Fostering

Fostering is about caring for a child in your own home. For a whole variety of reasons there are around 39,000 children in England who are placed with foster carers by Social Services.

Many of these children will eventually return to their families. In some cases this may take a matter of days or weeks, in others it may take much longer.

If a return to their families is not possible a decision may be made to find them a permanent new family, possible through fostering or adoption.

In the great majority of children in foster care will have regular contact with their families and their parents will continue to have responsibilities towards them throughout the time they are with a fostering family.

Foster carers do not have legal responsibilty for the foster children they might look after. Parental Responsibility is shared between the parent(s) and the local authority.

Foster carers are people who look after the children who are not their own.

In the past they were called 'foster parents' but this term is misleading because foster children already have parents. 'Foster carers' is a title that is better suited to the role for foster children, their families and foster carers.

Foster carers can be single or a couple, they do not need to be married. They can be heterosexual or gay. Most fostering agencies welcome applications from people who are in their mid twenties and it is quite common for people to start fostering children up until their 60's.

Often when people are thinking about applying to become foster carers, they make assumptions about what is involved.

For instance, some people think they have to own their home, be in employment, have a high income or have had their own children.