Foster carers provide a temporary home for children and young people who can’t live with their birth parents. Foster carers usually look after between two and eight children at a time
Foster care is provided by local authorities (county councils, unitary authorities and London borough councils). They choose foster families when they think they’re needed and assess whether they’re suitable to take in a child or young person.
Foster families can be single people or several adults, married or not. All kinds of people can become foster carers – men, women, gay, straight, black, white, rich or poor.
The main aim of fostering is to help the child or young person’s long-term wellbeing by providing:
- a safe place to live;
- love and security;
- the chance to stay in touch with their birth family;
- an education;
- skills and support to enable them to have a good future.
People become foster carers for all kinds of different reasons. Some have had an experience of looking after children – perhaps with their own families. Others may have come into contact with children who have been taken into care through work, socializing or just getting involved with other people’s lives. They might be single parents themselves who want to offer support to others in the same position.
Some people do it because they want to make a difference – helping a child or young person turn their life around. Others do it because they enjoy spending time with children and young people, and want to help them feel safe and secure. There are many different reasons why people decide to become foster parents, but what they all have in common is that they want the best for the children in their care. To know more information click here.
Foster carers are usually parents or grandparents but can be anyone from a family friend to an older child looking after siblings.
Taken into care
Foster carers usually take in children because they’ve been taken into local authority care, often following a period of time spent in a children’s home. This can happen when they’ve been abused or neglected and social workers believe it’s in the child’s best interests not to return home. The children and young people may have emotional and behavioral difficulties as well as learning needs.
Consent
Foster carers have to have the consent of both the local authority and the child being fostered before they look after them. Carers are supported by the local authority with training and financial allowances during the placement.
