Types of fostering

Your home, their future

Opening your home and giving the gifts of your time, patience and care can create bright futures for local children and young people.

Each child enters care for a different reason. To meet their diverse needs and respect their backgrounds, we offer different types of fostering.

We carefully match children and young people with carers who possess the right skills and experience for their situation. We will work together to determine the best options for everyone involved.

Short-term and long-term fostering

Fostering can be either short or long-term, ranging from a few days to a number of years. It involves providing day-to-day care for children of all ages with differing needs for as long as needed.

Foster carers provide stable homes and support children with their next move, whether this is onto a long-term placement, adoption, independence or returning to their birth family.

Emergency care

Emergency care involves providing a home for children removed from their families due to immediate safety risks or a sudden breakdown in their living arrangements.

These carers provide support until longer-term plans are made or the child can return home. You'll need to offer a safe space at short notice, potentially on evenings or weekends, for children of all ages and needs.

Respite care

Respite involves caring for a child for a short period to support them and their carers. This generally takes place over weekends and school holidays.

Having this wider support network lets foster carers take a break and gives the child positive new experiences.

Parent and child fostering

Parent and child fostering supports parent(s) and their child(ren) if there are concerns around their ability to meet their child's needs.

A carers' support and guidance aims to provide the parent with the skills to safely raise their child. Carers also have to observe and assess the parent's progress as part of the arrangement.

Foster carers for unaccompanied asylum seeking children

Unaccompanied asylum seeking children coming to the UK enter care and are often placed with foster carers. These children face safety concerns in their home countries and have specific cultural needs that carers must consider.

Foster carers support them with daily care, immigration processes, and potential repatriation, assisted by a specialist social worker experienced with such children.

Overnight short breaks foster carers

Overnight short breaks foster carers provide planned sleepovers for children with complex physical and/or mental needs who live with their parents or guardians. They usually offer weekend breaks in a safe, nurturing environment at a frequency agreed to meet the needs of the child and their family.

These breaks help the children to experience new things, create fulfilling relationships and give their family time to recharge.

Supported lodgings

Supported lodgings carers provide homes for care-experienced young adults aged 18 to 25.

These carers offer support and guidance to help the young people gain the skills needed for independent living.

Kinship foster carers

Kinship care is when a family member, friend or a connected person becomes a child's official foster carer.

Carers must be assessed and approved. Afterwards, they will be responsible for the child's day-to-day care.

Private fostering

Private fostering is when a child under 16 (or under 18 if disabled) is living for 28 days or more with someone who is not a close relative. These arrangements are agreed by the child's parent and the person looking after the child, not by the local authority.

To keep children safe and support families, parents and carers must notify their local authority if they have a private fostering arrangement.

How to apply and the fostering approval process