - long before all this happened - but the standard rule is that a fostered child has to be at least two years younger than your youngest child. Well, this girl is six month older than our oldest child. But she has stayed with us many times before, and we would love her to be part of the family. Is it legal for us to foster her? Would we get paid for it? Or would we just have to be her "unofficial" family if she came to stay with us for, say, the next ten years. Anyone have any experience of this?

[SUE G online]

you cannot choose, but you can apply to social services to foster her, tell them all that you have just said, you can not be a foster carer if you have a criminal record though, you have to give every single address you have ever lived at and they check all these addresses, its called a crb check,, the age does not matter, we fostered children of all ages, several were the same age all but a few months to our youngest, there is a shortage of foster parents so good luck to you and hope you are successful.