Fostering - Your questions answered

Many people don't realise that there are different types of fostering.

This is a summary of the different types of care looked after children may need.

Short term or temporary fostering

What is this? 

Also known as mainstream fostering, a placement can be anything from one night to several months or even longer, depending on the child's circumstances and the legal situation. Short term fostering occurs when a child needs to be removed from their home for various reasons. Children may be able to return home when difficulties have been resolved.

What to expect

Many of the children needing a family will have had difficult early lives and this can affect their behaviour and development. Foster carers need lots of love and patience to help a child settle into a new environment. Most children benefit enormously from a warm and loving family and make progress in all aspects of their development throughout their time together. In some cases the child may have been neglected or suffered some form of abuse, there may be relationship difficulties, or illness or a death in the family.

Social workers will, wherever possible, be working with the birth family to resolve these problems so that the child can return home as quickly as possible. Therefore one of the most important tasks in temporary placements is to maintain and accept the importance of contact between the child and their families.

If the child cannot return to their family

If a child cannot return home, the placement may last much longer - often more than a year - while the Council finds a permanent home (long term fostering or adoption) for the child. In these cases the child or young person may stay with you until any court work is completed and a permanent or adoptive family is found.

Long-term fostering

What is this?

Although the Council's aim is for children and young people to be cared for by their families, there are some circumstances in which children cannot return to live with their birth parents.

Long term fostering allows a child to retain contact with their family but to be brought up in a safe and caring environment with foster carers.

What to expect

The child or young person remains the responsibility of the Council, and long term foster carers are supported by the child's social workers and by a fostering social worker during the placement.

The child will continue to be visited by a social worker and regular meetings will take place every six months to make sure that the young person is thriving and settled.

Although long term carers are not taking the full legal responsibility for a child (as they do in adoption) they are making a permanent long term commitment to care for a child as a fully integrated member of the foster family and are assessed in relation to this. Long term fostering is very different from adoption.

Some children don't want to be adopted but need to be in a safe and caring environment with foster carers who will help to prepare them for adulthood. Long term fostering provides that security and helps those young people achieve their potential.

Short break care

What is this?

Short break, respite or shared care are all terms used to describe part time care for children. Part time care may be needed to help families in difficulty, providing a break for parents and children. These breaks are often over weekends or holidays.

This type of fostering also offers a break to full time foster carers, often for a weekend or over a holiday period of a week or fortnight. Short break carers also provide cover when foster carers are unwell or face family difficulties.

What to expect

Short break carers may have an ongoing link with a family as a way of providing support on a long term basis. This helps foster carers get to know the family of the child they are caring for.

Parent and child placements

What is this?

The Council sometimes needs carers who can support young parents and help them care for their babies. Some carers have developed skills in this area of work. They take part in assessments and encourage young parents without taking over their parental responsibilities.

Home-from-home

What is this?

This scheme provides disabled children and their families with regular short breaks by linking them with another family. Children and families are matched on an individual basis with foster carers.

What to expect

Some carers provide care for one weekend a month and some children may spend as much time with their carer as they do with their families on a `shared care' arrangement. Home-from-Home carers receive additional specialist training to prepare them for looking after children with differing needs.

Placing children together

We have a particular need for foster carers who can look after sibling groups of two or more children. Although we do try to place sisters and brothers together, sometimes this is not possible.

When siblings cannot be placed together foster families work together to make sure that siblings can have plenty of contact with each other.

Caring for young people ages 16 to 19

What is this?

Some young people are not ready to live independently in a flat or sheltered scheme when they leave a foster carer or a children's home.

They need a `bridging' situation, where they can carry on developing their self care skills and confidence. Supported lodgings allow young people to increase their self-reliance and ability to fend for themselves.

The young person may be in college, or in their first job. Carers who provide supported lodgings undertake the same official checks but undertake a modified assessment, and receive financial and social work support from the Looked After Young People Team. Some young people may need to return to secure lodgings perhaps with a previous carer during college or university holidays.