foster carers who smoke
Smoking and using e-cigarettes within the fostering home and within vehicles used for fostering isn’t allowed. If there are any smokers within the home, they must smoke outside the home and be mindful of passive smoking (also known as second-hand smoking) and ‘thirdhand smoke’ (which lingers on clothing and other material). The fostering social worker would check the home and potentially also the vehicle to make sure they don’t smell of smoke.
If there are smokers (including e-cigarettes) in the home, the fostering family wouldn’t be allowed to care for babies (including parent and child placements). If the foster carers plan to give up smoking, they would be expected to seek help from their GP (or other smoking cessation clinic) and they would have had to quit smoking for a year before the household could care for babies.
Additional information (optional reading)
An overview of the risks of using e-cigarettes is available on the CDC website.
