What Is Foster Care? A Simple Guide for Everyone
Introduction
Being a foster carer provides you with an amazing opportunity to support a child or young person in your own home. This is when a child or young person can not live with their parents or family members.
Foster care helps provide a safe environment for a child or young person for them to flourish, develop and grow personally. Fostering benefits children and young people directly. This is from the support from foster carers and also from the foster care agency.
Foster care exists as a statutory care environment for children and young people to be supported through a care order. Foster carers have delegated responsibility and the legal responsibility for a child or young person is with the local authority (including the parents unless any rights for the parents have been removed by court).
This is a short guide that is aimed to be simple and cover information for people on foster care and about foster family agency. It is relevant when considering foster caring in the UK.
What Is Foster Care?
Foster care is a safe, stable and secure environment for a child or young person. Foster care provides a home for the child or young person for their well being because of different reason for them coming into care. The reasons for children coming into foster care include:
- Family breakdown issues at their home – this could be domestic violence, drug or alcohol use or other family crises
- Neglect or abuse – this if often the main reason and this can be sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect of essential or basic needs such a food, hygiene, safety or support for educational needs
- The child or young person being left or abandoned by the parents
- Parents not being able to support the child or young person – this can be because of the parent’s own wellbeing, illness, mental health or other needs
Fostering is a temporary arrangement generally. There can be long term fostering placements that go on for several years until the young person becomes an adult. Fostering, however, is not intended to be a permanent arrangement like adoption.
Who Is Involved in Foster Care?
The people involved in fostering are:
The child or young person
This is the individual that will benefit from the support directly from the foster carer and foster care agency. The child be placed on their own or with their siblings – if they have brothers or sisters. The usual aim is to keep siblings together in their fostering placement unless there is safeguarding or other reasons not to. The child or young person may remain in fostering for a short period or time or to adulthood. This will depend on their age, other care options (including family members) and needs.
The foster carer/family
The foster carer provides the safe and secure environment for the child or young person. The foster carer will have been approved as a foster carer and undertake relevant foster care training.
The foster care agency or foster family agency
The agency is responsible for providing support to the foster carers and also the children and young people (placed with the foster carers) indirectly. The foster care agency will be registered with Ofsted and will comply the Fostering Regulations. The foster care agency is focused on supporting positive outcomes for the child or young person.
The local authority or council in the UK
The local authority is responsible legally for the child or young person and makes the best match with a foster carer. This includes working in partnership with foster care agencies to make placements with their foster carers. The local authority will allocate a social worker to link up with the foster care agency’s social worker and also meet regularly with the child or young person. The local authority provides the funding for the child or young person’s foster care and also key documentation including the care plan, personal education plan and pathway plan.
Birth families (where safe and possible)
This is the child or young person’s birth parents. Contact between the birth parents can happen but only if safeguarding risks and areas are fully assessed first. Contact arrangements have to be agreed and planned. It may be that a child or young person returns to their birth parents, following their fostering placement, if this is the best for the child or young person.
Professionals
The key professionals for a child or young person in foster care include their social worker, the independent reviewing officer and other people that provide support when safeguarding issues arise.
What Does a Foster Carer Do?
Foster carers are dedicated and really special in what they do for children and young people. Foster caring and the role of a foster carer includes:
- Being there for the child or young person each day, helping them with their emotions, wellbeing and providing a safe foster care environment
- Attending training to learn further about foster caring and developing your skills as a foster carer
- Work directly with the fostering agency and communicate effectively
- Support the child or young person in difficult times and celebrate achievements too!
- Spend time with other foster carers to share experiences
- Work and meet with professionals
- Attend the child or young person’s school for their parents evening and to support their education
Types of Foster Care Placements
There are different types of fostering placements depending on the child or young person’s needs, their age and care planning.
- Emergency fostering – these are placement made on an emergency basis when the child or young person needs to be placed at short notice. Beacon Fostering provides emergency placements, and we make out of hours referrals. Emergency placements may only last a few days before a more planned and suitable fostering or other care placement is then made.
- Short-term foster care – placements can be for only a few days, weeks or longer period over several months. Short term placements are usually whilst other care planning happens at the same time to find a longer term support placement. This will depend on the child’s care plan and whether they can return to their family or there is another family member.
- Long-term foster care – placements are long term when there are not other options such as adoption. The child or young person may remain to their adulthood. There is a long term matching process which happens.
- Respite care – this is a placement to provide another foster carer with a break from their placement. This is often for a short period only. Respite placements can help birth parents to help keep families together also.
- Enhanced or complex – placements for children with higher needs including challenging behavior, having experienced trauma or learning difficulties. It is important that you have a higher level of support as a foster carer.
- Parent and child – placements are for the mother and/or father together with their child or baby. They are placed and matched together, and then extra support can be provided to help the person develop their parenting experience. This may include a parenting assessment.
There is a real shortage of foster carers for siblings or teenager placements. Siblings are often placed together as part of their care plan and under one of the above placement types for each child or young person.
Your foster care agency will help and focus on matching the right placement for you. Your foster care approval terms will cover your matching considerations and preferences. It is important to discuss each referral for a child or young person together. This will make the real difference on making the right match, fully considering the safeguarding areas and meeting the needs for the child or young person.
Benefits of Fostering
The benefits of fostering are extensive and most important is the difference that you will make to a child or young person.
Fostering benefits include:
- Excellent support from your foster care agency
- Access to therapeutic and specialist training
- Attendance at foster care support groups
- Your foster carer payment covering your foster care reward element and fostering allowances for the child or young person
- The emotional fostering benefit from seeing the child or young person progress from your support
- Out of hours contact with your foster care agency
- Support from your foster care social worker
- Membership with Foster Talk
We can talk through your fostering benefits in more detail as this is only a summary!
Who Can Become a Foster Carer?
To be a foster carer, there are requirements of being aged 21 or above and also having a spare room for a child or young person.
You do not have to be in a relationship or married, single applicants can be foster carers. It is important to have a support network around you that matters.
You should be committed to training, attending foster care support groups and also doing the best for the child or young person.
If you drive and have a driving licence, this is preferred but not essential to be a foster carer.
You do not need to own your home, and many people foster when renting their home.
When fostering in the UK, your UK foster care agency will comply and meet with the relevant Fostering Regulations and legislation. This informs the guidance and requirements to be a foster carer.
How to Start with a Foster Family Agency
Your first step is to contact an independent, well trusted and Ofsted registered foster care agency like Beacon Fostering. Beacon Fostering has a strong family ethos and focuses on positive outcomes.
Fostering information sessions and find out more about foster care in the UK
We hold regular fostering information sessions online and face to face at local venues. You can join us to find out more and cover any foster care related questions. We will also talk about all the steps to become a foster carer.
If you then enquire with us, we will visit your home for a friendly discussion about foster care and becoming a foster carer. We can also assess your home on the space for fostering and your spare room size.
Complete a fostering application form
You complete an application form providing your personal information, references, employment history and other information. We can then take your application forward and start your fostering checks to cover safeguarding areas.
Your fostering assessment will be allocated to a skilled and qualified social worker. They will meet with you to talk about fostering in more depth, your experience of parenting and life experiences. You can also ask questions and talk about the benefits of fostering.
Attend training, complete your fostering assessment and become approved
Foster care training is provided through a “Skills to Foster” training course to prepare you to be ready to be a foster carer. When you fostering assessment and checks are completed, you can then attending your fostering panel.
The foster care agency has a fostering panel of experienced professionals that with you and makes a recommendation on your approval as a foster carer. The recommendation goes to the agency decision maker and on their decision, you become an approved foster carer.
Be matched with a child or young person
After your approval and induction visit from your foster care social worker, you are ready to be matched with children! Your matching will be based on your foster care approval terms relating to age of the child or young person and placement type.
Please contact Beacon Fostering to find out more about how to start out and become a foster carer.
Final Thoughts
Fostering is a very rewarding path – you can really change a child or young person life for the better. If you imagine how, you will feel when seeing the child or young person doing something for the first time, smiling, being playful or fulfilling an achievement at school, college or their day to day life.
The most important aspect is to be committed to the child or young person, their future and be caring. You don’t have to be a perfect individual.
A child’s future could start with you when you decide to become a foster carer. Start your journey and take the steps to make a difference to child and young person’s life!