What is Fostering?

Fostering is the act of looking after someone else's children in your home, when their birth parents are unable to do so. It is a common myth that looked after children are in care because they are naughty and their families cannot cope with their behaviour! There are a number of reasons why a child is taken into foster care and it is only on very rare occasions that this reason is anything to do with the child themselves.

The main reasons that children are taken into foster care are:

  • Physical, emotional or sexual abuse towards the child by an adult or sibling
  • Death or serious illness of the child's main carer
  • Family break up
  • Neglect
  • To remove the child from risk
  • Disability with which the main carer is unable to cope

At least 40,000 children and young people are in foster care at any one time in the UK, with around 60,000 children in and out of foster care each year. As such, the demand for foster carers who are able to provide a safe, secure and nurturing family environment is high, more so is the demand for foster carers who are able to offer a home to teenagers, disabled children and large sibling groups. It is preferred that children are placed with foster carers from their own ethnicity and religion, however, due to a shortage of foster carers from ethnic minority groups, this is not always possible.

There are four different types of foster placement;

Bridging placements

These placements are provided to babies and children who have been freed by the courts to go for adoption. As a foster carer, it would be your role to assist in preparing the children for adoption.

Short term placements

Short term placements (also referred to as, ‘task-centred’) can last from a few weeks to a few months. They are provided to enable the Local Authority to find a permanent home for the child or to enable the child's birth family to be assessed or to manage any problems they may have, in order for the child to return home.

Respite placements can range from a weekend to a week or two.

  1. To enable parents or carers of disabled children who require a lot of care and attention to have a break.
  2. To give the child and their carers a break to prevent a placement breaking down.
  3. To cover a pre-arranged holiday within a current placement.

Respite placements can range from a weekend to a week or two.

Long term placements

Long term placements can be sought for a child or young person beyond a few months in duration; anything beyond two years is considered a long-term place. Usually, if a Local Authority is looking for a placement until the young person is 16 or 18 years of age, we would consider this a ‘permanent placement’.

Fostering is a challenging and highly rewarding career which enables children in need to live a better quality of life than they would otherwise be able to experience and allows them to go on to become healthy and successful adults. There are thousands of people who were fostered that have gone on to prove that, with the support and nurturing of a caring foster family, anything can be possible.