Types of Fostering

Every child who needs a foster family is unique, with their own individual needs and life story.

Our foster parents support children in foster care and provide them with a safe, caring, stable family home for as long as they need it – this could be anything from a few days or weeks to months or years.

Fostering Diversity for Children in Need

There are many different reasons why children enter care and each will child have their own unique circumstances and life story. We need a diverse range of foster parents offering different types of care to meet the very diverse needs of the children who need care.

Each child or young person will have their own care plan, designed around their needs and we pride ourselves on a good match with our foster parents who can help meet the needs of the child.

The types of fostering you can offer will depend on your personal choices and circumstances, but many of our foster parents are approved to offer more than one type of placement. Through our therapeutic training, you can fully support a child or young person, in your chosen fostering placement.

We offer the following different types of fostering placements:

Short term fostering

The often misleading title of this type of fostering, involves caring for a child or young person on a temporary basis for a few days, weeks, months or even a couple of years. A child or young person will be placed in a ‘short term’ placement whilst professionals work together on a long term plan. This could be returning home to birth family or a long term fostering placement or adoption.

Sleepover fostering

All Foster Care Matters foster parents will have 16 sleepover care days every year. Sleepover fostering is often referred to as respite care or short breaks but we like to use the term sleepover as they are a very normal part of childhood and teen years. We know that sometimes, foster parents may need regular breaks to support them in their role.

Sleepover care can prove helpful in supporting fostering families that care for children with a range of needs. With all of our work, we will make sure that all sleepover care plans are in the best interests of the child or young person.

Long term fostering

Long-term fostering is caring for a child or young person on a permanent basis until they are ready to live independently.

Foster parents providing long-term foster care may look after a child until the age of 18, but a young person can remain with their former foster parent post 18 under a staying put arrangement whether or not they are in education. Long-term fostering maybe required when a child or young person is unable to return to live safely with their birth family or extended family and when adoption is deemed unsuitable. This could be because of a child’s age, or for a variety of other reasons.

There are other types of fostering including Emergency, Parent and Child and Respite, currently, we are only recruiting foster parents for long, short term or sleepover fostering but we will adapt to meet the needs of the children so this may change in the future.

Download Fostering Guide

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