Voices of Fostering

Callum - Blue Light Careers and Fostering

• National Fostering Group • Season 4 • Episode 35

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Meet Callum, a former police officer who made the leap from frontline policing to becoming a Supervised Family Center Manager at Heath Farm. In this episode of Voices of Fostering, he shares how his police experience—from conflict management to communication skills—translates perfectly into supporting children in care.

In this episode, you'll discover:
✅ Why blue light workers make excellent foster carers
✅ The transferable skills from emergency services to fostering
✅ Real challenges foster carers face (and how to handle them)
✅ The support systems available to new foster carers
✅ How becoming a father changed Callum's career perspective

Whether you're a serving police officer, firefighter, paramedic, or simply curious about fostering, this conversation reveals how your existing skills could make a real difference in a child's life.

If you would like to find out more about fostering please visit our website here.

If you have any questions that you would like to be answered on our next episode email podcast@nfa.co.uk

You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube

Helen:

Hello and welcome to this episode of Voices of Fostering and the voice we're gonna be hearing from today is one of our lovely team, Callum. Now he is a supervised family center manager at Heath Farm and he joins us now. Hello Callum.

Callum:

Hello.

Helen:

Hi. Thank you so much for joining us today. So Callum, just tell us briefly a little bit about your role at Heath Farm, about what you do.

Callum:

Um, so my role entails, uh, facilitating supervised family time. Um, I manage a very good and very successful, um, family center, um, where children placed within our organization, um, can have supervised contact with their, uh. With their biological families. Um, everything we do is, is risk assessed and safeguarded. Um, the sessions between the children and their families are fully supervised and documented, um, and it's about making sure that they still, we can still facilitate regular contact with their. With their families.

Helen:

Yeah. Sounds like you do a really important job there, but we're not gonna talk so much about that today. What we wanna focus on is, um, transferable skills really from, uh, blue light workers. And this is because you, yourself, you're quite new to this role, aren't you? In, in fostering in the national fostering group? Yes. And your background, you were a police officer, is that right? So tell us why you decided to, um, to change careers really.

Callum:

So I've worked in the police for, um, about three and a half years. Um, and within the police as much as my, my day-to-day role was, uh, being a police officer. Um, the Frontline frontline police officer for 10 years. Um, I worked with, uh, down here in Kent. I worked with a Kent Volunteer Police Cadets, um, which was a completely voluntary role. Um, I did that for nearly 10 years, and that was working with children aged, uh, 13 to 18, um, who not necessarily wanted to join the police, um, but it was about giving them a safe space to, to learn about policing and teach 'em life skills. Um. I, I absolutely loved doing that. Um, and it was working with children with, with all, uh, from all walks of life and all different backgrounds. Um, so I knew I had a, a passion for working with and, and helping children. Um, and then I came across this role, um, and I thought that'd be suited perfectly to me. Um, I recently became a father myself in September. Um, so my, my outlook on everything changed, um, and I've realized that this is something that I'd be, I, I feel I'd be very good at doing. Um, so I started hearing December, um, and I've loved it to be completely honest.

Helen:

Yeah. And of course we have foster carers from all sorts of different backgrounds, um, who've done all sorts of different jobs. But what do you think it is about blue light careers like the police, for instance, that lends itself so well, really to, to being a foster carer.

Callum:

Um, so like I said, uh, day to day, you, you, uh, work with and speak to people from all walks of life, uh, and all different ages. Um, the police teaches you a whole, whole range of. Uh, skills, but I feel, I think the, the most basic and fundamental skill is communication. Um, you, you learn very quickly to how to communicate with people with, uh, like I said, from all walks of life, uh, different backgrounds, different needs, uh, and different ways of communicating as well.

Helen:

Yeah, absolutely. I think as well, when I find myself, really, when I, I can think of a handful of people that I've met in my life, and when you find out that they used to be a police officer, there's almost like a, another sort of level of respect that you have for them. Do you find that carers who, you know, their, their children in their care know that about them? Maybe that's sort of added bonus, if you get what I mean.

Callum:

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Perhaps. Um, I think there's that element of, um. Almost been a role model. Um,

Helen:

yeah.

Callum:

I know as a, um, from being a police officer, you are, you are a role model both on duty and off duty. Um, and I think, uh, children that might be placed with, with a serving police officer, um, or anyone in the, in the blue light community, um, there's always that element of being a role model and someone that these, that children can really look up to.

Helen:

Yeah. And, and can I ask you a Callum, you were a police officer for you, say, three or four years. Why was it that you decided to change careers?

Callum:

Um, so I just, uh, being a police officer is challenging. Uh, that's, that's, that's the secret. Um, don't get me wrong. It's a, it's a great career, great job. Um, you deal with the best and worst of, of everything. Um, I've seen some brilliant things, but I've also dealt with some terrible things. Um, but like I said, my, my role that I worked, um, that I worked in alongside being a, being a police officer, was with the cadets and working with children, um, and, and teaching them and working with them. Uh, so I realized that's something that I had a real passion for and was real. Yeah. Um, and was really good at. Um, so yeah, like I said, I, I came across this role and thought that's something where I could really make, really make a difference and really help.

Helen:

Yeah, yeah. We've touched on, you know, how um, the, the skills that you have as a, as a police officer, for instance, can be transferable to, to fostering because of the, the challenging situations that arise. What are some of the challenging situations that do arise within fostering for anybody who's watching this, who maybe is, is new to thinking about fostering, what are some of the challenges that they, that they, they might face?

Callum:

Um, so I, I, I'd say within fostering obviously, um, the, the children that come into come into foster care, um, wouldn't necessarily have expected it to, expected it to happen. Um, they'd be very distressed, um, and would've had to have left their, their normal routine then their. Day-to-day life. Um, so I'd say there's a, there's a lot of conflict management. Um, children are very upset, understandably so, um, because they've been taken from everything that they know. Uh, and this is a whole new, it's a whole new environment, um, and effectively complete strangers, uh, to these children. Uh, so with that, some conflict can arise in certain behaviors. Um, so again, from, from, uh, background as a police officer, conflict management and how to deal with those situations, uh, the way you communicate, the way your, your body language can reassure someone. Um, so all those, all that sort of side of things, uh, conflict management and verbal and nonverbal communication, uh, can really help to manage a situation where when the child is distressed and you are trying to, um. Yeah, trying to be a role model for that child.

Helen:

Yeah. I think it's important to note as well though, Callum, of course, there's a lot of support for you as well. You know, you're not just gonna be expected to deal with all of this yourself, are you?

Callum:

No, no. There's always, there's always support and offer. Um, I know the, the team that I work with at he farm, um, having been here. In reality, just a, just a short space of time. Uh, the He farm team in particular is brilliant. Um, and I know that there's a lot of support from NFG, uh, nationwide.

Helen:

Yeah. And foster carers that you know now and you deal with now in your day to day, are any of them, uh, from Blue Light Careers?

Callum:

Um, to be honest, I haven't, uh, I haven't come across one yet. Uh, there's, there's not one that I'm aware of. Um, but I'm, I'm sure, I'm sure there are plenty. Um, I, I know, for example, my, my in-laws are foster carers themself. Uh, my father-in-law is a, is currently a serving police officer. Um, so they, they are out there. Um,

Helen:

yeah.

Callum:

And it is, yeah, it is a great thing to do whether you are blue light or not.

Helen:

Yeah. And what sort of qualities do you see in them then that, you know, have obviously come from that career?

Callum:

Wait in my in-laws. Yeah. Um, so yeah, like, like I said, my, my father-in-law's a seven police officer. Um, again, I see that, that communication, um, he himself as well, he also did a lot of work with the, with the children in the police cadets. Um, so I see that, that conflict management, um. Being a role model day to day. Um, and just, yeah, the way, the way that they communicate with, with the young people that they look after, um, is, is brilliant.

Helen:

Yeah. So obviously you are fairly new to fostering, aren't you? Uh, to the, you know, the fostering industry if you like, to national fostering group. Uh, how are you finding it so far, Callum? Are you enjoying it?

Callum:

Yeah, I, I love it, to be honest. Um. I, I absolutely love the role, the role that I do now. The work that I do now. Um, I feel like, I feel like I'm achieving something and, and helping, um, yeah, just, just. Enabling a child to have some supervised family time with their, with their biological family, um, is yeah, the job well done, really.

Helen:

Yeah. And when back, of course, when you were a police officer, you know, could you have imagined yourself in a role like this? You said you were always sort of working towards it, but I imagine it's a bit of a dream country for you, really.

Callum:

Yeah. Um, the, the police when I was in the police, um, there's, there's an element I suppose of, um. Fear of fear of the unknown being outside of the policing organization. That that's, that's what you've been trained to do. Um, and that's, that's all, you know. Um, but yeah, I, I absolutely love the, love the work I do now. Um. I wasn't sure whether some of the skills that I have are transferable, but they absolutely are. Um, and yeah, I, I couldn't be happier with the, with the work I do now.

Helen:

Yeah. And you'd encourage others that are maybe in the police or other blue light professions, you know, to, to think about fostering as well?

Callum:

Definitely, yeah, absolutely. Um, it's a great thing to do. Um, like I said, uh, there's plenty of support available, um, to, to assist with anyone who's thinking about fostering. Um, and you'd always be helped.

Helen:

Oh, well thank you so much for sharing today, Callum. It's been lovely to chat to you and best of luck with the, uh, with the future.

Callum:

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Helen:

Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Voices of Fostering. If you'd like to find out more, head online and search National Fostering Group and make this the year you foster.