Their personal knowledge of each of our foster carers enables us to make excellent matches with children and young people. We have a Supervising Social Worker on duty each day who liaises with our fostering families and local trusts to organise plans for children to be placed with you.

As our children and young people come from a wide range of backgrounds, they need different types of foster homes. When you are completing your assessment to be approved as a foster carer, we will discuss with you the different types of fostering placement.

Short term

Short term foster care can be from a few days up to two years. When a child is placed in foster care, a minimum period of stay is usually given.

Emergency

Many of our foster carers can provide unplanned emergency placements for children who are coming from difficult situations.

Long term

Long-term foster care is when for whatever reason, children are unable to return to their birth family. In these circumstances, many younger children are placed for adoption. For some children however, it may be more appropriate for them to remain in long-term foster care. This would normally mean that they remain with a foster family until reaching a period of adulthood where they are able to take care of themselves. Children in long-term foster care are very much part of the foster carer’s family.

Respite

Respite foster care gives support to fostering and birth families who are usually in need of a short break. These families may be experiencing unusually high levels of stress and need to have short periods of time without the pressures of caring for their child. They may be a family with a child with a disability or special needs and need time away from the tasks and demands involved in caring for a child who has high level needs.

Bridging

Bridging Foster Care would be for a child until they move to permanent or adoptive families and often begins as a short-term placement. The tasks of bridging carers are similar to short-term foster carers but have the advantage of preparing children to move to permanent families.

Parent and Child

This is for usually one, occasionally two, parents and their baby/child. These are usually short-term placements in order to assess the parent’s ability to care for their child. These placements are very specialised so we provide a high level of training and support.