If you have considered the possibility of fostering a child, then you will be keen to know a little more detail about the types of foster care schemes that you may be able to become involved with.
There are many different types of foster care, each tailored to suit the needs of the child or young person needing care. Click on the links below to find out more about them.
If, having read and understood the different types of foster care scheme (see below), you decide to proceed, before you make an application there are other considerations you'll need to take into account. You will therefore need to contact us to find out more.
A significant number of placements in foster care are made at very short notice, due to some kind of family crisis. This can happen at any time of the day or night, weekdays or weekends. Carers able to offer this vital resource provide shelter and meet other immediate practical care needs of the child while more suitable arrangements are made. Very often, such crisis placements will evolve into short-term or even long-term placements.
Most children who are fostered do return to their own families, often within a very short period of time. Short-term foster care therefore aims to provide a temporary home for the child as part of the foster carers' own family, whilst at the same time maintaining as much normality for the child as possible. For example, through enabling the child to continue at his or her usual school, supporting existing social contacts (friends, clubs, etc) and encouraging and supporting a high level of contact with the child's own family. Usually the period in foster care will coincide with a high level of social work involvement with the child's family, while the possibility of the child's return to their family is being assessed, so changes in circumstances can happen fairly quickly.
Short-term foster care is essentially about trying to provide a sense of stability and security for a child in the midst of considerable disruption and uncertainty.
Foster carers offering this resource may well look after a large number of different children over the course of a year.
Long-term foster care is designed to provide a permanent home to those children who, for many reasons, are unable to live within their own family, but for whom adoption may not be an appropriate or realistic option.
Many of our foster carers have provided an excellent home for a child for many years, seeing them successfully into independence and quite literally becoming their family for life - even though they may still be in contact with their own birth families. For younger children, permanence may best be achieved through adoption and this option will usually be considered when it is clear that a child cannot return home.
Relief foster care offers a regular break for children or young people. For example one or two weekends a month, or perhaps a week during school holidays when their families may be under particular stress and have no one around to support them.
Relief foster carers might also provide a regular break for long term foster carers who are caring for children with complex needs.
A less common, but nonetheless valuable, type of fostering involves an arrangement where children or young people live for part of the time with their parents and part with a foster carer. This requires careful planning and a close working relationship between the foster carer and the parent - but the benefits can be considerable in helping children not to feel rejected or unloved by parents who might be struggling to cope with their full-time care.
If you look after any unrelated child who is under the age of 16 (or 18 if disabled), the law insists that you must inform your local social services department if the arrangement is intended to last more than 28 days. Similarly, if you are the parent of the child and you arrange private fostering, you must let the Social Services Department know about the arrangement.
The law is quite complicated in this area. We are happy to offer advice and guidance - so if in doubt please contact us at the Family Placement Team for further information.
Accessibility Guideline Notes
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